Employers plan positive diversity recruitment

Employers in Britain are planning to more aggressively recruit gay, disabled, female and Asian workers in 2007 and 2008, a new poll reveals.

More than 215 hiring managers and 500 workers were surveyed for job site CareerBuilder.co.uk by Harris Interactive and 21 per cent said that they planned to enhance their recruitment process for women, 16 per cent for disabled workers, 13 per cent for Asian workers and gay/lesbian workers (eight per cent).

A quarter of employers polled (26 per cent) said that they planned to increase their staff numbers by more in the last six months of 2007 than the first, with nearly 49 per cent of bosses hiring more workers in the first half of the year.

Entitled 2007 UK Job Forecast, the study predicts that job growth in Britain will remain stable until the end of this year and employers will "remain committed to expanding the demographics of their staffs".

Dave Smith, Managing Director of CareerBuilder.co.uk. "UK employers will continue to struggle with a shrinking skilled labour force as Baby Boomers move closer to retirement and the smaller generations of replacement workers falls under quota."

The UK workforce can also expect to see employers become more creative in their recruitment and retention efforts, evident in higher salaries, increased training and more flexible work cultures."

A raft of new legislation protecting workers from age, racial, religious, gender and other forms of discrimination in Britain has highlighted the importance of workplace diversity in Britain.

This story was first published by Adfero

BBC executives praised for ditching £350,000 bonuses after failing to meet diversity targets

Diversity experts have applauded the decision by BBC executives to forgo their bonuses collectively worth £350,000, after the broadcaster failed to meet its diversity targets.

The corporation set itself stringent targets in 2004 of increasing the percentage of black and minority ethnic staff to 12.5% and 7% at senior management level, to be met by 31 December 2007.

It said that while progress had been made, it would not meet some specific commitments on workforce numbers.

Sally Humpage, employee relations and diversity adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the BBC directors had taken a "positive step" that other organisations could learn from.

"This bold step sends out a message to the rest of the company that everyone is responsible," she said. "Organisations need to set out objectives on diversity and then measure performance around those objectives. The BBC has taken a strong lead where others can follow."

Atul Shah, chief executive of consultancy Diverse Ethics, and an adviser to the BBC, said the executives' action was laudable.

"Commercial business leaders rarely sacrifice bonuses under any circumstances and their remuneration is much higher than that of the BBC executive directors," he said.

But Luke Crawley, assistant general secretary at broadcast union Bectu, said the BBC should go further.

He said: "This is a positive and strong message it is sending out, but it would do no harm for this action to cascade further down the management board."

Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, who set up a diversity leadership council at the corporation in 2005, is still set to receive a bonus as determined by the remuneration committee of the BBC Trust.

This story was first published by Personnel Today

Gay students get death threats

More than 150,000 students in the UK have been bullied at secondary school because they are gay, a new survey found.

Over two thirds of lesbian and gay pupils have been victimised by homophobic bullying, with abuse ranging from verbal abuse to violence to death threats at the hands of students and staff alike. Of those, 92 per cent (143,000) have experienced verbal bullying, 41 per cent (64,000) physical bullying and 17 per cent (26,000) death threats.

The study also discovered that that half of teachers did not intervene when students used homophobic language, using derogatory labels like "dyke", "queer" or "rug muncher".

Catherine, 13, from a single sex independent school (South East) explained that “ teachers join in on the joke’.

Ben Summerskill, Stonewall chief executive, said "These deeply disturbing figures should serve as a wake-up call to everyone working in education.”

"This is a damning legacy of Section 28, which deterred schools from tackling anti-gay bullying for so long. This remains one of the few sorts of bullying about which too many schools still take no action. It blights the lives not just of gay children but of thousands of pupils perceived to be lesbian or gay too."

The Stonewall survey polled 1,145 young people and found that 7/10 of those who have experienced homophobic bullying said it has adversely affected their school work. Half of those bullied say they have missed school as a result.

