Scottish Government

CHAPTER 4 - PROGRESS AS AN EMPLOYER

4.1 The Scottish Government employs around 8200 staff within its core Directorates, Agencies and Associated Departments. Our role as an employer is subject to the disability equality duty.

About the Diversity Team

4.2 The Diversity Team is located within the Human Resources Division. It has lead responsibility for providing advice and guidance on the Scottish Government's employee policies on equal opportunities and diversity and also for implementing our diversity agenda, including the development of our new Diversity Delivery Plan. The team also undertakes a range of awareness-raising activity and supports our six staff networks, including our network for disabled staff or those with an interest in disability issues.

Equal opportunities and diversity policies

4.3 The Scottish Government's employee policy on equal opportunities is that all staff should be treated equally irrespective of any irrelevant difference, including their sex, marital status, age, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, working pattern, employment status, gender identity, caring responsibility, or trade union membership.

4.4 In addition, we remain committed to increasing the diversity of staff within the organisation and to the continuous development of all of our staff, ignoring those irrelevant differences. We also seek to value the different perspectives and skills of all staff and make full use of these in our work, which underpins the delivery of all of the Scottish Government's national outcomes.

Scottish Government Diversity Strategy

4.5 The Scottish Government's five-year Diversity Strategy, "Positive about You", was launched in November 2000. It was reviewed and re-launched in 2004 to ensure that it remained fit for purpose. The revised strategy placed a renewed focus on the mainstreaming of diversity across the organisation and aimed to consolidate the substantial progress that had been made so far. It is now complemented by our Diversity Delivery Plan.

Scottish Government Diversity Delivery Plan

4.6 The new Civil Service Strategy "Promoting Equality, Valuing Diversity" was launched in July 2008 and is a key building block in the future vision for the Civil Service. It focuses on four main themes: behaviour and culture change; leadership and accountability; talent management; and representation. It reflects the drive to mainstream equality and diversity into every aspect of the business of government to enable the delivery of world-class public services. The Strategy will be supported by individual delivery plans developed by all civil service Ministerial departments, including the Scottish Government. These will be completed in December 2008. Progress against our diversity targets for our under-represented groups is set out below.

* Figures to be treated as confidential to preserve anonymity (numbers less than 5).

** No target set.

*** Most recent figures.

**** System currently being revised to produce this information.

Gathering and using information on disability equality and diversity policies

4.7 We continue to gather information on a range of HR policies, and, in particular in relation to the recruitment, retention and development of our disabled employees. The information we gather is used on an ongoing basis as part of the monitoring and equality proofing of all our HR policies. We also use the Scottish Government's Equality Impact Assessment process to identify issues of concern. If evidence of discrimination or unfair treatment is apparent from any of our monitoring procedures, we consider this further and put in place remedial action as required, e.g. by adapting existing policies or processes to eliminate such discrimination or undertaking awareness raising activity. Once any changes have been made, we would then seek feedback from staff and stakeholders once these have been put in place to ensure that they are effective. We review each of our policies and practices on a regular basis, seeking the views of equality groups, including the members of our staff Disability Network, as appropriate, and taking any action to address evidence of inequality. Further details are set out below.

Recruitment

4.8 We continue to gather information on disability as part of our recruitment process at the time of entry to the Scottish Government. This is now recorded on our new e- HR system, which was introduced in November 2007 and held on a confidential basis. It is available only to selected staff for legitimate business purposes. Staff records are updated as individuals join the organisation or through a "self-service" feature of e- HR, which allows staff to input their own diversity information. Staff are reminded regularly that the self-service feature is available to them to ensure a high quality and quantity of data held.

4.9 We continue to extend an automatic invitation to all disabled candidates who meet the defined minimum criteria for any post, whether internal or external, and reasonable adjustments are made to the recruitment process as required. We promote this on our web-site and the guaranteed interview symbol appears on our press adverts. We also continue to take part in the annual audit of the Office of Civil Service Commissioners ( OCSC), which ensures proper arrangements for disabled staff are in place. Any disparate impact of our policies and processes is addressed by appropriate action, e.g. revised guidance or targeted development opportunities.

4.10 We have also now set up a "Diversity in Recruitment" working group to develop and share best practice with Scottish civil service colleagues and to help achieve our aim of becoming an organisation that broadly represents wider Scottish society.

Retention

4.11 The Diversity Team, in conjunction with the Management Information Team, continues to undertake the key reporting role on equal opportunities and diversity issues for the Scottish Government as an employer. Our reporting covers a wide range of staffing issues, including turnover, attendance and progress towards our targets for under-represented groups, including disabled staff at all grades and progress on our Diversity Delivery Plan. We also continue to provide an annual submission to Cabinet Office as part of the UK-wide collection of information on civil servants.

4.12 Scottish Government staff turnover rate is still very low. However, we remain committed to the retention of disabled staff and our Diversity Team and HR Professional Advisers Unit continue to make every effort to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate and retain disabled staff in their posts. The new e- HR system provides additional reporting capability on staff leaving the organisation and we are also about to pilot an online exit interview initiative to obtain more detailed evidence to allow us to address any areas of inequality or unfair treatment in our policies and processes.

