Workforce equalities report 2019 to 2020

The data in this report helps us make sure we:

• meet our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty within the Equality Act 2010
• can identify any differences in outcomes for our diverse staff

We can then look into any inequalities.

This report is shorter than previous years but highlights key findings from 2019 to 2020. 

Since March 2020 our resources have been stretched. This is because of the Coronavirus pandemic. We’ve worked hard to respond to these challenges, and made sure we do everything we can to reduce inequality.

We’ll explain the changes we make and the outcomes we see in next years’ report.

Employment equalities

As part of Our People Promise, the council has a commitment to be a fair and inclusive place to work.

To meet this commitment, we monitor workforce equalities data. This helps us understand our workforce and the impact our employment policies, procedures and practices have on our staff.

Our employment equalities monitoring includes:

• workforce composition – the different types of people that make up the workforce
• recruitment, retention and progression – getting new staff, keeping them employed and giving them opportunities to progress
• employment casework which includes disciplinary, grievance, capability and attendance management
• staff satisfaction

Staff satisfaction

We measure staff satisfaction every 2 years with a survey.

The 2019 survey showed:

• some improvements since the 2017 staff survey
• different satisfaction levels in some staff groups

For example, compared with the 2017 figure, the developing people index for the whole organisation increased by 5% to 72%. The developing people index for disabled staff and staff aged under 25 was lower.

The Fair and Inclusive Index

In 2019, we added the Fair and Inclusive Index to the survey. This included questions about workplace respect and four new questions.

In 2019 the survey showed that 78% of staff thought Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) was a fair and inclusive place to work. Not all staff across the organisation agreed with this in the same way.

For example, scores were lower for staff from the following groups:

• Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) which includes all ethnic groups except White British, White Irish and White Other
• disabled
• non-binary
• trans
• those with caring responsibilities

In the future, we’ll use this index as a point of reference. It will help us make decisions about improving equalities within our workforce.

We track BHCC’s corporate modernisation programme, Fair and Inclusive Workplace and Services. We’ve created a clear Fair and Inclusive Action Plan and benefits table to check progress.

The plan has 4 key workstreams:

• accountability and consequences
• learning and development
• recruitment, retention and progression
• communities and services

The council's Policy and Resource Committee approved the Fair and Inclusive Action Plan in October 2019.

Find out more about the Fair and Inclusive Action Plan.

Fair and inclusive activity during 2019 to 2020

The fair and inclusive activity that happened in 2019 to 2020 included:

• revising equality governance framework bringing together our Workforce Equality Group and Equality Steering Group to form the Corporate Equality Delivery Group
• each directorate forming a Directorate Equality Delivery Group
• updating the equality objectives in all directorate action plans
• refreshing the council’s Behaviour Framework with clear expectations for all staff
• creating a virtual Fair and Inclusive Team - an additional safe space to raise issues
• co- creating BHCC’s definition of racism and zero tolerance approach
• launching the We Need to Talk About Race campaign to challenge racism and celebrate diversity
• including fair and inclusive objectives in all performance conversations
• holding Fair and Inclusive Leadership Network events
• revising the induction process for new staff so they have to go to a fair and inclusive briefing
• producing guidance for all training providers to work to fair and inclusive principles
• attending over 20 diverse careers and community events
• planning and leading ‘improving practice’ workshops with members of the Black and Minority Ethnic Workers Forum and HR Advisory Services
• helping services to make their recruitment processes fairer and more inclusive
• launching an employability programme for disabled jobseekers
• making sure ‘understanding our communities’ was a key part of staff inductions and development
• offering summer internships at a local University to first generation scholars - which is a term used to refer to students whose parents did not go to university
• hosting work experience placements for a local sixth form college
• developing a third sector improvement programme for implementation in April 2020

We continue to work with the trade unions, GMB and Unison, and our 4 staff networks. This will help us meet our commitment to be a fair and inclusive place to work. 

The 4 staff networks are:

• Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Workers Forum
• Disabled Workers and Carers Network
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Intersex (LGBTQ) Workers' Forum
• Women’s Network

We've agreed with the LGBTQ Workers Forum to use the data label LGBTQ+ when we refer to sexual orientation in this report. When we use this data label, the data it describes relates to sexual orientation and does not include gender identity or sex. 

Currently, equalities monitoring questions include the following options for sexual orientation:

• bisexual
• gay man
• heterosexual/straight
• lesbian/gay woman
• other
• prefer not to say

We recognise the need to use language and terminology that is as inclusive as possible. We’ll carry on working with all our staff networks when we report workforce equalities monitoring data.

The key findings from our workforce data at the end of March 2020 are:

• less than 8% of staff are aged under 30, whilst more than 13% are aged 60 and over
• in March 2020 the council published a negative gender pay gap, this showed that on average, females are paid 5.8% more than males
• male employees are under-represented compared to the local population, although this varies across directorates
• the council continues to steadily increase the ethnic diversity of its workforce
• employees identifying as BME and White Other are still under-represented when compared with the local population of the city 
• there has been a further increase in the percentage of BME staff employed in the middle pay band,  this has been the same for the last 3 years
• the proportion of disabled employees is still in line with the local  population
• LGBTQ+ employees are slightly under-represented compared with the local  population and they are more likely to be employed on temporary contracts than permanent ones
• the percentage of both BME and White Other applicants for council jobs has increased by around 4% in the last 3 years,  their success rate in getting an interview and job offer is still lower than for White British applicants
• almost 60% of staff report no religion or belief
• of all new starters in 2019/2020, 10.8% identified as BME, 6.3% as disabled, 17.6% as LGBTQ+ and 11% were from a White Other background
• 50% of all staff have been employed by the council for 10 years or more
• when looking at their workforce profiles, staff identifying as BME and White Other leave at a lower rate than expected
• LGBTQ+ and disabled staff leave the council at a higher rate than expected
• disabled staff are more likely to have gone through attendance management procedures when compared with their workforce profile which describes their different levels, experience and background
• 54.1% of the female workforce works part-time compared with only 19.6% of  male employees

All our findings are based on known data. 

