Equality and diversity report 2011 – D09191
v1.0 Jan 2012 © Crown copyright Page 1 of 30
Unclassified
Equality and diversity report 2011Unclassified
Change history
Version Date Summary of change
1.0 Jan 2012 First issue
Trademarks
Ordnance Survey, GeoVation, the OS Symbol and OS VectorMap are registered trademarks of Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency of Great Britain.
Contents
Section Page no
1 Introduction 4
2 Equality advocates 5
3 Equality impact assessments 5
4 Learning and development 5
5 Behaviours dictionary 6
6 Recruitment advertisements 6
7 Disability forums 6
8 Disability symbol 7
9 Employee satisfaction survey 7
10 Equal pay 8
11 Settling into Explorer House 8
12 Colour vision deficiency (CVD) 9
13 GeoVation 9
14 Monitors January–December 2011 10
14.1 Employment procedures 10
Annexe
A Total staff numbers 11
B Internal recruitment 12
C External recruitment 15
D Job ladder progression 18
E Training 19
F Reasonable adjustments in the workplace 21
G Employment issues 22
H Resignations 26
I Contractors 27
J Temporary workers 28
1 Introduction
The format of the Equality and Diversity Report for this year has been revised to help ensure we are meeting the recently introduced public sector duties under the Equality Act 2010.
The Equality Act 2010 replaces previous anti-discrimination law, consolidating it into a single Act. The majority of the Act came into force on 1 October 2010 and more recently introduced new measures which have direct implications on the Public Sector.
The Public Sector equality duty came into force on 5 April 2011, replacing the previous separate equality duties for race, disability and gender. The equality duty is supported by specific duties and commenced in England on 10 September 2011. The equality duty covers the following protected characteristics that are recognised within the Equality Act:
· age;
· disability;
· gender reassignment;
· pregnancy and maternity;
· race – this includes ethnic or national origin, colour or nationality;
· religion or belief – this includes lack of belief;
· sex;
· sexual orientation; and
· marriage and civil partnership.
In summary, as a Public Sector authority, we must, in the exercise of our functions, have due regard to the need to:
Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.
Advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups. This involves considering the need to:
· remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics;
· meet the needs of people with protected characteristics; and
· encourage people with protected characteristics to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is low.
Foster good relations between people from different groups. This involves tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.
In order to demonstrate due regard, we must consider the above three aims of the general duty when making decisions as employers and as service providers; for example, when:
· developing, evaluating and reviewing policies;
· designing, delivering and evaluating services and products; and
· commissioning and procuring services from others.
2 Equality advocates
Our group of equality advocates representing all areas of the business continue to work with us in promoting equality in our day to day activities and to ensure that any changes are implemented effectively across the business, hence fostering good relations between people from all protected groups.
Included in the advocates’ terms of reference are the following commitments:
· allow adequate time to fulfil requirements of the role;
· fully support any business initiatives and encourage participation from all staff within their teams; and
· ensure that they share ideas and best practice with other advocates.
3 Equality impact assessments
Carrying out equality impact assessments of all our activities including policies, projects, proposals, products and services has become embedded into our everyday processes. To simplify the process of equality assessment or analysis, we have implemented an online toolkit which will enable all relevant information, decisions and resulting actions to be stored within the toolkit, and provide management information as and when required. We anticipate that the toolkit will not only make analysis of this information easier but will enable us to focus more on the equality actions and on considering mitigating factors, where adverse impact has been identified.
The toolkit will ‘go live’ on 1 February 2012. We have just completed an exercise to train all our equality advocates in the use of the toolkit and the advocates will provide onward training to their teams and colleagues.
4 Learning and development
In 2011 we asked all employees including contractors and agency staff to complete the Civil Service e-learning module entitled ‘Introduction to equality and diversity. This provided an introduction to workplace diversity and an overview of the latest equality legislation.
The learning objectives for this module were to:
· understand what diversity means and why it is so important;
· be able to explain the difference between diversity and equality;
· understand how successful diversity benefits everyone;
· understand your personal responsibilities under equality legislation;
· recognise different types of inappropriate behaviour and why they are unacceptable; and
· know how to deal with unacceptable behaviour.
As well as the increased awareness of equality and diversity issues gained through the learning objectives above, this training has helped to foster good relations and promote better understanding between people from different groups.
We made it a mandatory requirement for everyone to complete this module which took approximately 90 minutes to complete. All new recruits to the business are required to complete this as part of their induction programme.
Over the next few months, we are planning to follow this up with some team activities designed to advance equality and inclusion and improve customer service.
5 Behaviours dictionary
At Ordnance Survey, we have a behaviours dictionary which plays a key role in how we conduct ourselves during the course of our work. These are designed to ensure that we apply consistency and fairness in our dealings with each other and with our customers and partners. The behaviours are inherent in everything we do but particularly underpin processes such as selection and assessment, learning and development, job evaluation and annual performance reviews.
The dictionary includes behaviours such as Working together, Communication, Customer focus and Leading and managing people. For example:
· Working together – this requires building and managing strong relationships by valuing each others’ differences and using the different skills, experience and expertise they have to offer.
· Communication – this is about knowing how to engage with others and communicating effectively to a variety of audiences.
