Section 4
How can I create an inclusive workplace?

This section offers step-by-step advice on the measures you can take to make your workplace more inclusive. There are five stages in this process:

1. Consider what you want to achieve and what the benefits will be. 2. Undertake an inclusion review of your workplace. 3. Decide where work is needed and create an action plan. 4. Communicate the plan with staff and put the plan into action. 5. Review, monitor and evaluate the plan's impact and use what you find to plan future action.

Consider what you want to achieve
Do an inclusion review

Create an action plan
Communicate the plan and put it into action
Review and monitor the plan’s impact
Consider what you want to achieve
Do an inclusion review

Create an action plan
Communicate the plan and put it into action
Review and monitor the plan’s impact

4.1 Consider what you want to achieve

This first stage of the process involves looking at your organisation: its size, the type of work it does, where it is located, who it employs, who uses its services, and what its goals are; and thinking about how it could become more inclusive.
Your organisation has particular characteristics, and business needs must be factored in. There may be sector-specific standards and legal requirements and duties with which you need to comply and you might provide services for very diverse or very similar communities and customers. You might experience particular skill or people shortages that you fill with agency or migrant workers, or you may be located within an industry or sector that has traditionally been filled with one gender, ethnic group or staff of certain ages. You might have a dispersed workforce in different locations that rarely comes together face to face.
All of these factors will influence what is contained in your action plan. Considering the situation of your organisation and how you would like to see it change will set the context for the next stage of the process, an inclusion review of your workplace.

4.2 Undertake an inclusion review

When reviewing inclusion and equality in your organisation, you should consider the following areas:
The demographics of your organisation and customer base. *
Your formal policies and procedures. *
Informal or unwritten working practices.

Arrangements for staff consultation and participation.

Organisational demographics
All organisations are different, so the first thing you will need to do is examine what the demographic make-up of your workplace is. Compiling and analysing data on your staff by age, gender, ethnic group, religion or belief, sexual orientation and disability, and noting where in the organisation’s structure employees belonging to different groups work, will help you to identify any under-represented groups and areas of occupational segregation. You should check employees’ salaries according to membership of different groups, and check rates of progression within and through the grades. It is also useful to look at retention and exit rates by these groups.
If possible, you should also collect information on the make-up of your customers. Finding out who uses your services and what their needs are is important if you are to ensure you have the right people, skills and approaches to meet these needs.
Formal policies and procedures
The formal policies and practices of your organisation can tell you a lot about how much you have previously thought about inclusion, human rights and equality. When reviewing these policies, you will find it helpful to look at:
Policies to deal with discrimination, bullying and harassment
Do you have clear and well-known policies that set out the behaviour you expect in the workplace? These should stipulate the importance of treating others with dignity and respect, set out what equality and human rights legislation says, explain what discrimination and harassment are, and state what the consequences of unacceptable behaviour will be. Are line managers clear about these policies and trained to act quickly when dealing with complaints?
Procedures to deal with tensions and difference between groups
If you employ different groups of workers who may be likely to disagree or to have misperceptions about each other, do you have procedures in place to deal with this? Do you have guidance on employing agency or migrant workers, making sure that they are not treated less favourably than permanent employees?
Disciplinary and grievance procedures
Do you have clear disciplinary and grievance procedures that are followed by all managers, accessible to employees and easily understood? Are these procedures fair to all, or could they impact negatively on particular groups of employees? Do employees have access to an independent arbitration or dispute resolution process if they do not agree with the outcome?
Policies on flexible working
Do you have procedures in place for dealing with requests to work flexibly in a fair and objective manner? Do you offer any provisions over the statutory minimum and are employees aware of these? What is your approach to retirement and are there options for older workers to continue working after they reach state pension age, if they wish to do so?
Procedures for carers, parents and expectant parents
What policies do you have in place on maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay, breastfeeding, parental leave and time off for dependents?
Sickness absence policies
Do you have a clear policy on sickness absence that is understood by line managers and takes into account pregnancy-related sickness and disability? Do you have procedures in place to help employees back to work and to consider individual needs in doing this?
Health and safety policies
Do you have clear policies in place on health and safety, with regular risk assessment and ergonomic checks to promote staff health and wellbeing? Are specific risk assessments routinely organised, for example for pregnant women or staff working in particular areas of risk? Could your policies have an impact on the religion or belief of staff: for example wearing religious dress or articles of faith, and are they proportionate?

Performance management procedures
Do you have clearly set out procedures on performance management that take individual needs and cultural differences into account, and are objective and transparent to all employees?
Pay and reward policies
Are your policies on pay and reward clearly organised, based on objective criteria and easily understood by employees? Do you have clear guidance on starting salaries, bonuses and performance-related pay? Have you undertaken an equal pay audit to make sure you don’t have pay gaps by gender, disability or ethnic group?
Recruitment and promotion procedures
Are your procedures for recruitment and promotion transparent and equally accessible to all applicants? Do job descriptions focus on objective criteria that are solely related to the job in question, and could the procedures you use impact negatively on particular groups? If some groups are under-represented among your staff, do you have strategies in place to change this?
Policies on training and development
Do you have regular training in place on equality and human rights? What procedures do you have to ensure that all employees have access to development and work-related training, and do these procedures take into account the particular needs of some groups of employees?
Procurement policies
Do the procedures you have in place for procurement include equality and human rights measures? In order to strengthen your commitment to inclusive working, do potential suppliers need to provide evidence in their tenders that they take equality and human rights seriously and treat their staff and customers with dignity and respect?
Service provision and customer equality policies
If you are a service provider, do you have a strategy in place to make sure that all customers are treated equally and fairly, and that needs of customers from diverse backgrounds are recognised and met? Are staff at all levels engaged in creating a human rights culture in the provision of services?

