snow-capping

This is the rather clever term that gets used to describe organisations where there are few white people at the top, above a whole lotta "non-white" (sic) people who are, you know, doing the work.

I like it, personally (the term, not the phenomenon!).

"CW: I think it’s a real danger of taking a superficial approach to diversity. We’ve heard about – in diversity terms – the whole thing about ‘snow capping’ which is the way they describe having a very diverse workforce but a completely white management board. Now we just don’t want to be that way. That’s not getting the best out of the resources you have. What we’ve set ourselves as a target is that the total representation of minority groups be absolutely equal and equivalent across all of our grading structure. Only then can we say that all of our policies and processes are fair."

CIPD podcat