Equal Opportunities Statement
Oatmeal operates a Single Equality Policy. Oatmeal serves a diverse society. That is a society made up of men and women; of people of different races, cultures and religions; of people with and without disabilities; of young people and older people; of straight and gay people; of people with and without caring responsibilities; and of people with many other differences. We recognise, respect and value that diversity and will strive in all we do to serve the interests of people from all sections of society. We will also strive to become an organisation that reflects more fully the diversity of the society we serve and truly values the contributions which employees from all sections of society make to our work.
In particular we will:
in the development of our policies, take account of the interests of all sections of society;
· ensure that wherever possible the services we provide meet the needs and expectations of all our service-users; and seek to influence others with whom we work, or from whom we purchase goods and services, to share our commitment to valuing the diversity of our society.
We will, to meet our business objectives:
· provide real equality of opportunity in the recruitment, development and promotion of all our employees irrespective of; race, nationality, colour, ethnic or national origins, religion, sex, marital status, disability, AIDS/HIV positive status, sexual orientation, age, gender reassignment, work pattern, membership or non-membership of a Trade Union and/or Corporate Staff Network or any reason which is irrelevant to the employee's ability to do the job;
· eliminate unfair discrimination and harassment in our workplaces;
· extend family friendly working practices;
· develop all our employees to their maximum potential and make the best use of their different talents;
· offer positive action training and development, where appropriate, for employees from under represented groups; and consult employees, including employees from minority groups, about how we can improve equality of opportunity and support diversity.
We will set ourselves goals with measurable outcomes to assess our progress towards becoming a diverse organisation providing excellent service to all sections of society. We hold ourselves accountable for their achievement.
1 Policy
1.1 Aims
Oatmeal serves a diverse society.
That is a society made up of men and women; people of different ethnicity, cultures and religions; people with and without disabilities; young and older people; heterosexual and gay people; people with and without caring responsibilities; and people with many other differences. Oatmeal has a clear commitment to equality and diversity and freedom from discrimination in all its services including employment. Through this policy, we will actively promote Oatmeal's commitment to equality of opportunity and developing a culture of diversity. It is congruent with Oatmeal's equality and diversity statement.
1.2 Scope
This policy applies to you, if you work for Oatmeal on a permanent or temporary basis, including if you are someone for whom Oatmeal bears a personnel responsibility. This includes all job applicants, contractors, consultants, agency staff, and any other staff or person acting on behalf of Oatmeal who is concerned with the employment or engagement, or potential employment or engagement, of such persons.
In this policy:
· 'we' means the employer (Oatmeal)
· 'you' means the member of staff
· 'your manager' means the member of staff's line manager
1.3 Guiding principles
This policy is based on the following principles:
· A commitment to providing equality of opportunity to you, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, transgender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, caring responsibility, working pattern, AIDS / HIV positive status, membership or non-membership of a trade union and/or corporate staff network or any reason which is irrelevant to your ability to do the job.
· Established practices to eradicate unacceptable behaviour, such as harassment, bullying, victimisation, unwanted verbal and non-verbal contact.
· Zero tolerance: Discriminatory behaviour plays no part in our working culture or practices and will not be tolerated. Our equality and diversity policy requires you to guard against discriminatory behaviour. No one is to receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of their ethnicity, gender, transgender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, caring responsibility, or working patterns, or disadvantaged by any conditions, requirements, provisions, criteria or practices that cannot be justified.
· All HR policies and procedures have been written to reflect Oatmeal's statutory responsibilities on equality and diversity.
· Recruitment and selection procedures will recognise the need for equality of opportunity and ensure efficient, effective, and fair practices. Appointments will be objective and made on merit. Selection for redundancy and / or redeployment will be conducted using fair selection criteria.
· Opportunities for promotion and transfer will be advertised widely internally. You are welcome to make an application, irrespective of your ethnicity, gender, transgender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion or belief, marital / civil partnership status, caring responsibility, or working pattern.
· You will be encouraged to develop your skills and qualifications and take advantage of promotion and development opportunities in Oatmeal.
· Jobs are designed to recognise flexible working practices. Unless there is clear and exceptional justification, all jobs are open for jobsharing and / or being performed through reduced working hours. We are committed to gender equality at work.
· Our learning and development programmes, both internal and external, are designed to support our equality and diversity policy. Additionally, the criteria for selecting staff for training opportunities is based upon your development needs and potential, the business' needs, and course availability.
· We are committed to developing a culture of diversity. This is supported by compulsory diversity awareness training, which is provided to you and all staff. You will clearly understand what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable conduct in Oatmeal.
