Welcome

Maria Hegarty

Equality Strategies Ltd

What ?

Equality/Diversity Impact Assessment

A series of steps you take that enable you to

assess what you are doing so that you can do

it more effectively and set in place a plan to

achieve a range of equality outcomes

Diversity factors protected

Gender Marital Status Family Status Age Disability Sexual Orientation Race Religion Membership of the Traveller community

Other Diversity Factors

Background / class

Education

Interests

Skills - communication, conflict management,

leadership

Aim

People maximise their potential and

contribution to the organisation

Reveal and remove hidden barriers

Develop clear plan of action

Why?

Business case - not getting the best staff, not harnessing the full range of capacities

of all employees, not getting all customers, perception of the

organisation

Legislative case - Legal requirements, individual case taken

Social justice case Want to promote equality and manage diversity effectively so that all

are included in all aspects of society

Equality promoted and diversity managed

taking account of different employees’ identities,

experiences, situations, interests and ambitions

organisational culture that welcomes understands and

values diversity

Positive action

Procedures and skill to deal effectively with any

discrimination claims

Understand diversity of customers

How - ApproachHow - Approach

4 C’s - 4 C’s -

CollaborationCollaboration

Communication Communication

Consultation Consultation

Competence Building Competence Building

ExampleHAPPY HOTELS

Profile

1. Management One general manager

Four supervisors

There are 120 staff - 65% female and 35% male

People from seven nationalities work in the hotel

Happy Hotels

Equality infrastructure Staff do not have a representative forum, some are

members of a trade union

No Equality Plan / Diversity Plan

No equality training

Staff handbook which is used for staff in the whole

group

Induction training does not address equality and

diversity management issues

Exercise

Who are the key stakeholders?

How would you include them in the process?

How can you set up a process that gets “buy in”

from the company?

How long do you anticipate the process should

take?

What challenges do you anticipate?

How can you address these?

What is likely to go well?

Equality Team

Exercise Happy Hotel Discuss in pairs

Who should be a member of the team

What are the terms of reference for the team

Indicators

Build equality team awareness and agreement

Discuss what WE mean by equality and diversity

Discuss what WE think about equality and diversity

management in our organisation

Discuss what we will measure

Discuss how we will measure

Collaboration

Essential in an organisational context

Get all involved - people, levels, areas

Get all perspectives - issues, concerns, fears,

hopes

Generate cooperation- see outcomes for all

Lay basis for future collaboration

Exercise

What can we do to build

collaboration?

Collaboration Actions

Initial Meetings - with mangers, supervisors, staff groups to ascertain Their hopes and fears Their langauge re equality The best method of consultation The best methods of communication

Develop Equality Team Involve all people, levels and areas Discuss what is to be assessed

Communication

All informed of all stages

Improve participation in consultation processes

Raise expectations

Generate understanding

Increase ownership

Exercise

What can we do to

communicate with all in the

organisation?

Communication Actions

Send articles for newsletters, notice boards, staff

pay packets

Send information for discussion at staff / team

meetings

Attend open meetings and provide information on

process

Inform all at different stages of process - start-up,

consultation, outcomes

Consultation

What do we need to know Work / Life Profile

Equal Opportunities

Dignity at work

Training and Development

Demographics

Exercise

Work / Life Profile What do we need to know?

Work / Life profile

Read / know contents Employee handbook Policies Further initiatives, e.g. caring responsibilities,

employment of people with disabilities, customers

Do you work full/part time Do you job share Do you do shift work Location?

Exercise

Equal Opportunities What do we need to know?

Equal Opportunities - Perceptions

Opinion - strongly agree to strongly disagree XX Equal opportunities employer

XX fair recruitment procedures

Equal access to training

My supervisor respects me

Employees in various grounds respected by colleagues

XX attracts a diverse range of applicants

Promotion procedures transparent

Age is an important criteria for promotion in XX

Managers are good at promoting equality and managing diversity

Dignity at Work

What do we need to know about views in organisation?

Dignity at Work

Have you read / Do you know contents dignity at work policy Anti-bullying and harassment policies Equality policies

Have you experienced / someone complained Harassment, discrimination What happened Were you happy with outcome

Exercise

What do we need to know about training and development?

Training and Development

How long have you worked with XX Have you read training and development

policy Have you participated in training Have you participated in equality training What level of education / technical skill have

you achieved Have you applied for promotion What were the outcomes

Consultation Actions

Design survey

Test questionnaire

Send questionnaire to all

Allow sufficient time for return

Provide analysis for equality team

Conduct Focus Groups re key questions

Competence Building

Equality Team

Managers / supervisors

Contact persons

Leaders in organisation

Competence Building

What do we need to do to build equality competence

in the organisation?

Competence Building Actions

Train equality team

Train / coach managers / supervisors -

EIA

Brief contact persons

Brief leaders

Assessment

Organisational culture - annual reports, strategy

docs etc..

Human resource information/data

Policies - equality, training, working conditions

Assessments

Procedures

Recruitment, selection and promotion processes

Processes - XX number of

Recruitment, selection and promotion processes

Reporting

Draft presented to the Organisation

Informal brief to the Key Persons

Formal Presentation to the Steering Group

Agree approach for the Action Planning

Stage

Action Plan

Key priorities

Timescales and milestones

Build capacity (note integrate into managers

performance assessment)

Initiatives and actions

Monitoring

Review

Outcomes Summary

Equality Team - infrastructure involved and committed to act

Awareness campaign - improved knowledge

Building Understanding - clearer aims, roles, impact of MY

actions

Information gathering - more up-to-date data, re-gather

Assessment - clear steps, links to business aims

Reporting - regular, monitor progress

Action Plan - awareness, commitment, promotion of best

practice