A) STATEMENT OF POLICY
The
terms equality, inclusion and diversity are at the heart of this policy.
‘Equality’ means ensuring everyone has the same opportunities to fulfil their
potential free from discrimination. ‘Inclusion’ means ensuring everyone feels
comfortable to be himself or herself at work and feels the worth of their
contribution. ‘Diversity’ means the celebration of individual differences
amongst the workforce. We will actively support diversity and inclusion and
ensure that all our employees are valued and treated with dignity and
respect. We want to encourage everyone
in our business to reach his or her potential.
We
recognise that discrimination is unacceptable and although equality of
opportunity has been a long-standing feature of our employment practices and procedure,
we have made the decision to adopt a formal policy. Breaches of the policy will
lead to disciplinary proceedings and, if appropriate, disciplinary action up to
and including dismissal.
The
aim of the policy is to ensure no job applicant, employee or worker is
discriminated against either directly or indirectly on the grounds of age,
disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or
maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
We
will ensure that the policy is circulated to any agencies responsible for our
recruitment and a copy of the policy will be made available for all employees
and made known to all applicants for employment.
The
policy will be communicated to all private contractors reminding them of their
responsibilities towards the equality of opportunity.
The
policy will be implemented in accordance with the appropriate statutory
requirements and full account will be taken of all available guidance and in
particular any relevant Codes of Practice.
We
will maintain a neutral working environment in which no employee or worker
feels under threat or intimidated.
B) RECRUITMENT
AND SELECTION
1) The
recruitment and selection process is crucially important to any equality,
inclusion and diversity policy. We will
endeavour through appropriate training to ensure that employees making
selection and recruitment decisions will not discriminate, whether consciously
or unconsciously, in making these decisions.
2) Promotion
and advancement will be made on merit and all decisions relating to this will
be made within the overall framework and principles of this policy.
3) Job
descriptions, where used, will be revised to ensure that they are in line with
this policy. Job requirements will be reflected accurately in any personnel
specifications.
4) We
will adopt a consistent, non-discriminatory approach to the advertising of
vacancies.
5) We
will not confine our recruitment to areas or media sources which provide only,
or mainly, applicants of a particular group.
6) All
applicants who apply for jobs with us will receive fair treatment and will be
considered solely on their ability to do the job.
7) All
employees involved in the recruitment process will periodically review their
selection criteria to ensure that they are related to the job requirements and
do not unlawfully discriminate.
8) Short
listing and interviewing will be carried out by more than one person where
possible.
9) Interview
questions will be related to the requirements of the job and will not be of a
discriminatory nature.
10) We
will not disqualify any applicant because he/she is unable to complete an
application form unassisted unless personal completion of the form is a valid
test of the standard of English required for the safe and effective performance
of the job.
11) Selection
decisions will not be influenced by any perceived prejudices of other staff.
TRAINING
AND PROMOTION
1) Senior
staff will receive training in the application of this policy to ensure that
they are aware of its contents and provisions.
2) All
promotion will be in line with this policy.
MONITORING
1) We
will maintain and review the employment records of all employees in order to
monitor the progress of this policy.
2) Monitoring
may involve:
a) the collection and classification of
information regarding the race in terms of ethnic/national origin and sex of
all applicants and current employees;
b) the examination by ethnic/national
origin and sex of the distribution of employees and the success rate of the
applicants; and
c) recording recruitment, training and
promotional records of all employees, the decisions reached and the reason for
those decisions.
3) The
results of any monitoring procedure will be reviewed at regular intervals to
assess the effectiveness of the implementation of this policy. Consideration
will be given, if necessary, to adjusting this policy to afford greater
equality of opportunities to all applicants and staff.