News
Employers Tackling Discrimination Applauded at 2010 EFA & EFB Awards
15 July 2010
"We are at an important point for equalities in Britain and we have the chance to make unlawful and unfair discrimination a thing of the past," Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality & Human Rights Commission, told the audience at the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) and Employers Forum on Belief (EFB) 2010 Awards yesterday (Tuesday 13 February).
"When in as little as 20 years' time half the population will be over 50, discriminating against older workers is foolish. When women undergraduates outnumber men by a ratio of 4:3, sexism is a millstone round an employer's neck. And when the economy needs to draw on every talent, a sensible employer can't afford to let anyone feel discouraged or held back at work because of their personal beliefs."
The awards, held in partnership with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), showcase the organisations that have spearheaded new ways to tackle discrimination in the UK workplace. Accolades were granted in nine categories, with winners having to demonstrate both a clear commitment to good practice above and beyond legal compliance, and innovative initiatives or policies that would inspire other employers.
Categories and Winners:
- EFA Award for Best Public Sector (Overall) - Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS)
- EFA Award for Best Public Sector (Innovation) - Kent County Council
- EFA Award for Best Private Sector (Overall) - Centrica
- EFA Award for Best Private Sector (Innovation) - London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Ltd
- EFB Award for Best Public Sector (Overall) - London Borough of Lambeth (Highly commended: Hertfordshire Constabulary)
- EFB Award for Best Public Sector (Innovation) - West Midlands Police
- EFB Award for Best Private Sector (Overall) - Sodexo UK & Ireland
- EFB Award for Best Private Sector (Innovation) - National Grid
- EFA & EFB Best Small Organisation (under 1,000 employees) - Core Assets Group
Other presenters at the event, which was hosted at Clifford Chance in Canary Wharf, included Jonathan Rees, Director General of the Government Equalities Office, Philip Colligan, Executive Director for the Public Services Innovation Lab at NESTA, Michael Smyth, Partner and Head of Public Policy at Clifford Chance and Denise Keating, CEO, EFA/EFB.
Rachel Krys, Campaign Director at the Employers Forum on Age, commented: "The awards recognise the achievements of organisations that have taken a lead in challenging discrimination. It gives them the opportunity to share pioneering ways in which they have tackled prejudice and overturned outdated practices in the workplace. In addition, the event is a great way to celebrate their success as well as encourage other companies to follow their lead."
More information on the winners:
EFA Award for Best Public Sector - Overall
Winner: Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS)
BIS shows a commitment to lifelong learning in its apprenticeship scheme, fast stream leadership and management courses. The apprenticeship scheme is open to all staff across the UK, providing they don't have a degree. The fast stream programme, open to all ages, offers an accelerated training and development programme for people who have the potential to become the future leaders of the Civil Service.
EFA Award for Best Public Sector - Innovation
Winner: Kent County Council
The Kent County Council Community Safety Unit is responsible for Community Wardens who are a uniformed presence on the streets. The unit promotes community cohesion and deals with low level crime, anti-social behaviour and quality of life issues. Its work with young people has seen amazing results in difficult social areas. It was successful in a ‘Jobs for the Future Bid' and took on 30 young people from deprived areas who have been out of work for a year or more.
EFA Award for Best Private Sector - Overall
Winner: Centrica
Centrica's diversity strategy continues to build. Its Age Action Group continually reviews practices to ensure it is ‘age friendly'. It is also committed to being as flexible as it can be especially when it comes to carers and when it comes to health and wellbeing of staff, Centrica has a WorkingWell programme to encourage self-management and has implemented an engineer's wellbeing programme.
EFA Award for Best Private Sector - Innovation
Winner: London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Ltd
LOCOG's ‘>attitude over age' programme was launched in March 2009 with a clearly defined vision to increase the proportion of older and younger people. To achieve set targets it has four main work streams: a Get Ahead School Leaver Programme, Work Placements, Trailblazers Programme - a volunteering programme - and a Buddy System designed to encourage older and younger members of staff to interact.
