Our actions in this area contribute to eliminating unlawful discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations, and can relate to all protected characteristics.
External statutory reporting
We are required by statute to publish protected characteristic information, including on the gender pay gap, recruitment and the Civil Service People Survey.
Employee data is maintained in ORR’s HR system to ensure data creditability when submitting data returns and producing data analysis for internal and external stakeholders. New starters complete a new starter form, and we have now enabled employees to update and declare their information themselves via the HR system. External reports are published on gov.uk.
Review of People policies
People policies are kept under review to ensure they are fair, transparent and are effective in eliminating unlawful discrimination.
They are reviewed and updated in line with changes in legislation, case law or good practice. We may identify procedures that requires either a separate equality impact assessment or specialist support. Any changes updated and shared on the intranet and communicated to staff where relevant.
Recruitment and onboarding
We ensure our recruitment process is fair, transparent and meet the three aims of the general equality duty.
This is demonstrated through our approach to reasonable adjustment, selection, data from the pre-employment questionnaire, Occupational Health and use of a workforce adjustment passport. We will act on requests for reasonable adjustment and follow through with internal processes. We report on recruitment diversity data quarterly.
Organisational benchmarking
ORR has the Disability Confident Employer charter mark and a Bronze Award from Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion for embedding diversity and inclusion. These demonstrate to members of the public, stakeholders, potential job applicants and current employees that we go beyond our corporate obligations in meeting the three aims of the general equality duty outlined above in our recruitment, employment and support for employees. The criteria and action plans for the charter marks and awards help shape and influence the implementation of our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and other HR practices.
We receive reports and feedback from external stakeholders confirming that we are meeting the standards expected, enabling us to use the logo in all our internal and external branding.