Agencies which adopt robust diversity policies will improve their bottom line and be more likely to find work within the public sector, says an equality expert.

Ian Barr of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) says recruiters must target more ethnically diverse candidates from a wider range of sources if they are to help UK companies maintain their global competitive advantage.

“If companies show good diversity practice, they tend to operate better in terms of sales, profits and shareholder values. It's harder to get along initially when your team is ethnically diverse, but operating outside your comfort zone is also much more productive, exciting and innovative,” he said.

“Companies which embrace this enhance their reputation, and the public sector is then more inclined to want to do business with them, opening up a huge public procurement marketplace.”

Barr also urged recruiters to adopt a longer-term and more proactive approach to diversity, and believes that the industry could learn from other sectors.

“Recruiters can learn from engineers and architects who are increasingly targeting young ethnic minority children at schools,” he said. “They need to look beyond the 'Ivy League' of universities

and expand their nets to include newer universities, where a larger percentage of ethnic minorities go.”

Barr believes UK blue-chip companies are already starting to see the benefits of a wider talent pool, and that this success will prompt change across the industry.

Barr says that Lloyds TSB has broadened the range of universities it recruits from, and now nearly one-fifth of its management trainees are from ethnic minorities.

“At the CRE we've just started working with 10-12 major blue chip private sector organisations on a three-year pilot project replicating the current diversity statutory requirements for the public sector. This will cover target-setting and improvement-measuring.”

Barr will address the Recruitment Society on 1 March.