Key achievements for 2022-23

Objective 1: Enaging with and understanding the diversity of our people and those we serve

• Increased staff diversity declarations from 92% in April 2022 to 94% in March 2023, whilst also reducing the number of employees who leave one or more fields blank by 10%.
• Organised staff network events using our coordinated ED&I calendar of events.
• Identified certain groups and demographics of the UK public that were less likely to have access to weather forecasts.
• Developed a dashboard to analyse our people survey by protected characteristic to support directorate action plans. This is also allowing us to see the impact of education and staff socio-economic backgrounds.
• Developed a dashboard to allow us to analyse the impact of our outreach activity and its links to our early careers’ recruitment.

 

Objective 2: Advancing equality of opportunity

• Improved the perception of Inclusion and Fair Treatment in our Asian or Asian British and Mixed or Multiple Ethnic staff groups in the 2022 people survey (our Black or Black British group gave us the maximum score).
• Shortlisted for a wellbeing award by National Highways.
• Joined Business Disability Forum, enabling us to access expert advice and support, 250 employees have accessed Business Disability Forum Knowledge Hub resources.
• Reviewed our Mindful Employer Charter and commenced assessment by Great Place to Work. 
• Improved our Science Progressions processes and re-energised our talent management approaches.

 

Objective 3: Increasing representation of under-represented groups at all levels

• Identified work opportunities with Civil Service for candidates with a disability or long-term health condition through the Summer Diversity Internships and Autism Exchange.
• Analysed our staff and recruitment data against the UK working age population and identifying subsequent actions based on the data running up to 2025.
• Worked with Business Disability Forum to improve policies.
• Raised staff awareness to digital accessibility.
• Continued to use our people stories to foster compassion, connection and understanding amongst our colleagues.

 

Objective 4: Zero tolerance to bullying, harassment, and discrimination

• Collaborated with our People Development team to identify the training needs of our Dignity and Respect at Work Advisors (DRaW) and staff network leads.
• Used Anti-Bullying Week to highlight the work of DRaW advisors and also promoted zero-tolerance to bullying, harassment and discrimination.
• Signed the Exeter Safety of Women at Night (SWaN) Charter.
• Worked with our Internationals Network to undertake a hate crime survey.
• Launched Say My Name project to promote respectful interactions around names.
• Launched a Building Respect Campaign to challenge inappropriate behaviours.