Ali, 17, from a secondary school in London said, “On three occasions I’ve been assaulted and had to go to hospital to be examined and get the police involved”.

‘People call me ‘gay’ everyday, sometimes people kick me and push me, they shut me out of games during school gym and they steal my belongings, “ said James, 17, from a secondary school in the South West.

Stonewall’s survey is the largest poll of young gay people ever conducted in the UK.

This story was first published on Gay.com

TUC lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender annual conference

Several hundred lesbian and gay workers are gathering in central London over the next two days to debate a series of key equality issues at the annual TUC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender conference.

Delegates attending the event at the TUC's Congress House HQ will hear speeches from TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, Commission for Equality and Human Rights Chair Trevor Phillips and MP Angela Eagle.

Motions to be discussed by delegates include the portrayal of lesbian and gay people in the media, the monitoring of sexuality in the workplace and the potential conflict between religious belief and sexual orientation.

Addressing the conference today (Thursday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far we've come in the past decade. Ten years ago, gay rights were seen as a minority pursuit - now they're part of the political mainstream. Ten years ago, the debate was about Section 28 - now we celebrate civil partnerships. And ten years ago, discrimination against the gay community in the provision of goods and services was quite legal - now, at long last, it has been outlawed.

'But as we celebrate that progress, we cannot afford to relax our guard. This is not the time for us to take of eye of the ball. Despite all the legal gains - despite our largely liberal, tolerant society - the ugly scar of homophobia continues to blight the lives of so many people in your community. The young student bullied at college, the lesbian taunted about her sexuality, the gay couple hounded from their home.

'However welcome they may be, changes on the statute book count for little unless they are matched by a corresponding change in attitudes. Think about our workplaces. We know from our own research that four in ten LGBT workers have faced abuse at work because of their sexuality.

'And let's not forget the challenges faced by LGBT people worldwide. From the casual murder of gay men in Jamaica to state-sponsored persecution in Iran, from the alarming rise in homophobia in Russia to the death squads of Iraq, members of your community are under attack as never before. None of us can afford to turn a blind eye - an injury to one is an injury to all. But where there is discrimination, unions will seek to remove it. Where there is inequality, we will tackle it. And where there is injustice, we will wage war on it.'

Suppliers with poor diversity records will fail in public sector procurement battle

Government proposals to increase equality in the multi-billion pound public sector procurement process will see suppliers with poor diversity records shoved to the bottom of the pile, according to legal experts.

The Discrimination Law Review, published earlier this month, stressed that in carrying out procurement, public authorities must have regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and promote equality.

With public sector procurement in the UK worth more than £125bn a year, public authorities represent a major customer base.

Earlier this year, Personnel Today exclusively revealed that technology giant Microsoft ditched a supplier with a poor attitude towards diversity. The company's HR director Dave Gartenberg said: "In one case, we changed provider because they were cavalier towards the topic. They were supplying a perfectly good service, but we stopped using them."

Sandra Wallace, head of equality and diversity at law firm DLA Piper, said: "Companies with a strong equality and diversity record will have an immediate advantage when bidding for contracts.

"Just as the Microsoft case highlighted, the Green Paper confirms that companies that fail to recognise the importance of good diversity practice are placing themselves at a competitive disadvantage."

Critics have argued that firms with poor diversity performance should be excluded from bidding for contracts altogether. But Wallace said the government was unlikely to go that far.
"There is a debate as to whether a simple breach of discrimination law should disqualify a company from tendering for public contracts," she said. "What is more likely to emerge is practical guidance on how to factor equality into the procurement process."

The CBI said employers recognised procurement could be a "highly effective tool" for encouraging equality, as long as contracts focused on results, and not on "box-ticking".