· Oatmeal's performance management system ensures you are appraised regularly. Its supports career development and training opportunities, and is monitored to guard against discriminatory practices.
· We will recognise and reward your success. Any reward mechanism will be tested to ensure that we guard against discriminatory practices.
· In order for Oatmeal to measure the effectiveness of its equality and diversity policy, and to ensure that you are treated fairly, Human Resources will monitor recruitment, selection, career development, performance management, and performance-related pay. Further to Cabinet Office recommendations, this monitoring will apply to ethnic origin (which is also a specific duty under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act), disability (by self-classification), gender, working pattern and age. The information is held in strict confidence. Oatmeal subscribes to a code of practice on ethnic origin and disability monitoring , which ensures the monitored data that is captured, for ethnic origin and disability, remains confidential. The information will be used in statistical form to demonstrate changes in the composition of the various grades. Statistics are monitored at regular intervals. A report on progress is produced quarterly, for monitoring purposes only, the findings of which are used to promote equality and diversity and prevent any unlawful discrimination. This policy will be communicated to all staff and new recruits on taking up post. Job applicants will receive details on request. It will be placed in Oatmeal's offices and web site, and will be made available in other formats e.g., in large print.
1.4 Responsibilities
Individual - 'you': You are liable for your actions, and must recognise and accept individual responsibility for equality and diversity within Oatmeal, and ensure that your actions and words demonstrate and deliver dignity and respect to all.
Managers - 'your manager': As a manager you have the additional responsibility to ensure that acts of discrimination or poor equality and diversity practice are not allowed. You will ensure that equality and diversity practices are upheld in your area and ensure fairness and objectivity in selecting, managing and developing your staff.
Trade unions: Trade unions offer their members individual representation; will protect their members' professional interests; ensure members work for good pay and conditions; will speak out on behalf of their members; will defend and support their members i.e. when people feel they have been unfairly treated by their employer and; provide benefits and services to members.
Human Resources: Human Resources is responsible for Oatmeal's equality and diversity policy. It establishes mechanisms to ensure that Oatmeal's statutory employment responsibilities under the Race Equality Scheme are met e.g. collation of monitoring data. It will develop and review annually the 'people' aspects of Oatmeal's equality and diversity
action plan. They also ensure if you are a member of staff with a disability you are provided with additional equipment and support under the 'Access to Work Scheme'.
1.5 Related policies and procedures
We are committed to equality and diversity through our policies and procedures, which reflect Oatmeal's commitment to equality and diversity. We follow the recommendations of statutory codes of practice in employment, and build on the statutory obligations under national and European law. All of Oatmeal's Human Resources policies underpin and
support equality and diversity. What we constitute as acceptable and unacceptable conduct, is detailed in Oatmeal's conduct policy. Breach of the equality and diversity policy will be dealt with as a disciplinary matter, in line with Oatmeal's discipline policy. As a member of staff, if you feel that you have not been treated in accordance with our equality and diversity policy, you have a right to register a complaint under the equality and diversity grievance procedure (grievance policy).
2 Guidance and procedures
Our equality and diversity policy underpins all of Oatmeal's HR policies, procedures, and practices. The first part of this guidance and procedures offers a summary of our equality and diversity commitments related to recruitment and selection, and learning and development. The latter part details information related to Oatmeal's corporate staff networks, Corporate Board diversity champions, useful diversity contacts, and the code of practice on ethnic origin and disability monitoring.
2.1 Recruitment and selection
All stages of a recruitment and selection campaign will be conducted in
accordance with Oatmeal procedures. Please see recruitment policy, responsibilities section. All those concerned with recruitment and selection will receive training in interviewing skills and equality and diversity. Managers must ensure that eligibility and selection criteria are job-related and that no part of a campaign is discriminatory either to an individual applicant or to a particular group of candidates. All applicants declaring a disability will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the minimum criteria for the job, or pass a short answer test where applicable. If as an applicant, you believe that you have been discriminated against at interview, you must notify the Director of Human Resources. This will be taken into account before deciding whether to confirm the results from the interview.
Advertisements
All advertisements will contain our equality and diversity statement and the disability symbol. In all areas of advertising, care will be taken to ensure that nothing is written or illustrated which might be interpreted as reflecting any form of discrimination. Advertisements will be placed to reach a wide readership. Where appropriate, particular emphasis will be placed on encouraging applications from those who are under-represented in the workforce. All advertisements, both internal and external, must be approved by Human Resources before use.
