Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for HRA staff: looking back and planning forwards

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Looking back: 2020-2023 EDI strategy reflections

In 2020, we set out to deliver our first EDI strategy. We wanted to:

increase workforce diversity across all levels of the organisation: in particular, we wanted to see more equitable representation of ethnic minority staff in senior roles
increase disclosure of certain protected characteristics: we wanted to see fewer people feeling unsafe or unsure about disclosing their identity
improve the staff experience: we wanted the results from our staff survey to indicate an increased sense of inclusivity and opportunity

We took an organisational development approach to delivering these objectives, focussing on the habits, conversations and conditions needed to bring about change.

We chose to:

challenge our thinking and habits to help us identify and address systemic inequities and develop new habits to support fairness, opportunity and belonging
create a culture of open conversations about subjects which can feel sensitive, uncomfortable or unfamiliar, with resources to guide and inform
create the right conditions for new habits and conversations to thrive, through a strong foundation of policy, guidance, training and coaching

This meant that we adopted an embedded approach to provide managers with the resources and confidence to work inclusively. The work to support EDI happens across the whole organisation; the dedicated EDI resource is a support function that:

uses data to identify areas for improvement and monitor progress
brings specialist knowledge to effect change in identified areas
coaches and trains managers
joins dots, plugs gaps and increases visibility

New habits

Aligned with year one of our People Strategy, we committed to integrating equality considerations into policy and project design. We introduced an Equality Impact Assessment tool, meaning that no policy or project is signed off without having considered any positive or negative impact on equality, and how to support or mitigate that impact.

We designed a project to improve fairness and inclusion in recruitment, resulting in new policies, guidance and training which has all been designed to make it easier to be inclusive by default.

We continue to develop a supportive infrastructure to make sure that our staff-led interest groups can thrive and maintain a strategic voice within the organisation.

We have established cohesive, transparent reporting to help us monitor progress against benchmarks and measure success.

New conversations

Aligned with the People Strategy ambition to build organisational confidence to have inclusive conversations, we have delivered an ongoing programme to support dialogue:

peer to peer
between managers and employees
between the HRA and external audiences
between subject matter experts and our staff community, including leadership

These conversations allow us to understand and support diversity in the workplace, whether that’s reasonable adjustments for neurodivergent colleagues, understanding for colleagues experiencing menopause symptoms, or making sure trans colleagues have a positive experience with us.

The right conditions

Creating the right conditions means making sure that some of the less tangible work is meaningful, supported, and linked with organisational culture and standards. This is all about making it easy to be inclusive, in a way that’s systematised and sustainable. For example:

We held a Let’s Talk About Disability session, but that was just the visible tip of a wider programme of change, which included:

a newly ringfenced central budget for reasonable adjustments
a clear procurement process
case studies to help managers and employees apply ‘reasonableness’
an updated Disability Leave policy
the launch of our Health and Accessibility Passport
achieving Disability Confident Leader status

We held a Trans Awareness session. To support this, we launched a Trans Equality policy statement and guidance for trans staff and their managers.

We held a Let’s Talk About Race session. We backed that up with a Stepping into Leadership programme for ethnic minority colleagues and an overhaul of our recruitment processes to mitigate bias in our processes.

We developed a shared set of respect principles and we backed that up with a Dignity and Respect policy with clear resolution pathways, both formal and informal, and a respect video to be used in staff and membership induction.

We held a Let’s Talk About Allyship session during Pride month. We backed this up with launching NHS rainbow badges and lanyards for staff who have committed to being active LGBTQ+ allies.

These are just a few examples of how the more visible work sits within a wider organisational development model to achieve lasting change.