All our jobs are linked to specific behaviours and these form a key element of the job description together with skills and knowledge. When jobs become vacant, applicants are asked to provide evidence of how they have been able to demonstrate these behaviours by giving specific examples in their job applications.
Our annual performance assessment process also requires evidence against selected behaviours. The emphasis on behaviours, in other words, how we do things is just as important as what we know and helps us to demonstrate our commitment to meeting all three aims of the equality duty. Displaying the right behaviours is therefore crucial to progression within the business and meeting personal and business objectives, as well as creating an inclusive environment where everyone is valued and respected.
6 Recruitment advertisements
As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring a diverse workforce for OrdnanceSurvey and to help towards advancing equality of opportunity for people of different groups, we placed advertisements during 2011 in the following publications to attract applications from all groups represented in society:
· Employmentability handbook.
· The Diversity Group.
7 Disability forums
We are continually seeking to make improvements for all protected groups, demonstrating our commitment to eliminating discrimination, helping to advance equality of opportunities and fostering good relations. For example, we invite staff with any kind of disability, short- or long-term, to a disability forum hosted by a senior member of Human Resources with responsibilities for equality and diversity. Also in attendance are members of the Trade Union Side and key managers from across the business that are able to take forward and implement changes agreed at the forum. This forum gives staff the opportunity to openly discuss issues affecting them and suggest improvements that could help their working life.
8 Disability symbol
The disability symbol is awarded by Jobcentre Plus to employers who can demonstrate their commitment to employ, keep and develop the abilities of disabled staff.
Ordnance Survey continues to take positive action with regard to employing disabled people and to helping to advance equality of opportunities. In September 2011, we received re-accreditation following an assessment of our processes. This means that we can use the double tick symbol on all our adverts encouraging applications from people with disabilities.
The five commitments regarding recruitment, training, retention, consultation and disability awareness are:
· to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and to consider them on their abilities;
· to discuss with disabled employees, at any time but at least once a year, what both parties can do to make sure disabled employees can develop and use their abilities;
· to make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure they stay in employment;
· to take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness needed to make these commitments work; and
· to review these commitments each year and assess what has been achieved, plan ways to improve on them and let employees and Jobcentre Plus know about progress and future plans.
9 Employee satisfaction survey
Below is information extracted from our three most recent annual staff surveys. Our work on equality and diversity is reflected in the positive results, in particular the significant 12% improvement since 2009 in how Ordnance Survey respects individual differences.
I am treated fairly at work / 80% / 83% / 84%
I am treated with respect by the people I work with / 88% / 89% / 88%
I feel valued for the work I do / 58% / 64% / 66%
I think that Ordnance Survey respects individual differences, for example, culture, working styles, backgrounds / 69% / 75% / 81%
The statistics for discrimination, harassment and bullying remain fairly static but represent a very high proportion of people who have not experienced any discriminatory behaviour. A breakdown of the statistics shows that of those who did experience discrimination or harassment/bullying, none of the 918 people who completed the survey stated their protected characteristic as being the grounds for this.
I have not experienced discrimination at work / 87% / 87% / 86%
I have not experienced harassment/bullying at work / 87% / 88% / 88%
10 Equal pay
Ordnance Survey introduced a new pay and grading system in 2008 to help redress some of the imbalances in the previous system, thereby eliminating potential for any kind of discrimination. The 2011 Equal Pay Audit is currently being carried out and early findings show that the positive effect on pay differentials is continuing. Since the introduction of the new system, we have seen a reduction in direct and indirect reward discrimination and a reduction in any unjustified pay gaps. The current Audit also shows the following:
· Mean average base salaries – no unexplainable differences between males and females or differences outside Equality Act tolerance differentials.
· Progression statistics – 64% of participating staff are now at the top of their ladder and the positive improvement in the percentage of women progressing to the top of their pay ladders continues.
· Diversity – initial findings show no significant differences due to ethnicity or disability where comparison is possible.
11 Settling into Explorer House
Since the move to the new building over a year ago, several key events took place culminating in the official opening by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in October 2011 and the building being formally named Explorer House. Equality issues were considered for all the events to ensure an all inclusive environment, giving everyone the opportunity to participate.
Employee engagement continued throughout the year on all aspects of the services and facilities available to staff by way of forums, workshops and discussion groups enabling all diversity groups to offer feedback on their environment in the work place. For example, it was decided following feedback from staff that the unisex toilets which were being trialled in one part of the building and proved unpopular, would be converted into single sex toilets.
We have introduced an online service for the provision of furniture primarily for reasonable adjustments in the workplace. This allows employees who feel they need an enhancement to their work station to liaise directly with New Level Safety, a company who will carry out an assessment and make recommendations on what is needed to help overcome any difficulties. Details are entered into an auditable database for the ordering of the recommended items. We also have the opportunity at an extra cost to make use of a professional ergonomist in more serious cases.
Our catering facility is constantly being reviewed and changes made to suit different dietary needs. Special menus have also been introduced to celebrate religious festivals and occasions and are publicised via our Intranet pages.
Through collaboration with a local nursery and a health club crèche, we have been able to give employees with children the opportunity to have preferential rates for play schemes during the school holidays.
During last year, we installed infra red technology for two wheelchair users enabling them to independently access the car park and turnstiles at the north end of the building.
The above are some examples of our commitment to advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations amongst all our employees.
12 Colour vision deficiency (CVD)