This story was first published by Personnel Today

Investing in disabled people’s skills could boost the economy by £35 billion

Improving the skills of disabled people to world class levels by 2020 would boost the economy by £35 billion over 30 years, equivalent to 18 months growth, and help tackle child poverty, argues SMF Chief Economist Stephen Evans in a new report, Disability, Skills and Work: Raising our ambitions, published by the Social Market Foundation in association with the Disability Rights Commission.

The report argues that, as well as the benefits from raising the skills rate of disabled people to world class levels, improving the employment rate of disabled people to the UK average through skills improvements would give a boost to the economy of some £13 billion, equivalent to six months economic growth.

To achieve this prize Disability, Skills and Work recommends:
• A national commitment to reducing the relative skills gap between disabled people and the national average
• Employers be required to take greater responsibility, aided by improved support, but backed by tough new legal duties if progress falls short
• Out of work disabled people be given much greater opportunity to improve their skills as a route back to work

These proposals would not only result in increased productivity and employment, but also help tackle poverty, in particular child poverty.

Children from deprived backgrounds often risk becoming trapped in a cycle of disadvantage. Given one in three children living in poverty in Britain has a disabled parent, the report contends that transforming the employment prospects of disabled people by investing in their skills must be a central part of the Governments efforts to end child poverty by 2020.

Commenting, author of the report, Stephen Evans said:

“The size of the challenge is daunting. But the scale of the prize is huge and the cost of inaction is mounting by the day through wasted talent. The past decade has shown how empowering disabled people and supporting employers can work. The next decade needs to see a step change in this approach and a dramatic boost to the skills of disabled people.”

Agnes Fletcher, Director of Policy and Communications at the Disability Rights Commission, said:

“Despite rising levels of employment for disabled people over recent years, too many are still without jobs and living in poverty as a result. Supplying disabled people with the skills they need is the missing link between ending child poverty, boosting the economy and getting more people off benefits and back into work. As this report shows, investing in disabled people’s skills is a win/win situation for Government, creating massive dividends for the economy and delivering greater equality at the same time.”

Bullying is bad for business performance

April 2007 special viewpoint from Ian Dodds Consulting, the D&I strategy consultants.

IDC’s monthly viewpoints have consistently highlighted situations which result in people feeling excluded by organisations. Bullying is one of these, and it is this month’s subject because to my great dismay IDC’s consultants have experienced this from a member of a diversity team in a public sector client organisation.

Persistent criticism, ignoring or deliberately excluding people, undervaluing effort, changing targets without discussion or notice and setting impossible deadlines are all examples of bullying cited by the HSE and the Andrea Adams Trust.

IDC’s consultants experienced all of these behaviours from one particular individual. Had it not been from a member of a diversity team I might have considered it just part of the range of good and bad experiences that come with providing services to clients. But surely members of a diversity team have a duty to behave inclusively in an exemplary way with all the people they interact with.

This is because bullying leads those on the receiving end to lose self-esteem and ultimately question their own self-worth. Clearly, this is likely to have a negative impact on their performance. They are likely to withdraw and disengage and, in extreme cases, leave their jobs.

It does not matter that the behaviour experienced by IDC’s consultants was probably unintentional. It is ethically and morally wrong for one person to behave in such a way towards another, and even more so if that person works in the field of diversity and should be most aware that diversity is founded upon the concept of respecting and valuing others.

In our work, bullying and harassment are sometimes not considered by clients to be important aspects of the diversity and inclusion agenda. However, they are and should be; because they cause exclusion and distress to those who experience them. Last month we considered micro-inequities, which have a similar impact. Both these and bullying should be mainstream considerations for diversity practitioners, because of the negative impact they have, both on individuals and on business performance.

IDC’s consultants have considerable experience of enabling clients to create a working environment where bullying and harassment are minimised.

Incidentally, in this instance IDC withdrew its consultants from the project and formally raised the issue with the client. I believed it was important for IDC as a diversity consultancy to take a stand on inappropriate behaviour by someone employed by a client in a diversity role.