Development

4.13 We continue to record information on staff progress through the organisation in our e- HR database and some of this is evidenced in the progress towards our diversity targets. Each member of staff continues to consider his or her development needs as part of the appraisal process. We are still developing our facility to record the type and quantity of training undertaken by staff and this should be available following the introduction of phase two of our e- HR system. Our Corporate Learning Services team has almost concluded its work with Information Systems and Information Services ( ISIS) colleagues to improve our current learning management system which will then, in turn, be used as an interface to the e- HR system ensuring that all details are captured.

4.14 We continue to make arrangements to ensure that disabled staff can access corporate courses, for example, accessing course materials online using assistive technology or providing 1-2-1 training covering essential business needs ( e.g.IT skills) as required. Staff can also arrange loans of equipment and on line learning materials to allow them to learn in a place and time that suits them. Materials are also made available in accessible formats. We have also been specifically targeting both internal and external development opportunities to members of our staff Disability Network. In addition, we have been working with our Corporate Communications and Employee Engagement teams, to ensure the effective communication of diversity messages to all staff and their inclusion in consultation processes and organisational initiatives.

4.15 We continue to provide our one-day diversity training course and to deliver our "Essentials" management programme with its specific diversity segment. A further, elective diversity module is also now in place and diversity issues also feature regularly on the Corporate Learning Services managers' agenda.

Dignity at Work

4.16 We continue to gather detailed information on an annual basis on every case recorded to enable us to identify and act on any incidents of discrimination or other unacceptable behaviour. In addition, the annual Employee Survey also contains questions on bullying and harassment at work and this information is also disaggregated by equality group and considered by the Diversity Team. Our new Fairness at Work policy will merge this policy with our policy on general grievances and will continue to monitor, and address, the elimination of unacceptable behaviour across the organisation.

Performance Management

4.17 The effective operation of the performance management system continues to makes an important contribution to meeting our commitment to disability equality by ensuring all staff are valued for their individual contribution and their performance is assessed fairly. All staff have a responsibility to ensure that their participation in the performance management process supports the Scottish Government's diversity agenda and, from April 2008, have had a mandatory personal diversity objective. We also review all markings given to ensure that the system is free from bias and undertake regular equal pay reviews to ensure that our pay system is transparent and non-discriminatory.

4.18 Our performance appraisal guidance and appraisal form feature a reminder of the importance of ensuring that an individual's disability should not preclude them from achieving an exceptional marking and that such a marking should be awarded where their performance is assessed as exceptional in relation to the objectives which have been agreed with them.

Involving our disabled staff

4.19 We continue to consult and involve disabled staff directly on a regular basis, through our Disability Network and other direct communications, which we use where input is required, e.g. user acceptance testing of our new i-recruitment system. Our annual employee survey also gathers a wide range of information from staff, including a range of equalities information. The SG is also keen to work closely with all disabled staff to ensure that their needs are met and that we continue to make improvements within the workplace.

4.20 All of our staff networks are now being taken forward by volunteer committees of network members, supported by the Diversity Team. We continue to work very closely with the Council of Scottish Government trades unions and hold regular meetings with them on diversity and equality issues, as well as discussing ad hoc issues as they arise. The trades unions have also been represented on our Diversity Forum.

The Work Environment

4.21 We continue to address issues arising from the work environment both through our employee survey, or where they are raised separately, and to provide a wide range of equipment and adjustments, including physical improvements, and hard and software. Individuals are supported by their line manager, HR Professional Advisers and our Welfare Officer, if required. We also continue to work closely with our Information Technology and Procurement colleagues to try to ensure that any new systems are accessible and compatible with existing software. Disabled staff can continue to apply to work flexibly and make use of our online flexi-time system. Where access is not possible, e.g. with our new access control system, we continue to make other adjustments.

4.22 The Occupational Health and Safety Branch continues to undertake workstation assessments on request from HR Professional Advisers, to recommend what reasonable adjustments can be implemented. These recommendations can include orthopaedic chairs, ergonomic workstation accessories and other ancillary work equipment.

4.23 Facilities and Estates Services ( FES) Projects Team has completed DDA audits and has identified reasonable adjustments to ensure compliance. These adjustments are part of an ongoing programme that will ensure the Scottish Government meets its obligations. FES Projects also completes bespoke work that has an acute effect on individual members of staff as a priority.

Promoting positive attitudes

4.24 All of our diversity information is now easily accessible through our diversity intranet pages and is reviewed and added to on a regular basis. Several managers' guides have also recently been published, including one on disability issues, to support managers in the daily task of managing diversity. The Diversity Team also retains a hard copy library of a range of information on specific disabilities and guidance from the Employers' Forum on Disability, of which we are a member. We continue to hold regular meetings of our Disability Network, which comprises both disabled staff and others with an interest in disability issues, and share information with, the Civil Service Disability Network on a regular basis. We also continue to use the Disability Network as a sounding board for our HR policies. Currently, we are continuing to involve disabled staff in our policy review exercise to ensure they are included right from the outset and their views taken on board. As a result of involvement of disabled staff, we have already undertaken a number of the actions, including the introduction of our one-day diversity training course; our mandatory personal diversity objective for all staff; our continued interaction with our trades unions and the publication of our diversity newsletter. The next edition of our newsletter will be a disability "special edition", containing a range of disability related articles and information. We will work to improve engagement with our disabled staff by promoting our existing Disability Network, looking again at different methods of communication and information gathering and developing case studies of successful disabled staff. From December 2008, we will also pursue a range of actions though our new Diversity Delivery Plan in support of the wider Civil Service Diversity Strategy Promoting Equality, Valuing Diversity.

HR Action Plan - Update, December 2008