The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation and The Black in Fashion Council, an organization that promotes and advances Black representation in the fashion and beauty industry, released their inaugural Black in Fashion Index report, which measures company policies and practices related to the inclusivity of Black employees.
Building on the success of the HRC Foundation's Corporate Equality Index, the Black in Fashion Council and HRC have partnered to produce this yearly public report. The tool tracks the work companies are doing to foster inclusion of Black employees at all levels, which is part of each company's three-year commitment. In its first year, 30 businesses submitted surveys for analysis and included organizations that ranged in size from small, privately owned enterprises, to Fortune 500 corporations.
The report is an assessment of the fashion and beauty industry with four major categories: workplace nondiscrimination policies, building an inclusive culture, engaging the Black community and corporate social responsibility. Based on the scoring, companies can earn one of three tiers of recognition: "Building Foundation for Inclusion," "Foundation for Inclusion" and "Innovative Inclusion."
The Black in Fashion Council and the HRC Foundation Workplace Equality Program created the survey's criteria to be attainable for all participants regardless of company size, budget or current financial performance.
Despite notable progress with companies (with 80% of participants saying they offer unconscious bias training with clear examples of race, ethnicity-based unconscious bias and microaggressions), there is still work to be done (as, for example, only 17% report having a program that includes outreach to LGBTQ-owned businesses).
The full report is at www.blackinfashioncouncilxhrc.com .
