Defence organisations top workplace equality lists
The British Army and the Royal Navy are among the top 10 UK public sector organisations for female employment, while both the MOD and the RAF are in the top 10 most ethnically diverse, a new study has found.
Tri-Service military personnel hold out a Union Flag to promote the Armed Forces' role in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games which took place this summer [Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Terry Seward, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]
The results of this year’s UK Business in the Community (BITC) gender and race diversity survey have revealed the public sector’s top 10 organisations for ethnicity and gender.
Taken from 67 entries across public and private sector organisations the results reflect the organisations who scored highest across comprehensive workplace metrics and case studies, inlcuding career progression, recruitment, supplier diversity and senior management and board representation.
Helen Wells, Director of Opportunity Now, the gender equality campaign within BITC, which has run the annual survey since 1998, said:
Inclusion [in the top 10] is the diversity standard all organisations will aspire to attain.
We are looking at organisations that have moved the dial in terms of women’s recruitment, retention and progression, and the same is true from an ethnicity point of view.
Some of the organisations may seem a bit of a surprise, but it is because they are doing an awful lot,” commented Ms Wells.
It is fairly obvious that some organisations have particular diversity challenges, that they tend to be a macho, male environment for instance, but I wasn’t surprised by any of these organisations being on this list because I work with them a lot.
Sometimes you can look from outside and make assumptions about what it feels like to be in that organisation, but a lot of organisations are trying to create cultures that really mainstream diversity.
Top 10 public sector organisations for gender (unranked):
• British Army
• Civil Nuclear Constabulary
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Genesis
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Home Office
• Leicestershire Police
• Ministry of Justice
• Ofcom
• Royal Navy.
Top 10 public sector organisations for ethnicity (unranked):
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Genesis
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Home Office
• Leicestershire Police
• Ministry of Defence
• Ministry of Justice
• National Audit Office
• Ofcom
• Royal Air Force.