Transparency data

UKEF voluntary reporting on disability, mental health and wellbeing 2020/21

Published 27 August 2021

1. Working at UK Export Finance

UK Export Finance’s (UKEF) mission is to ensure that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, while operating at no net cost to the taxpayer. Internally, we strive to have a highly engaged workforce and our commitment to the Disability Confident scheme sits comfortably with UKEF’s ambition to have a fully inclusive and diverse workforce.

As an organisation, UKEF is set to grow in order to offer increased support for UK exports. In 2017 when UKEF was awarded Disability Confident Leaders Status we had just over 300 employees and this is set to increase to over 500 employees in the next couple of years.

Promoting and supporting employee health, wellbeing and diversity in the workplace is central to UKEF’s operational plan and business growth. The Executive Committee openly acknowledge the importance of valuing everyone in the organisation and the need to build a strong, diverse and inclusive workforce where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their full potential.

This commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion and caring for the wellbeing of our existing and new staff is embraced in the five strands of our People Strategy which are all linked and flow from the employee lifecycle:

• Build
• Nurture
• Lead and Inspire
• Work Smart
• Value All

The narrative below highlights our journey towards becoming an even more diverse and inclusive workplace, focusing on actions taken since becoming Disability Confident.

2. Recruitment

Successfully recruiting and embedding an influx of new colleagues whilst we deliver our business and operational objectives is important. Our Recruitment Policy was updated in 2019. The policy reinforces our commitment to those with disabilities under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) offering all who meet the minimum criteria for the role a guaranteed interview and for all candidates the offer of reasonable adjustments regardless of whether they applied through GIS.

The updated policy also introduced a commitment to work experience and talent schemes including the Autism Exchange Programme. This is a 3-week programme to provide workplace exposure and up-skilling for young people on the autism spectrum. The programme started in 2019, with the receiving manager undertaking specialist training to enable them to fully support the young person while they were with UKEF.

The placement worked well with the young person obtaining much needed experience of a work environment, giving them the confidence, with the help of their manager on the programme, to apply for a university place. Following the success of this placement at UKEF the manager was subsequently awarded the Department for International Trade (DIT) Engaged and Inclusive Champion Award for 2020.

3. Data

We ask all employees to provide personal information on our HR Management Information system which employees can update as and when their situation may change. Information about an individual’s self-certified disability status is included on this system where an employee has the option to declare Not disabled, Disabled, or Prefer not to say. For those that are disabled there is a free text field for them to add further details about their disability.

For newcomers the importance of providing details of their disability status is made at induction and, throughout the year, reminders are put in the Staff Bulletin to encourage those who have not done so to complete this field. Approximately 26% of employees have not completed this field. However, as at November 2020 the number of employees who have declared a disability on the HR Management Information system stood at 3.8% going up from 2.3% 6 months earlier.

The annual Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) looks at civil servants’ attitudes to, and experience of, working in government departments, which also includes measures of mental health and wellbeing. Employees at UKEF are invited to complete this survey as part of the Civil Service group. In 2019 UKEF’s response rate was 86% with an employee engagement score 64%. Highlights from this survey relating to health and wellbeing are detailed below.

3.1 Wellbeing

The four subjective wellbeing questions in the CSPS are the same as those asked by the ONS in the Annual Population Survey as part of their Measuring National Wellbeing programme. These are:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? (0=not at all satisfied, 10=completely satisfied)
• Overall, to what extent do you think the things you do in your life are worthwhile? (0=not at all worthwhile, 10=completely worthwhile)
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? (0=not at all happy, 10=completely happy)
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? (0=not at all anxious, 10=completely anxious

In 2019 personal wellbeing as identified in the survey went up 5% from the previous year with 71% of employees reporting that they were satisfied with their life compared to 66% in the previous year.

3.2 PERMA index

This index measures the extent to which employees are ‘flourishing’ in the workplace around 5 dimensions: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (PERMA). The PERMA index score at UKEF was 73% in 2018 and 75% in 2019. This was 2% higher than the median score that year for the Civil Service as a whole.