EFB Award for Best Public Sector - Overall
Winner: London Borough of Lambeth
Lambeth doubled its efforts in 2009/10 to make a step-change in meeting the needs of the community and workforce. As a result it has successfully completed the council's first Single Equality Scheme. It has achieved the difficult task of staff engagement with senior management in their Equalities Exchange programme involving live debates, with the Chief Executive, on religion or belief. Community sensitive communications training has seen ‘Islam awareness' training with emphasis on appropriate and sensitive use of imagery in publications.
Highly commended: Hertfordshire Constabulary
Hertfordshire Constabulary's chaplaincy service has historically consisted of chaplains from the Christian Faith. In 2009, the constabulary recognised that there was a significant need to diversify the chaplaincy profile to include a wider range of Faiths, Religions and Beliefs. Initially two people from the Pagan community were recruited by the constabulary as chaplains, the very first Pagan police chaplains within the UK. They then went on to support the set up of a National Pagan Police Association and their work continues on providing chaplains of different faiths including humanist.
EFB Award for Best Public Sector - Innovation
Winner: West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police has a number of faith networks in order to make the Force a more inclusive service-provider. The Faith/Belief Group has been running since 2007 and its key achievements include creating a religion and belief policy, flexing bank holidays provision, quiet room guidance, a faith requirements for people in custody policy, a consultation forum for their combined equality scheme and uniform advice. They also actively share best practice with other Forces.
EFB Award for Best Private Sector - Overall
Winner: Sodexo UK & Ireland
In December 2009 as part of its new diversity and inclusion communication strategy Sodexo UK & Ireland embarked on raising awareness of religion and belief through the launch of a series of Inclusion Fact Sheets e.g. December festivals, Ramadan, Easter. As a result of efforts to raise awareness of religion and belief in the workplace, a major client was able to successfully make accommodations for a number of Sikh staff potentially affected by a ‘bare below the elbows' policy, because they wear the Kara bracelet.
EFB Award for Best Private Sector - Innovation
Winner: National Grid
Through 2008 the Islam@Work network, part of Faith@Work (faith employee resource group) gave a number of presentations aimed at raising awareness and understanding of Islam. It became apparent that a lot of people wanted to understand the recent terrorist acts in the UK and abroad and the ongoing wars and conflicts around the world, particularly where Islam was being referenced. The diversity team along with the Group Director of Security produced documentation on this subject and then a Q&A Session, entitled: Faith & Security: Perception vs Reality.
EFA & EFB Best Small Organisation (under 1,000 employees)
Winner: Core Assets Group
Core Assets Group has a commitment to lifelong learning that reaches beyond its staff group - it has professionally supported the 3,999 foster carers it works with, 52% of whom are between the ages of 46-60 and 10% over 61. Support is also offered to the children and young people that are in care by giving them the opportunity of a work placement. "360 Diversity" was launched in 2009 which is an online virtual networking forum that contains information to support and educate staff on diversity. The forum improves communication and provides social learning opportunities.
The award winners brochure is available here: http://www.efa.org.uk/data/files/Awards2010/efa_efb_awards_2010_brochure.pdf
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NOTES
The judges were:
- Mike Berry, Deputy Editor, Personnel Today
- James Davies, Partner, Lewis Silkin
- Rebecca Mayo, Joint Managing Director, Lansons Communications
- Chris Sherwood, Senior Lab Development Manager, NESTA
- Fiona Triller, Equality & Diversity Adviser, Education Leeds
- Dianah Worman, Diversity Adviser, CIPD
For more information, please contact:
Chantal Heckford, Lansons Communications,
chantalh@lansons.com 0207 294 3630
Victoria Murray, Lansons Communications
victoriam@lansons.com 0207 566 9708
Rachel Krys, EFA
rachel.krys@efa.org.uk 07799 625 233