Recommendations

Based on the analysis of the discovery discussions’ responses, several critical themes and issues have been identified, including systemic racism, lack of representation in leadership positions, and inadequate support for career development and wellbeing. To address these challenges and foster a more inclusive and supportive environment, the following five areas of action (with associated recommendations for practice) have been identified:

• Foster a safe and inclusive environment
• Recognise and address barriers to inclusion
• Allocate leadership responsibility
• Monitor and evaluate wellbeing initiatives
• Sector-wide standards and initiatives

These recommendations are provided for organisations, managers and the sector, and are designed to be high-level so that they can be applied to most organisations regardless of size or governance structure.

Foster a safe and inclusive environment

• Implement mental health and wellbeing initiatives that are inclusive and representative of professionals of colour. This demonstrates organisational awareness of the specific challenges they face and shows readiness to provide support.
• Increase diversity in senior leadership through targeted development programmes and inclusive recruitment strategies, including board of trustee appointments or elections to ensure boards reflect the workforce’s diversity.
• Offer regular training to senior leaders on race and wellbeing to build confidence in discussing these topics and promoting a supportive environment.
• Senior leaders should sponsor and launch initiatives, championing, promoting and showing their support, speaking about race and wellbeing at meetings and events, sharing honest and personal stories from their learning journey.
• Develop mentorship opportunities between senior leaders and professionals of colour to provide greater understanding and reciprocal learning.
• Support senior leaders from the global majority so they are not left alone with the responsibility to progress this agenda and drive diversity, equality and inclusion efforts.
• Managers should ensure policies are accompanied by clear pathways for professionals to raise concerns and have confidence that their concerns will be taken seriously.
• Zero tolerance policies should be accompanied by team training, and managers should encourage engagement with reading materials and other resources to develop teams’ understanding of racism, systemic racism and its impact.
• Train managers to develop the skills for empathetic and supportive supervision, particularly around topics like race and wellbeing, to foster a compassionate approach in giving feedback, conducting appraisals, and addressing these critical topics with understanding and care.
• Distribute workloads fairly and compensate professionals of colour for additional responsibilities related to diversity, equality and inclusion efforts.

Recognise and address barriers to inclusion

• Identify and address existing structural barriers that create exclusion. Understand that racism and exclusion can manifest not only as offensive comments and bullying but also through lack of representation in senior roles and unequal access to opportunities.
• Create a psychologically safe environment which prevents experiences of racism by clearly communicating and implementing a zero tolerance racism policy that is visible, accessible and includes casual forms of racism including microaggressions.
• Implement trauma-informed practices and training that promote safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration by:
  • Creating workplaces where professionals of colour feel secure, especially those involved in decolonisation projects, by preventing re-traumatisation and establishing appropriate policies and safeguarding measures.
  • Offering transparency in policies and procedures, where clear communication is provided about organisational actions and leaders consistently fulfil their promises, building confidence among the workforce and community.
  • Supporting shared decision-making and goal setting. This involves listening to the experiences of professionals of colour, co-creating action plans and offering safe spaces for open discussions on racism and related issues, decompression and recovery.
  • Supporting the development of healthy work ecosystems through peer support, mentoring and self-help initiatives, where professionals of colour can voice their needs and work together to address them in a supportive environment.
  • Sharing power and giving professionals of colour a voice in decision-making at both individual and organisational levels. This includes consulting colleagues, ensuring diverse representation in decision-making bodies, and acknowledging that those who have experienced trauma may feel isolated or hesitant to share their experiences.
  • Moving beyond stereotypes by offering culturally specific support, recognising the value of traditional cultural connections and implementing responsive policies. Providing peers with cultural literacy training and the skills to manage difficult conversations helps foster a more inclusive and understanding workplace.
• Offer accessible, relevant and culturally appropriate wellbeing resources, including training, webinars, counselling services, mental health first aiders and employee assistance programmes.
• Be transparent about progress and setbacks in diversity, equality and inclusion and wellbeing efforts to enhance accountability, build trust and guide future actions. Communication at all levels is key to ensure people remain engaged and included in organisational change and initiatives.
• Ensure employees have clear, safe and confidential pathways to raise concerns about racism and other issues.
• Remind employees of anti-racism policies and regularly review practices by holding meetings to reflect on barriers, incidents and lessons learnt.
• Support decompression and wellbeing activities. Schedule regular meetups to help staff manage stress and prevent burnout, especially during periods of significant transition or change.

Allocate leadership responsibility

• Assign board-level responsibility and accountability for diversity and inclusion efforts and driving change.
• Implement leadership development programmes aimed at increasing the diversity of senior leadership teams and boards.
• Increase representation utilising accessible recruitment strategies and campaigns that increase opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds.
• Invest and promote leadership and management training to equip leaders and managers with the communication skills and tools to ensure effective and clear communication between frontline staff and senior leaders. This is especially important when implementing new initiatives and organisational changes within an anti-racist space.
• Develop groups on racism, systemic biases and their impacts through reading materials, films and training sessions. This can include inviting expert speakers to increase the knowledge and confidence of your teams around wellbeing and race.
• Prioritise participation in leadership and management training to help develop leadership skills to expand the capacity of managers to support, drive and guide organisational strategies. 

Monitor and evaluate wellbeing initiatives

• Drive, conduct and support equality impact assessments (EQIA) to audit current practices and provide tailored recommendations for improvement. For example, measuring progress on diversity, equality and inclusion and wellbeing initiatives and communicating findings to guide future efforts.
• Collect data regularly to understand and inform how professionals of colour perceive and interact with services or initiatives. For example, in larger organisations, monitoring career pathways to identify and address the points of divergence in their career paths compared to peers.
• Undergo regular workforce consultations, surveys and focus groups to get clear and regular snapshots of what is happening within the organisation and to understand how new initiatives are being received.
• Regularly assess the impact of wellbeing initiatives to make improvements based on feedback.

Sector-wide standards and initiatives

• Advocate for museums to sign public pledges to commit to diversity, fair working conditions and workforce wellbeing.
• Establish sector-wide benchmarks and research for diversity and inclusion and hold organisations accountable for meeting them.
• Encourage the development of allyship programmes and race equality advisory groups to provide insight and support and drive diversity strategies. This is especially important for those working in small organisations or for freelancers.
• Create centralised resources or networks for small organisations so they can access support, training and guidance on wellbeing and diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives.
• Provide financial support to peer-led networks such as Museum Detox to sustain their initiatives without overburdening volunteers.
• Standardise pay rates and timely payment policies for all roles, including freelancers, and ensure fair compensation for travel and other expenses across the sector.
• Provide resources and training templates to guide museums to develop their own diversity and wellbeing policies.
• Emphasise the importance of training to develop wellbeing skills in everyone, specifically advocates and champions in every organisation.
• Offer opportunities for smaller organisations to access initiatives across the sector.
• Offer bursaries and opportunities for professional development to volunteers and freelancers. For example, invitations to conferences, workshops and other professional development opportunities.

We acknowledge that museums of all sizes may already be taking steps in this direction. The aim of these recommendations is to affirm the efforts already underway and encourage further reflection on how we can continue enhancing the wellbeing of professionals of colour as a sector, and to create museum spaces that celebrate diversity and nurture a sense of belonging where all professionals, colleagues and communities feel safe and empowered to thrive.