Progress so far

Against the ambitions we set for ourselves, we have:

improved representation in most areas: although ethnic minority representation in 2023 is the same as in 2020 (17%). We’ve seen a three-fold increase in ethnic minority staff at Band 7 and above, and at Band 6, male representation has almost doubled, from 10% to 18%. The gender pay gap has narrowed year on year during the lifespan of the strategy
improved disclosure in all areas: this is better described as reducing the proportion of people choosing not to disclose their identities. Sexual orientation non-disclosure is down from 15% to 10%, non-disclosure of religion or belief is down from 27% to 20%, disability non-disclosures are down from 7% to 5%, and non-disclosure of ethnic minority groups is down from 5.5% to 4%
improved the staff experience in targeted areas: following particularly low satisfaction from disabled staff, we delivered a programme of improvements over two years. We saw uplifts in disabled staff satisfaction on six key staff survey inclusivity measures

Against the Staff Survey measures reported in the 2020 strategy, while we can see improvements across the board in 2023, scores have dipped since 2022. This is the case across most of the survey this year and EDI measures are no exception. A wider action plan is in place to address this. The 2023 results showed that:

80% of staff agree the HRA is an inclusive place to work (82% in 2022), compared with 76% in 2020. Just 4% disagree, compared with 7% in 2020
69% of staff feel the HRA offers opportunities to staff regardless of their background (75% in 2022), compared with 67% in 2020. Only 60% of staff from a minority ethnic background agree, compared with 57% in 2020
57% agree the diversity of HRA staff reflects that of wider society (62% in 2022), compared with 55% in 2020. 16% disagreed, compared with 21% in 2020
79% are aware of the Disability Leave policy, compared with 75% in 2020. 44% of those reported having used it to manage their or their staff’s disability, compared with just 11% in 2020
7% of staff said they had experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from customers or the public in the last 12 months, which is the same as in 2020. 11% of staff said they had experienced it from other staff in the last 12 months, up from 7% in 2020
3% of staff reported personally experiencing discrimination at work from their manager or team leader, and 5% reported experiencing discrimination from other colleagues – both the same as 2020

Planning forwards: priorities for 2023 to 2025

The priorities for the next 24 months have been developed:

to support the overall vision of our People Strategy
to build on our strategic commitments for a diverse and thriving workforce
with reference to internal and external data insights
with a focus on removing barriers to work for people at any age and career stage; in particular to support the over-50s, parents of young children and those with long-term health conditions to return or remain in the labour market as a HRA employee

People Strategy vision

A diverse and inclusive organisation where everyone is supported to be their best, is valued, and is proud to be part of the team.

The HRA will become even more inclusive and attractive for potential employees. We will be known as an organisation that lives its values, where staff are supported and empowered to make their best contributions, and where everyone works together to achieve our strategic aims.

EDI strategic commitments for a diverse and thriving workforce

EDI work is all about helping organisations to do what they do best, by making sure we are meeting the needs, expectations and potential of a wide talent pool. To do this well, we:

address inequalities in our systems, policies and practices
develop a diverse workforce
make sure development opportunities are equally available to all
maintain a culture where employees feel respected and valued for their contributions and their differences
enable all employees to meaningfully participate in the life and evolution of the organisation
make sure that all staff are aware of their rights and responsibilities regarding equality and respect
listen to lived experiences, to help us understand what will make a felt difference
ensure the highest standards of transparency in the exercising of our Public Sector Equality Duty

Continue, build, innovate: our model for next steps

Achieving meaningful change requires ongoing work to make sure initiatives don’t take place in isolation or solely at a fixed point in time, which will pass and be forgotten. Our new set of priorities give equal time and resources to continuing and building on current work, as well as new areas for development.

Image of a three part pie chart, the parts are labelled continue, innovate and build.

We will continue:

rigorously identifying and addressing inequalities in our policies and projects through equality impact analysis
monitoring data to identify priorities and measure progress, using demographic data, recruitment data, staff survey results and external benchmarking
marking dates on the diversity calendar, amplifying voices of lived experience alongside corporate communications which make clear the value of learning from and about each other in order to better serve our communities
delivering advice and guidance to colleagues across the organisation, whether mediation and arbitration on issues relating to equality and dignity, or strategic consultancy on embedding EDI considerations across our wider community and services