3.3 Proxy Stress Index

Questions from the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Stress Management Standards are used in the annual CSPS to calculate a stress index score in the survey.

The higher the score the more challenging the workplace environment with, for example, higher workload, lower control over the way the work is done and poor support for managers. The stress index in UKEF has decreased slightly from 29% in 2018 to 28% in 2019. Both these scores are in alignment to the wider civil service ratings for those reporting years.

4. Supporting attendance

Our Managing Attendance policy was radically overhauled in 2019 with a new emphasis on employee wellbeing and supporting attendance at work. To reflect this new focus the title of the policy changed from Managing Attendance to Supporting Attendance.

The revised policy acknowledges that employees will sometimes be unwell and that managers have a pro-active role to play in supporting them and helping them, if they have gone off sick, to return to the workplace taking account of individual need.

The revised policy reinforces UKEF’s commitment to supporting people with a disability or long-term health condition. The focus of the policy is to help them to stay at work or return to work by removing disadvantages they may experience. This involves:

• acting early to identify help and support that might be needed
• a greater emphasis on the manager and employee working together to remove barriers to work to aid their return
• promoting a culture that supports the physical and mental health of employees, in which managers can hold productive conversations with employees to find the best ways to support them and make early interventions

The introduction of tools such as the Wellbeing Conversation template and the Workplace Adjustment Passport are central to this approach. In addition to reinforce UKEF’s ambition in the Supporting Attendance policy we signed up to the Mental Health at Work Commitment in March 2020. This commitment comprises 6 standards which are:

1. Prioritise mental health in the workplace by developing and delivering a systematic programme of activity
2. Proactively ensure work design and organisational culture drive positive mental health outcomes
3. Promote an open culture around mental health
4. Increase organisational confidence and capability
5. Provide mental health tools and support
6. Increase transparency and accountability through internal and external reporting

Signing up to this framework should build on our aims in the Supporting Attendance policy and help achieve better mental health outcomes for all our employees.

5. Workplace adjustments

To coincide with the launch of the Supporting Attendance Policy we also reviewed and updated our policy on workplace / reasonable adjustments to ensure that we provide quality and timely workplace adjustments to all who need them.

The aim of the Passport is to help employees with a disability or health condition to:

• support a conversation between them and their line manager about their disability or health and any workplace adjustments that might need to be made
• act as a record of that conversation and of the adjustments agreed
• act as a record of any adjustment made for them as supportive measures

The passport is owned by the individual and generally shared with their manager. Anecdotal feedback from those who have completed such a passport has been encouraging.

Employees feel it has given them permission to have an open dialogue with their manager and has given managers a better understanding of their employee’s needs.

6. HR policies and procedures

Since obtaining our Disability Confident Leaders status in 2017 as policies have been reviewed and updated the needs of disabled employees have been a key consideration.

For example, policies such as Probation, Performance Management, Grievance and Disciplinary, all stress the importance of making reasonable adjustments, for instance, when arranging meetings.

7. Continuous development

UKEF’s learning and development offer reinforces our commitment to foster an inclusive working environment. All staff have access to raising awareness courses on the diverse needs of colleagues including “Becoming Disability Confident”. Additionally, managers have access to “Disability Inclusive Management” which focuses on helping managers develop an inclusive management style and supportive working environment.

The Learning and Development team has ensured that learning remotely is accessible and easy to use for all and have produced useful guidance for presenters and those delivering learning, highlighting disability awareness. For example, from April 2020, our in-house developed content provides accurate transcripts and subtitles for training videos such as the Legal Awareness Programme.

8. Networks and support

UKEF offers support to all employees through an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). This includes practical help and advice on a range of issues including bereavement, coping with stress, change, depression and financial wellbeing. This can be accessed via their website and a confidential telephone counselling service which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

UKEF has also teamed up with Able Futures, who during the last 12 months have provided webinars and campaign materials together with advice and guidance to those individuals who have contacted them.
The last three years has seen a growth in voluntary staff networks within UKEF. These include:

8.1 Appropriate Behaviour Champions

The Appropriate Behaviour Champions (ABCs) were set up in 2018 and have been a critical part of UKEF armoury in stamping out bullying and harassment in the workplace: encouraging people to speak up when things are not right and supporting those who feel that they have been bullied, harassed or discriminated against.