Informal or unwritten working practices
Examining informal working culture can be difficult to do, but the aim is to find out if there are gaps between what is written in your policies and everyday working practices within the organisation. Some areas to think about include:
Staff attitudes and behaviour
Is there an open and understanding working culture where everyone is treated with dignity and respect? Are staff aware of the importance of equality, human rights and inclusion, and aware of the anti-discrimination policies in place and the procedures on acceptable behaviour? One way of measuring this is through an anonymous attitude survey (see Section 5). Another point to consider is employee willingness and confidence to disclose personal information: what are self-declaration rates like on sensitive issues such as sexual orientation or religion and belief?
Take-up of employee provisions
What are the take up rates of the provisions you have in place for flexible working, time off for dependents or access to religious facilities and requirements? If they are low, it may be that the working culture in your organisation is not supportive of the provisions in place, or that staff are not aware of what is available.
Working patterns and segregation
Do staff with diverse backgrounds and from different groups work together in teams and divisions? Or are similar groups of staff clustered into the same teams, shifts and areas of work? If the latter is the case, it is likely that there may be divisions within the workforce on the grounds of gender, ethnic background, age, religion or belief, language, culture and class.
Activities
Are any activities in place to bring staff together and to promote inclusion and understanding? If so, are they well attended? Are they planned to take into account the access requirements of different groups, as well as caring responsibilities and cultural differences?
Recruitment and retention
Despite clear policies on recruitment and promotion, do some groups remain at the bottom of the career ladder? Do you find that employees from minority groups are more likely to leave than those who make up the majority? If this is the case, it could be that workplace culture is helping to create barriers for these groups.
Staff consultation and participation
Finally, are there clear procedures through which staff can communicate with managers and directors? Are staff and their representatives consulted on changes to policies and practices that will affect their working lives? Are they actively involved in initiatives around working culture? If this is not the case, it is more likely that your efforts to create inclusive working will not succeed, because employees may feel that measures are being forced upon them without the chance to give their opinions.

4.3 Create an action plan

Having reviewed your workplace in terms of equality and inclusion, the next stage is to decide upon the action you will take. Set out the key changes you would like to make as a result of your review. Prioritise these changes to help you decide where to start. Some measures you may wish to consider as part of your action plan are:
Actively involve all employees

* Consultation and participation. * Encourage employees to take part in monitoring, and promote the reasons for doing so. * Extra measures and adjustments. *
Build a culture of inclusion and respect

* Ensure the organisation’s core values include a commitment to equality, human rights and inclusive working. * Create, extend or improve policies on equality and human rights and make sure other policies are equality proofed. * Take immediate action to address and tackle discrimination, harassment and bullying. * Training for all staff on inclusive working, human rights and equality. * Make inclusion a key management approach. * Encourage and appoint equality and human rights champions. * Encourage employee networks and forums. * Promote culture-changing initiatives.

Take an inclusive approach to recruitment, promotion and development

* Make equality, diversity, human rights and inclusive working part of job descriptions. * Monitor applicants and staff at different levels within the organisation. * Equality and human rights training for all staff involved in recruitment and a fair and transparent selection process. * Attract candidates from the widest pool available. * Reward talent and achievement rather than stereotypical indicators of success. * Value skills achieved outside the workplace. * Encourage and enable development for all. * Offer mentoring opportunities to junior and new staff. * Offer work placements. * Conduct exit interviews.

Encourage engagement with the local community

* Employer assisted volunteering.

Actively involve all groups of employees
In order to create a working culture of inclusion, respect and opportunity for all, it is essential that everyone in the organisation, from senior management to the most junior staff, is engaged with and involved in the process of creating this culture, and feels that their opinions and experiences are valued. Measures to promote inclusive working need to be thought of positively among employees, not as something that is ‘done’ to them. There are several things to think about in this respect.
Participation and consultation
Before drawing up a plan of action it is essential to involve and consult employees to find out about their experiences, what they feel are the key issues affecting them and what action they would like to see taken to address these issues. Staff and any unions or other employee representatives should also be consulted at different stages in the plan’s implementation, in order to get their feedback on the progress being made. The action plan should be a living document, capable of being adapted and developed over time.
There are many different ways that you can consult and involve employees and their representatives. Some examples are: * Staff surveys can be used to gather information on a range of subjects, including the make-up of the workforce, responses and attitudes towards equality and human rights issues, and levels of job satisfaction among employees. Surveys can be designed so that responses can be analysed according to membership of equality group or other relevant factors. Confidential surveys will attract a higher response rate. * Focus groups provide more opportunity for in-depth consultation and debate with a smaller number of employees. They could be a useful forum in which to collect feedback on draft policies and action plans, and can be an indicator of wider staff attitudes. * Engagement with employee networks and forums can utilise an important representative voice of staff from minority groups and can provide useful input into policies and action plans.