Organisations that have taken action on Equality and Diversity in Employment.
To make sure all members have a voice in the union, Unison members have set up 'self-organised groups' to provide a voice for people who are traditionally under-represented. Unison has groups at national, regional and local level for women, lesbians and gay men, black members and disabled members. These groups are designed to be self-organising but also integral to the union's structures. It also produces publicity material in various languages, covering pay and conditions and career development.
It has also produced a negotiators guide to assist with all aspects of recruitment, selection and promotion. This is accompanied by recruitment initiatives in underrepresented areas and training courses for black members and stewards.
For more information visit: www.unison-scotland.org.uk.
Lloyds TSB discovered that they were not attracting enough ethnic minority graduates in proportion to the number graduating from university at that time. After conducting external research to understand their image as a potential employer using focus groups, they realised that there were significant differences between white and ethnic minority employees and potential employees.
An action plan was developed which focused on targeting universities with higher minority ethnic graduates and changing their recruitment literature to promote the diversity of roles with case studies highlighting successful minority ethnic graduates in the company as potential role models. Jobs were also advertised in the local ethnic press.
Results showed an increase in the number of graduates from minority ethnic backgrounds and this has been sustained and continuously improved by monitoring and tracking systems. Discussions with minority ethnic graduates are held yearly to ensure that recruitment and selection processes are fair and working environments are free of any form of racial discrimination and harassment.
The supermarket chain began to develop plans to target older workers. It introduced a retirement plan pension protection mechanisms. Age is not a factor in redundancy decisions. Anyone recruited up until their 65th birthday receives full redundancy payments. Age has been removed from the application form and is requested for monitoring purposes only.
The chain reports that their mixed age workforce has led to improved customer satisfaction by more accurately reflecting the profile of their customers. It also thinks that the new approach has contributed to a better-motivated workforce that feels more valued and therefore willing to contribute to business success.
Sainsbury's equality and diversity policies are an important part of their business strategy. All equality and diversity activities are expected to 'add value' to improve both customer services and sales. Stores are encouraged to work with the local community in which the store is situated. Some of the main activities included:
Some of the benefits have included increased customer and employee profile to reflect the local community in a number of stores and an increase in ethnic minority management. Flexibility in covering holidays has improved as different religious festivals are spread out across the year. A calendar of religious festivals has been produced and displayed in stores.
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