Three recruitment companies have been recognised for their efforts to combat racial inequality.

Hays, Michael Page International and Pertemps were all placed in

the Best Newcomer category in Race for Opportunity’s fifth annual benchmarking report.

The firms were recognised at a ceremony at Lehman Brothers Investment Bank in Canary Wharf on Tuesday 28 June.

Race for Opportunity (RFO) is a membership organisation of over 180 public-and private-sector companies across the UK that aims to promote the business case for race – namely the importance of diversity in enterprise.

Michael Page will be inviting children from inner-city schools to shadow consultants for 12 weeks this summer as part of its inclusive recruitment programme (see Page Looks To The Other City).

Stephen Ingham, Michael Page’s UK managing director, said:

“The RFO benchmarking exercise was fundamental in reassuring us that our policies on race and diversity are working.

“To continue to be recognised as a world-class business and employer of choice, it is of key importance that we are as diverse as the customers and cultures that we serve.”

Pertemps took on a diversity project when supplying staff to a call centre for an area of high employment in Northampton. Gill Harvey, a senior human resource and development partner for the firm, said: “The client had specific diversity targets and we had to work with them to understand what their needs were.

“It was about making sure we carried out a programme of inclusion, not exclusion.”

RFO director Sandra Kerr said of the nominations for the three recruitment agencies: “They all realised that it’s not just about doing good anymore, but it’s

about looking at the demographic of the United Kindgom.”