Corporate report

Environment Agency: Equality Duty Objectives Targets 2020-2024

Published 8 April 2021

1. Fair and transparent practices

We aim to:

• remove barriers (and provide positive action support) for people from under-represented protected characteristics groups
• ensure employees treat each other fairly, equally and with respect

We will:

• set clear standards for behaviours, policies, positive action, projects, practices and workplace adjustments
• routinely carry out equality analysis on proposed employee policies, projects and programmes
• identify and remove barriers which prevent people joining the Environment Agency (EA), realising their full potential and progressing their careers
• analyse and report on attraction, selection and recruitment - identify fairness and reduce possible bias
• undertake pay gap analysis related to disability, gender, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation
• raise awareness of the appearance and impact of discrimination, bullying and harassment on employees

We will measure our progress by:

• seeing more equality analysis
• identifying managers involved in people decisions have taken part in unconscious bias awareness training
• increase in more diverse recruitment/assessment panels
• significantly increase the recruitment and workforce representation rates of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), female, disabled and LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) employees by 2024, including executive manager grades
• a decrease in the percentage of employees reporting in the EA Employee Survey that they have been bullied, harassed and/or been discriminated against

2. Diverse workforce

We aim to create and maintain a diverse workforce (including our board and executives) that better reflects the UK’s economically active population.

We will:

• encourage the completion of personal diversity information to raise declaration rates to facilitate the monitoring of diversity within the workforce
• analyse our career development and talent development programmes and, if appropriate, identify measures to improve the take up rates for employees from under-represented groups
• analyse the EA career progression rates to monitor representation and, where appropriate, improve coaching, mentoring and sponsorship opportunities for employees from under-represented groups

We will measure our progress by an increase in:

• positive declaration rates against the declaration targets for disability, race/ethnicity, religion/belief, and sexual orientation
• the number of successful talent programme applications from employees from under-represented groups, and in the number of permanent promotions gained
• the recruitment and workforce representation rates of BAME, female, disabled and LGBT+ employees by 2024, including in executive manager grades

3. Inclusive workplace culture

We aim to create a ‘life enhancing’ working environment that values and embraces difference. We will foster an inclusive workplace culture where colleagues from all backgrounds can bring their whole self to work, progress their career, and feel their uniqueness is valued.

We will:

• work closely with our employee networks and their executive manager ‘champions’ supporting their focus on the EDI issues which are important to our employees
• analyse EA performance ratings by protected characteristic groups to identify fairness and reduce possible bias and address any inconsistences
• maximise our use of apprentices from under-represented groups
• work with other large organisations to learn and improve from their experience and to share our good practice
• ensure that EA people policies reflect best practice on:
  • assistive technology
  • employee passports
  • engagement with EDI champions and employee networks
  • flexible working
  • inclusive and accessible meetings
  • positive action interventions
  • return from long-term absence
  • volunteering and workplace (‘reasonable’) adjustments

We will measure our progress by:

• executive managers actively demonstrating inclusive behaviours, regularly sharing examples and experiences about respect, equality, diversity and inclusion with those they lead and supporting the work of employee networks as friends and allies
• positive feedback from our employee networks and their champions
• achieving a positive change to EDI measured via the relevant scores in the Employee Survey
• an increase in managers taking part in positive action workplace support/adjustments interventions
• continuous improvement in external EDI benchmarking and indices such as the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index

4. Customer understanding

We will continue to better understand and relate to the diversity of those we provide services for. We will better understand the impact of our services on customers with a protected characteristic including identifying clearly those who need enhanced support, such as foreign language support.

We will:

• ensure that our external communication is inclusive of the diverse audiences we engage with, including ‘hard to reach’ groups
• ensure all our public consultations have considered equality, diversity and inclusion in their engagement strategy
• ensure our social media outputs are appropriately inclusive, fully representing the diverse range of customers we serve
• monitor and analyse EDI-related customer complaints

We will measure our progress by reporting:

• acknowledgements regarding the effectiveness of our inclusive communications and engagements
• EDI-related complaints
• customer satisfaction levels amongst specific protected characteristic groups

5. Customer service

We will continue to ensure that our Public Sector Equality Duty is reflected in appropriate EA proposals, policies, processes, projects, and programmes, and in procurement.

We will:

• routinely carry out equality analysis
• monitor proposals, policies, processes, projects, programmes, procurement and training interventions to ensure our Public Sector Equality Duty is reflected
• embed equality, diversity and inclusion in how we buy goods, works and services, and in the supplier we choose to use

We will measure our progress by:

• a decrease in the number of customer-related proposals, policies, programmes and projects introduced (or changed) without an equality analysis document attached
• an increase in the number of our key suppliers we have worked with to improve their approach to equality, diversity and inclusion

• reporting improvements in satisfaction levels amongst our diverse groups of customers and suppliers