Race Equality Matters is pleased to announce that RX Global have been awarded Bronze Trailblazer status!

RX Global is one of the largest global event’s organisers operating in over 22 countries spanning 43 industry sectors. RX Global demonstrated strong commitment to working towards changing the perspective of diversity and inclusion within their organisation. They have used collaboration and external partners to facilitate change and have shown dedication and authenticity through their investment into anti-racism and representation objectives globally. Their Global Race and Ethnicity Committee committed to building awareness through building relationships with HR, developing local ERG’s and support from leadership. They have been recognised as an organisation committed to tackling race inequality. Their action has been praised by panellists as comprehensive and truly impactful. 100% of judging panellists voted that their application had demonstrated evidence of action and 80% shared RX Global was the type of organisation they would like to work for.

Their commitment to data to inform activity globally was commended by panellists and their testimonial evidence from ethnically diverse colleagues highlighted them as a real Trailblazer for change.

Actions and Initiatives

Global Race and Ethnicity Committee and the Launching of ERG’s

RX Global have a Global Race Committee that drive strategic actions in creating a more diverse workforce. They started in 2020 with 11 employees from the US, UK, France, Brazil and they sort to engage global leadership so they could understand the importance of diversity from a race and ethnicity perspective. Before this RX Global did not have a focus on this area and their organisation had been majority led by white people. From this compelling intervention they were given the resource and responsibility to appoint a head of I&D Globally and they launched local ERGs in 6 countries, they also engaged HR teams and senior leaders to analyse representation in their own teams and encouraged them to contribute their ideas on how they could make change happen. Their ERG’s have been essential in facilitating progress, creating events and engagement opportunities that provide education around race to the wider workforce. Their US location was the first country globally to launch their ERGs and now they have major representation of people involved in global committees and leading global diversity actions.

All senior level executives hired in Brazil, Mexico and USA, since 2021 are also required to have a panel interview with ERG leaders before receiving a job offer, which ensures new hires in leadership are aware and aligned to their mission. This is important because their senior leadership team are also involved and accountable to support race equality across the business.

Supporting Communities

RX Global also donate 200k per year to non-profit organisations that fight against racism and those that provide educational resources. They also engage with organisations that seek to grow representation, assisting in the recruitment of those who are ethnically diverse. In January 2023, their funding was distributed to 9 organisations across UK, US, Brazil, South Africa and Australia. When RX Global ran their Global Race Forum they also invited speakers form those nonprofit organisations to support, this insight is invaluable and provides an opportunity for the experiences of those who are ethnically diverse globally to be shared and for new perspectives to be accessed.

Improving Representation

Since 2022 they have also established partnerships dedicated to improving their candidate pipeline. They worked closely with Korn Ferry who support them in reaching out to diverse candidates. RX Global also became flexible about location, hiring for more remote roles. In addition to this they have also established partnerships with the BYP (Black Young Professionals) Network who provide networking opportunities and upskilling to those who are ethnically diverse, the 10,000 Black interns program and the Adus institute in Brazil to recruit refugees from Africa and Latin America.

In expanding their reach and making their roles more accessible they are creating more opportunities for communities who may not have engaged with them as an employer as well as increasing the possibility of increasing representation. An example of the success of this effort can be observed in the representation statistics of their US location, where they were able to grow the representation of Black employees by 64% from Jan/21 to Dec/22. Their Black population represented 4.9% of RXUS staff in 2021 and 7.6% in end of 2022. Diversity has now become a central part of global talent strategy They have transformed their approach to increasing representation and have set targets to continue their efforts and panellists praised this work as truly impactful.

Data Collection

To ensure their action is inclusive, they have also launched an annual survey which is launched globally asking their people, ‘how they feel about I&D across their organisation,’ ‘how psychologically safe they feel in the business’ and ‘what priorities they envision for the future of the business in relation to I&D.’ Since incorporating this and actions that reflect the sentiments of their employees, they have noticed results on employee satisfaction improve from 2021 to 2022.

Impact and Ethnically diverse Staff Endorsement 

• In the US, they were able to grow the representation of Black people by 64% from Jan/21 to Dec/22. Black population represented 4.9% of RXUS staff in 2021 and 7.6% in end of 2022.
• RXUS was the 1st country globally launching ERGs and has a full representation of people involved on global committees, leading globally diversity actions.
• Leaders being trained in unconscious bias and psychological safety helped improve the perceptions of their employees and created more embracement of I&D initiatives
• They launched a book club that will run quarterly
• Since 2020, they track, race and ethnicity distribution in Brazil and USA, to analyse ethnicity balance and % representation of different ethnicity groups.
• People of all backgrounds have the same opportunities at Reed Exhibitions: Nov/2020 = 44% agreed / Nov/2022 = 74% agreed – I believe Reed Exhibitions would respond
• Diversity has become one of the strongest pillars of their talent strategy,
• HR have revamped the HR strategy adding I&D as one of the core pillars
• Hiring a I&D lead globally has helped move the conversation forward and impacted the growth in initiatives
• They have formed strong partnerships to facilitate growth and education and accessibility to opportunities

Feedback from an Ethnically Diverse Panel

Panellists commented that ‘the launch of the Global Race and Ethnicity Committee in 2020 has seen positive change filter through the organisation, particularly through the work of their ERG’s. RX Global also supported their application with testimonial evidence and judging panellists felt that the qualitative evidence from ethnically diverse colleagues in addition to their quantitative results around representation demonstrated true transparency and a real journey towards tackling race inequality on a large scale.

While the application highlighted some strong impact, particularly around representation and endorsement. Panellists also commended the innovation and opportunities opened by the organisation.

RX Global have demonstrated awareness and flexibility which was evident through the restructuring of some roles to make them remote and accessible to those from different communities. Their partnerships with the 10,000 Black Interns, Adus and BYP also demonstrate a commitment to nurturing talent and creating access and visibility to their organisation and to the sector as a whole.

Next steps…

Looking to the future, RX Global seeks to (among other actions:

• Focus on growing race and ethnicity diversity in their business: RX just started partnering with Black Young Professional network to support them developing a dedicated pipeline of ethnically diverse candidates.
• New approach for summer internship programs: in 2023 they are focused on their program to bring students from low-income families to attend, through partnering with public schools’ alumni students in USA (a pilot project running from May to Aug 2023, to be implemented in other countries).
• Expand the 200k annual donation to other countries and organisations with the support of their local ERG leaders and I&D representatives in different countries who they have instructed to look for non-profit organisations with strong projects to support racial equality that could be assessed to receive funds
• They look to assess two non-profit organisations to add to their charity support budget, one in France and one in Mexico.

Follow RX Globals’ Lead: Become a Trailblazer

If your organisation is driving change for Race Equality and you can demonstrate impact, endorsement from ethnic background employees and share future plans; register your interest for the next round of trailblazers.