8.2 Mental Health First Aiders

The Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) network was set up in 2019 after a group of employees attended training and obtained their MHFA certificates. This training taught them to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues and to provide help signposting colleagues towards support services.

These MHFAs have been instrumental in helping to create an environment which shows that UKEF is serious about supporting those with mental health issues. They have been involved in creating a workplace where employees are far more willing to come forward and speak about their condition and seek appropriate help.

This network together with the ABC network have helped to foster a much more open dialogue within the organisation concerning matters of health and wellbeing, and bullying, harassment and discrimination.

8.3 Staff network

Staff have access to DisNet, the Department for International Trade disabled employee network helping to raise awareness and offering support to those who have a disability or long-term health condition.

The network has a thriving membership and has a number of sub-groups to support staff with specific conditions such as neurodiversity and stammerers group. Interested employees at UKEF can participate in this network and have time off to attend meetings and events as appropriate.

9. Disability advocates

UKEF has recently set up a small team of Disability Advocates. These are people within the organisation who have volunteered to offer help and guidance to others in the workplace, if needed on a disability related matter which they have knowledge of either through having that disability themselves or caring for someone who has. They can for example help business areas with digital accessibility matters.

10. COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a dramatic increase in our health and wellbeing offering.

The Department has taken a very proactive role in supporting all employee cope with the pandemic, including:

• the effects of lockdown on mental and physical wellbeing
• elder and child care responsibilities
• working remotely

During lockdown every effort was made to ensure that employees working from home had all the equipment necessary to work effectively from day one, including any reasonable adjustments. Following the initial lockdown, employees, in consultation with their managers, have been allowed to work much more flexibly with options to continue working from home while there is a risk of infection or coming into the office if that is more conducive to their mental health and wellbeing.

Supporting Attendance and Leave policies have likewise been amended to include additional flexibilities during this time to support all staff affected by the pandemic. Alongside this the Manager’s Handbook has been revised to included advice about the new flexibilities and how to manage their staff in the current environment.

During the pandemic the Department’s mental health support to staff has increased substantially. Several courses and webinars have been run offering employee coping mechanism and advice and guidance to support them during this extraordinary period.

Our team of Mental Health First Aiders, and Appropriate Behaviour Champions have been on hand to offer assistance and signpost colleagues to appropriate sources of help such as Able Futures or the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

The Department has also increased the number of wellbeing and engagement activities with a Staff Social and Engagement Committee supporting the HR and Communications team in delivering this agenda.

The focus of the Committee has been to maintain engagement with all staff whether in the office or working remotely via the intranet.

This has proved extremely effective with colleagues across the organisation engaging in activities such as quarantine quizzes, radio style interviews with senior managers and the opportunity to ask questions, poster and photo competitions, and staff blogs and recommendations.

One unsolicited comment from an employee to the Director of Resources that was recently received was:

I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks for the work you and the HR Team have done to make UKEF a superb employer, particularly during the difficulties we’ve had this year.

It’s been really refreshing from day one when the recruitment and payroll teams ensured everything was accurate, to having wellbeing and mental health prioritised as a talking point. I can honestly say that not everywhere in Whitehall shares the same values…!

11. In conclusion

UKEF is fully committed to supporting employees’ wellbeing at all stages of their career.

In the 3 years since UKEF became a Disability Confident employer in 2017, the health and wellbeing and the needs of those with disabilities in the organisation has become more integrated into the thinking of managers, as UKEF strives to become a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Going forward, we will continue to break down stigma in the workplace associated with disability and poor mental health. We will continue to create an environment where employees feel confident to report disability and long-term health conditions.

We hope to achieve this by continuing to encourage employees to talk about their personal experiences at staff events, in webinars and via blogs and providing learning and development opportunities for all to help everyone understand the needs of their disabled colleagues.

We will also seek to ensure that data on disability status, mental health and wellbeing continue to underpin our People Strategy and inform our actions in the future.