At 31 March 2020, the percentage of known data which is where staff shared equalities data (including prefer not to specify) is as follows:

Table 1: BHCC workforce profile changes since 2016

Table 2: Workforce profiles by directorate

Actions:

• each directorate management team is focussed on directorate data and uses this to inform interventions, like using positive action in recruitment
• directorates will look at their specific staff survey results to prioritise areas for improvement
• corporate equalities objectives, policies and procedures are communicated in a variety of ways including from the Corporate Equality Delivery Group to each Directorate Equality Delivery Group through a dedicated representative
• directorate actions are monitored through the organisation’s performance management framework

Disability

The positive trends for disabled staff are as follows:

• the percentage of disabled staff within the middle pay band is higher than expected
• disabled staff are much less likely to be employed on casual contracts - which is a contract with no guaranteed hours – than on contracts with fixed hours
• the percentage of disabled applicants for council roles more than doubled to 7.2% in 2019 to 2020, compared with 3.4% in the previous year
• disabled staff go through the recruitment process roughly in line with the benchmark
• disabled staff have been slightly more successful getting jobs in the lower pay band, than the middle and upper pay bands
• disabled staff are more likely to get promotions or secondments than expected when compared with their workforce profile

The areas to consider for disabled staff are that they are:

• under-represented in the upper pay band
• slightly more likely to be employed on temporary contracts than permanent
• less likely to get acting up opportunities when compared with their workforce profile
• slightly more likely to have gone through disciplinary and grievance procedures when compared with their workforce profile
• much more likely to have gone through attendance management procedures when compared with their workforce profile
• leaving at a higher rate than expected when compared with their workforce profile

The recommendations to improve outcomes for disabled staff are to:

• carry on working with our Disabled Workers and Carers Network
• identify and share opportunities for development and progression to increase the percentage of disabled staff moving up the pay bands
• use positive action to attract more diverse candidates for roles in the upper pay band
• review attendance management procedures
• identify and address reasons disabled staff leave  so we can support keeping our existing disabled staff

The positive trends for staff that identify as BME and White Other are that:

• there has been an increase in the percentage of staff who identify as BME and White Other in the lower and middle pay bands since last year
• the percentage of BME staff employed on permanent contracts is increasing and those on temporary contracts is decreasing 
• the percentage of staff who identify as White Other has increased on all contract types 
• BME staff were more successful in being promoted or seconded when compared with their workforce profile
• the percentage of BME staff in acting up positions is in line with their workforce profile
• the percentage of BME staff being promoted has increased over the last 3 years this is a positive trend
• staff who identify as White Other are more likely to get a promotion or acting up opportunity compared with their workforce profile
• BME staff are less likely to go through all formal procedures - grievance, attendance, disciplinary and capability - than expected compared with their workforce profile

The areas to consider for staff who identify as BME and White Other are that:

• they’re more likely to be employed in low graded roles compared with White British and White Irish staff
• the percentage employed in the upper pay band has decreased slightly since 2018/2019 
• the percentage on temporary and casual contracts is still higher than expected compared with their workforce profile
• although their percentage in the workforce is increasing within the organisation, they are still less likely to be successful through the recruitment process than White British applicants
• staff that identify as White Other were more likely to go through disciplinary procedures compared with their workforce profile

The recommendations to improve outcomes for staff who identify as BME and White Other are to:

•  continue working with our BME Workers Forum
• identify opportunities for development and progression to increase the percentage of staff moving up the pay bands
• use positive action to attract and hire more diverse candidates for roles in the middle and upper pay bands
• review recruitment processes so we can identify and remove barriers for applicants from under-represented groups
• make sure we keep BME and White Other staff who we’ve recruited recently

The positive trends for female employees are that:

• female employees are more likely than male employees to be employed on all contract types and across all grades and this has been the case for more than 5 years
• in 2019 to 2020, female employees were more likely to get a promotion, secondment or acting up opportunity than their male counterparts
• female applicants outperformed male applicants in recruitment to all vacancies and contract types except for roles in the upper pay band

The areas to consider for male employees are that:

• male employees are under-represented compared with the local population
• male employees are much more likely to go through disciplinary procedures than female employees - this is a continuing trend

The recommendations are to:

• use positive action to attract and appoint male candidates where appropriate
• communicate and embed the council’s Behaviour Framework and relevant policies

Sexual Orientation

The positive trends for LGBTQ+ staff are that:

• LGBTQ+ staff are more likely to get a promotion, secondment or acting up opportunity than expected when compared with their  2018to 2019 data
• LGBTQ+ applicants are more successful getting a job than straight people
• LGBTQ+ staff are much less likely to go through disciplinary procedures compared with their workforce profile

The areas to consider for LGBTQ+ staff are that:

• LGBTQ+ staff leave the council at a higher rate than expected compared with their workforce profile
• LGBTQ+ staff are slightly more likely to go through grievance procedures compared with their workforce profile - the small number of total cases which was 31 in 2019to 2020 makes it difficult to draw conclusions

The recommendations to improve outcomes for LGBTQ+ staff are to:

• carry on working with our LGBTQ+ Workers Forum to support their priorities
• find out and address the reasons LGBTQ+ staff are leaving to support keeping existing staff

Ethnicity - all applicants for all vacancies

Disability - all applicants for all vacancies

Sexual Orientation - all applicants for all vacancies

Gender - all applicants for all vacancies