We will build on:

fairness and inclusion in HRA recruitment, making sure that the evidence-based policy changes are consistently embedded as standard practice, and further development support and guidance for candidates
respect at the HRA, embedding resources in staff and community induction and offering a suite of value-add learning opportunities
Disability Confident Leadership; continuing to refine our processes for getting reasonable adjustments agreed and in place swiftly
the ‘Let’s Talk’ programme of informal opportunities to learn about supporting people with different characteristics and experiences to thrive at work
the success of the Stepping Up development programme for ethnic minority colleagues
embedding LGBTQ+ inclusivity within our policies and practices
our internal EDI resource bank for employees and managers

We will innovate:

Support for all ages and stages

Our staff survey suggests a need to develop support and understanding for employees in the over-55 groups, as well as providing clearer development pathways for staff under 34. We want to make sure that we are supporting employees in early parenthood to feel part of the staff community, whether they are on parental leave, work part-time, flexibly or from home. We also want to make sure that they are informed about longer-term issues such as pension contributions and the gender pension gap. Later in life, almost a million women in the UK have left jobs because of menopausal symptoms. The nature of our workforce (71% female) means this is a key issue and we will continue to seek opportunities to make sure that we aren’t losing staff at the peak of their career due to menopause symptoms.

Accelerating race equality

Progress to achieve appropriate representation across all pay bands and fair progress through the recruitment cycle is too slow. We will create a task-and-finish group to explore creative and urgent responses to these issues, using the Racial Equity Maturity Model (Shereen Daniels) to structure our approach.

Supporting secondments

Career progression does not happen equally across all equality groups.

Secondments are a fantastic development opportunity to support career progression, however our staff have told us that they do not always benefit postholders as fully as they could. We want to harness their value as structured development opportunities by design rather than by chance, including how we help colleagues on secondment to ‘return well’ to their substantive roles.

The value of faith, religion and belief at work

Our staff survey shows that staff from minority faith groups are less satisfied and more likely to experience a lack of dignity and respect. Our recruitment pathway data shows that faith groups are less likely to be appointed than no faith / atheist counterparts. We want to understand and address these differences and, as an ethics-driven organisation, to harness the value brought by people who are accustomed to wrestling with ethical questions as they live out their faith.

Leading the way on Equality Act Specific Duties

Transparency leads to trust. We want to make it easy for people to see the full diversity picture at the HRA beyond top level demographic data. We commit to publishing band-by-band demographic breakdowns, the diversity of new appointments, and the diversity of our leavers.

EDI web presence which inspires and welcomes

As the HRA develops its public-facing web presence, we want prospective employees to see the HRA as somewhere they can belong, be valued and thrive.

Equality objectives

The above continue – build – innovate model outlines our proposed areas of focus for the next two years at least. The overarching ambitions are the same as any organisation which cares about including, representing and serving the rich diversity of the British public:

diversity across all levels of the organisation
fair recruitment outcomes
staff who feel included, valued and treated fairly
recognition of the HRA as place where anyone can belong and thrive

Within these ambitions, and the innovation themes outlined above, there are several areas of urgency which we highlight here as our equality objectives. We want:

to increase the relative likelihood of ethnic minority job applicants being appointed after interview. Our baseline is that white interviewees are, in 2023, 1.8 times more likely to be appointed than ethnic minority interviewees. We aim to get rid of the gap between ethnic minority and white applicants by 2028
the percentage of ethnic minority staff in Bands 8 and above to reflect the proportion of ethnic minority staff within the wider organisation, by 2025. In 2023, we have 14% ethnic minority staff in Bands 8 and above, compared with 17% across the whole organisation
to increase the proportion of men in Band 6 roles from a baseline of 18% in 2023 to 25% by 2027

Governance

The EDI work plan is agreed and monitored by the EDI steering group, which is made up of staff-led interest group leads, relevant heads of professional services and a Non-Executive Director from the HRA Board.

Members can share the plan with their staff-led interest groups, so that there is a shared understanding of how and when we plan to carry out the activities within it.

As a feature of the HRA People Strategy, the plan will also have oversight within the HRA People Group which governs workforce matters. Any challenges or issues with delivery can be escalated here for support and resolution.