Job design
As vacancies arise, or through organisational change, the requirements of individual jobs will be designed / redesigned to ensure non-essential and potentially discriminatory criteria are not included and/or are removed.
Unless there is a clear and exceptional business reason, all jobs are open to job-sharing and/or being performed through reduced working hours.
2.2 Learning and development
You will attend a compulsory diversity awareness training course. Your manager has a responsibility to ensure that you are encouraged to attend further appropriate Equality and diversity training and awareness events. Stereotyping, prejudice or any other form of unfair discrimination will not be accepted on any internal courses. Every effort is made to select external courses that meet the Oatmeal standards.
2.4 Diversity champions
We will appoint, and provide access to, senior managers who will act as
champions for staff of minority ethnic origin, staff with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered staff, and staff with caring responsibilities (respectively). The champions will (for their respective areas) champion the interests of employees at the highest levels of departmental decision-making.
Champions: John Davies, Carol Hill
Address 4 Park Drive, Uplands, Swansea, SA2 0PP
Employees wishing to contact a champion should either:
· send a letter (marking their letter "Personal" if they wish); or
· send an email to the preferred champion
2.5 Code of practice on ethnic origin and disability monitoring
1. This code of practice applies to all staff of Oatmeal.
Aim
2. The aim of this code of practice is to ensure that individuals have a right to confidentiality in the use and distribution of ethnic origin and disability information held by Oatmeal.
The principles of the code
Confidentiality
Information collected about the ethnic origins and disability of staff and prospective staff will always be treated in a confidential manner. Data will only be used for the purpose of monitoring the effectiveness of Oatmeal's equality and diversity policy. Apart from the exceptions
outlined in paragraph 10, the data will not be made available to any other
body. The information will only be produced in the form of statistical summaries and any data which identifies an individual, will not be disclosed without their permission. Where information is held on computer or other departmental filing systems, its access and use is also covered by the Data Protection Acts. .
Access
Access to ethnic origin and disability data will be limited by this code. Requests for information can only be made to the director of HR. Only designated persons in Oatmeal will have access to ethnic origin and disability data. These are listed in paragraph 11 and will apply whether the information is held electronically or in hard copy.
Monitoring
5. There are various sources of monitoring information including; recruitment exercises; and vacancy filling. Regardless of the source of the information used for monitoring purposes, the method of collection and use of the data will fall within this code of practice, thereby preventing its misuse.
Confidentiality processes
6. Confidentiality starts as soon as an individual completes an ethnic origin or disability questionnaire. An envelope marked "Restricted - Staff" will be provided in which employees should return the questionnaire to HR. The questionnaire will not be copied and when the information from it has been input and validated it will be destroyed.
7. When Oatmeal undertake external recruitment monitoring, the dedicated nominee will handle the questionnaires they receive. The questionnaires will be kept separately from any other personnel records and when not in use will be kept locked away until they can be destroyed. Where external consultants are used in the recruitment process, they will follow Oatmeal's policy.
8. This information will be subject to strict security measures with access restricted to those post-holders identified in paragraph 11.
9. Any outputs where ethnic origin and disability information is associated with a means of identifying an individual will be handled only by post-holders listed in paragraph 11.
10. Subject to the exceptions listed below, Oatmeal will never print out the ethnic origin or disability of an individual set alongside his or her name, pay reference number, national insurance number or any other information which could identify an individual. The exceptions are to:
a. inform individuals of the record of their ethnic origin or disability;
b. inform another department of the ethnic origin or disability of a member
of staff who has transferred to them. (In which case the document conveying the information will be destroyed once the ethnic origin or disability is recorded on the computer system of the receiving department);
c. enable Oatmeal to confirm the accuracy of data held on the system;
d. enable Oatmeal to monitor the implementation of the policy (for example, by establishing the reasons behind statistical imbalances in job selection rates or performance marks of staff in a particular ethnic group, or staff with disabilities). Where this involves the use of external consultants, they will be similarly covered;
f. supply statistical information relating to, employment tribunals or enquiries from statutory bodies;
h. enable the learning and development teams to update the information on the computerised record in order to monitor applicants for training and those who receive training by ethnic origin or disability;
i. enable the Local Disability Adviser (LdA) and Oatmeal to meet the special needs of employees who have indicated that they consider themselves to have a disability.
Access to ethnic origin and disability data
11. Access to ethnic origin and disability data held on Oatmeal's computer systems will be strictly limited to personnel with overall responsibility for, or directly concerned with, the input and output of data as follows:
· Administration employees
· Directors
12. Any amendments to the code of practice will be made in agreement with the employees in line with legislation change and best practice.