Read more viewpoints from Ian Dodds Consulting

Firms warned to develop diversity policies after Microsoft ditches supplier

Employers have again been warned to tighten their diversity practices after it emerged that Microsoft UK stopped using a supplier due to its poor policy on the issue.

Dave Gartenberg, HR director at Microsoft UK, told Personnel Today that the global IT firm was increasingly looking at its suppliers' diversity policies.

"In one case, we changed provider because they were cavalier towards the topic," he said. "They were supplying a perfectly good service, but we stopped using them."

Microsoft's UK arm is learning from its experiences in the US, where many private companies insist on good diversity policies from their suppliers.

"We just think it is the responsible thing to do," Gartenberg said.

The decision follows moves by Barclays last year to request diversity statistics from its legal advisers as part of its corporate social responsibility policy.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) confirmed that private firms were now increasingly insisting on good diversity practices from their suppliers.

CIPS director of marketing Brian Ford told Personnel Today: "It is a growing trend for suppliers to be asked for their diversity policies. We have seen this grow over the past few months and we can't see that changing. It would be sensible for employers to put policies in place so they can't be caught out."

The Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) agreed that private firms were increasingly looking at the make-up of the companies they do business with.

Simon Webley, research director at the IBE, said: "More than 200 of the FTSE 350 companies now have codes of ethics. These include core values of the company, and diversity is beginning to appear on these plans."

The Equalities Review last month recommended that a company's diversity policies should be a key factor when awarding public service contracts.

But business groups have long insisted that contracts should be awarded on value for money, rather than diversity policies.

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Disability campaign urges employers to recruit people with Down's Syndrome

Employers are being targeted by a new campaign that aims to get them to look again at jobseekers with Down's Syndrome.

The Down's Syndrome Association (DSA) is sending mail alerts to businesses across the UK in the form of a job application, covering letter and CV. The fictional applicant writes that he has Down's Syndrome, and for the remainder of the letter the word 'disabled' is repeated over and over.

The mock CV follows the same format, with 'disabled' replacing the candidate's career overview, qualifications and work experience.

There are approximately 15,000 working-age adults with Down's Syndrome in the UK. Of those, just 16% are in some kind of employment - mostly voluntary and unpaid work - according to the DSA.

Carol Boys, the charity's chief executive, said people with Down's were particularly discriminated against because they were "easily identifiable". Employment levels among people with the condition are lower than those with other physical disabilities, she said.

"Their expectations of some kind of employment are high and so it makes it all the more depressing when they are not able to find a job," she said. "The DSA is asking employers to 'look behind the label' and see the potential of a person with Down's Syndrome."

Boys said fear of the unknown and a lack of understanding about the condition were preventing employers from hiring more candidates with Down's Syndrome. The DSA is starting to work with more companies that are keen on hiring people with the condition, and is producing guidance to help employers.

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Equal Opportunities Commission says fundamental cultural shift is key to employment opportunities for ethnic minorities

A fundamental cultural shift in the way black and Asian women are treated at work and by public policy makers is needed to increase their employment opportunities, according to a report by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

Moving on Up: Ethnic Minority Women at Work, a two-year study of the issues, has established that Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean women face significantly greater penalties than white women in the workplace.

Those who want to work are finding it more difficult to get jobs, progress within them and are more likely to be segregated into certain types of work, despite leaving school with the same career aspirations as white girls and similar or better qualifications than white boys.

In areas with above-average numbers of black and Asian women participating in the local labour market, women are entirely absent from a third of workplaces and under-represented in almost three out of five workplaces.

However, the EOC’s report found 28% of employers surveyed said they intended to introduce steps to improve the recruitment and progression of black and Asian women. However, the same percentage said they were unsure what action to take.

Between 2001 and 2020, ethnic minorities are expected to account for more than 70% of the growth in the UK population aged between 16 and 59, according to the report.

With UK employers facing skills shortages, the report concludes it is crucial to tap into a growing and increasingly well-qualified pool of young Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women’s talent to maintain economic growth.

Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC said: “Young Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean women are ambitious and equipped for work. But they are still suffering even greater penalties at work than white women. Time after time women told us about the ‘unwritten rules’ in their workplace, the hidden barriers that prevent them from realising these ambitions. Without tackling these unwritten rules, change will never come.”

John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director-general, said: “Employers will welcome the examples of good practice highlighted by the EOC’s investigation, on which others can draw. As the report says, employers are keen to employ more women from ethnic minorities, but better guidance is needed to support them.

“The EOC’s call for better careers advice is also to be welcomed Ð this is something the CBI has repeatedly pressed government on.”

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Number of female senior managers in FTSE 350 firms falls by 40% in five years

The number of female senior managers working in major UK businesses has fallen sharply by more than 40% in the past five years, according to figures from professional services company Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

In 2002, 38% of senior manager level posts in the FTSE 350 were occupied by women, but this has now sunk to just 22%.

The news will come as a surprise to many companies that have introduced flexible working arrangements and appointed heads of diversity in an attempt address equal opportunities in the workplace and retain talent.

At the most senior level, the figures show an improvement, but progress is painfully slow. The ranks of FTSE 350 female full-time chairmen or chief executives have grown, but can still be counted on one hand.

The study suggests one possible reason for this is the growing cost of childcare. The cost of a typical full-time nursery place in England has increased by 27% in the last five years, according to the Daycare Trust.

There is also evidence that more women are going into business for themselves. The number of self-employed females in the UK recently rose above a million for the first time according to the Labour Force Survey.

Sarah Churchman, head of diversity at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “At the top, things are moving slowly in the right direction but our middle management data paints a very different picture.

“Businesses tend to pay more attention to gender issues in senior positions and there appears to be an assumption that a supply from the middle ranks will eventually feed through. For big companies at least, this pipeline is shrinking at a worrying rate.”

The report is based on figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers Monks pay database which records pay benchmarking information on more than 10,000 UK management roles.

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Equalities review recommends public service contracts should be awarded on basis of diversity

Multi-million pound contracts could soon be won or lost on the diversity of a company's workforce.

The government-commissioned Equalities Review last week recommended that diversity policy should be a key factor when awarding public sector contracts. It said the law should be changed to place greater responsibilities on public bodies, including "a specific requirement to use procurement as a tool for achieving greater equality".

Panel member Sir Robert Kerslake told Personnel Today that private firms bidding for public service contracts should be made to provide details of their workforce make-up, and an outline of the steps they are taking to improve diversity.

"This can and should be an important factor in the decision to award contracts," said Kerslake, chief executive of Sheffield City Council. "It is a duty of the public body to actively take into account equality of employment."

Communities secretary Ruth Kelly signalled the government's willingness to act on the report, commissioned by prime minister Tony Blair in 2005. "This review makes clear that further progress will not happen without government action," she said. "We must remain prepared to take tough decisions."

A formal response is expected by the autumn, but the CBI insisted that public service contracts should be awarded on the basis of value for money, rather than the diversity of a workforce. It said employers should not be subjected to additional bureaucracy or legal risk.

The Equalities Review was led by Commission for Equality and Human Rights chairman Trevor Phillips. He warned that unless drastic action was taken, inequality in the UK would remain at an "intolerable level". At the current rate of change, it would take nearly 100 years for the ethnic employment gap to be closed.

10 steps to equality
Defining equality
Building a consensus on equality
Measuring progress towards equality
Transparency about progress
Targeted action on persistent inequalities
A simpler legal framework
More accountability for delivering equality
Using procurement and commissioning positively
Enabling and supporting organisations in all sectors
A more sophisticated enforcement regime

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Equalities Review recommends legalising ethnic minority job adverts

Job ads specifically targeting ethnic minority applicants will be legalised if the government adopts the recommendations of the Equalities Review.

