Leading the Market from the Front as a Black Recruiter (Black History Month Special Edition) - ft. Karl Burnett (Vol 7)

Welcome back to the #HireWire newsletter on the UK recruitment industry!

In this edition of the newsletter, we have dedicated the full article to Black History Month and we've done a Q&A session with the king of Built Environment recruitment to speak about his journey as a black recruiter and market leader over the past 30 years, Karl Burnett the head honcho from the power house that is Daniel Owen discusses how he felt about being black in a predominantly white industry, the benefit of being black in the industry and the steps firms should consider taking to promote black equity beyond Black History Month and much much more.

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Who is Karl Burnett?

Karl Burnett, Group MD of Daniel Owen, a recruitment agency that specialise in the Built Environment and a business he started his career in over 25 years ago.  Karl now leads the business and 12 offices the length and breadth of the county, working in partnership with some of the UK largest contractors, and he's somebody who has proudly delivered record numbers year on year, such as doubling the business assets from 2021 to 2022.

When you began working in recruitment how did you feel about the lack of black people and black leaders in the sector and did this leave any sort of impact on you? 

Subconsciously I think it really did make an impact, as there was simply no one that I could relate to in the recruitment sector, and still there are too few. It wasn’t something I wanted to focus on, or feel intimidated by, but without question it made me work harder, whilst being conscious of remaining true to myself and who I am, and I think that has been to my benefit – being true to who I am and not changing to conform within a sector that was very much lead and run by people that were very different to me on many levels.   

Were there any challenges you faced in recruitment for being black and how did you overcome these hurdles? 

I feel fortunate to have not directly experienced racism, but indirectly you will never know, you reflect on situations and think was there racism involved, however I would actually like to think the complete opposite and feel that being black in the recruitment industry has helped me in many ways, it’s helped me build relationships – especially with candidates who were able to find me relatable and we were therefore able to build friendships that supported the loyalty that has been built over nearly 3 decades. 

What steps do you believe recruitment firms can take to promote racial equity and ensure black voices and perspectives are heard beyond Black History Month? 

For me personally, I feel that confidence and self-belief has enabled my success, as I said, having enough confidence in myself to not change and to stay authentic.  In regards to what a recruitment business can do I feel it’s about helping install said confidence and self-belief in individuals, whether this being through coaching, an employee voice panel, giving people the opportunity to speak honestly and authentically will go some way in giving confidence to future talent.

Who was your black role model in the industry when you were climbing through the ranks of your career and what was inspiring to you about them? 

There wasn’t any when I was climbing through the ranks, and there are still too few, but without question black leaders are now making moves in business, however there is still some way to go – especially at the top, with only 6 black CEOs in the Fortune 500 and shockingly none in the FTSE 100, this is something that has to change in the coming years and I’m following the careers of people who have the potential to make these changes and be the role model that is so needed to help install the confidence that Black people need in their career capabilities. It is always easy to make a football or music association when it to successful Black people, but now is the time we need to see this success in the corporate world. 

Should you be interested in contributing to an upcoming edition or collaborating on a future project, please get in touch. I’m keen to hear your ideas and work with you!

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