The review called for "the repeal of existing legislation that limits positive action". It said an Equalities Act should be drawn up to cover all diversity issues, to provide for better targeting of disadvantaged groups.

"There are some areas where inequalities are so deep-seated, or where conventional means will take so long to make an impact, that not taking alternative action is condemning a whole generation to living with disadvantage," said the report.

"There is a case for introducing time-limited, proportionate, balancing measures of a type not currently permissible under UK law," it said.

Review chairman Trevor Phillips said organisations wanting to use these proposed powers should be able to do so "if they can make a case that it is in the best interests of the community".

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Government report admits link between lack of job opportunities and ethnic and religious backgrounds

Ethnic minorities and women with religious convictions have the toughest time when it comes to finding work, according to research published by the Department for Work and Pensions.

The research analyses the probability of being in employment based on different combinations of ethnic and religious group.

It finds that for women, the employment penalties faced by Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds are higher than the penalty for any ethnic group of no religion.

Work and pensions secretary John Hutton said: "We simply cannot afford to ignore the specific discrimination that exists in the UK labour market.

"Along with improvements in training and skills - such as the increased emphasis on English language training for benefit recipients [the government] announced earlier this month - ethnic minority employment rates can be improved," Hutton added.

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Dawn Atkinson has been appointed in a new role as England's nursing officer for diversity

A nurse for 22 years, she will be seconded to the Department of Health for two days a week for a year, advising the chief nursing officer about all issues relating to diversity.

Chief nursing officer Christine Beasley said: “There were a high number of good applicants that we considered for this role, highlighting the value the Department of Health and the NHS place on developing and promoting leadership and diversity.”

Atkinson is currently assistant director of nursing for quality and standards at Newham University Hospital NHS Trust, and will continue this role throughout the duration of the secondment.

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today.

Commission for Equality and Human Rights sets out programme to increase fairness in UK

A new approach is needed to tackle discrimination and disadvantage in the UK, the final Equalities Review report has recommended.

The inquiry that produced the report, led by Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, proposes a 10-step programme to help make the UK a fairer, more equal country at ease with its diversity.

It recommends new flexibility for employers to use positive action – which will allow firms to assist people from previously excluded ethnic minority groups to compete on equal terms with other applicants.

Employers will breathe a sign of relief as the report does not argue for positive discrimination.
Phillips said that unless efforts to produce change are drastically stepped up, it could take until 2085 to close the pay gap between men and women; and on current trends, the employment ‘penalty’ facing disabled people may never be eliminated.

The report’s recommendations include:

• a new framework to measure progress towards equality, including an ‘Equalities Scorecard’ which employers can use to get a true picture of equality gaps
• a broader positive duty for public sector bodies to tackle inequality - both as service providers and as employers
• a simpler legislative framework which will enable groups as well as individuals to take action
• a more sophisticated and proportionate enforcement regime, overseen by the Commission for Equality and Human Rights
• targeted action against persistent inequalities in education, employment, health, and crime and criminal justice

The review recommends that the commission, which will become operational in October 2007, should report on progress against the 10 steps to greater equality every three years.

Phillips said: “The past few years have seen inequality reduced in many ways. But as the tide of disadvantage recedes, the rocks of persistent inequality have been revealed. People face inequality in many forms – not only on the grounds of race, gender or disability but also sexual orientation, age, gender identity, and religion or belief.

“They struggle because of outdated attitudes and systemic failures. It will take many years to remove the remaining barriers to equality. In some cases, unless we accelerate progress, it is unlikely that disadvantage will ever be overcome. We have to act now.”

Communities minister Ruth Kelly welcomed the review. “This review makes clear that further progress will not happen without government action – working with others, including communities and businesses, we must remain prepared to take the tough decisions needed,” she said.

“Trevor Phillip’s report rightly challenges us to go further. I look forward to analysing the review in detail and to responding formally on behalf of the government in due course.”

The government response to the review is due in autumn 2007.

This story was published by Personnel Today