No longer a minority pursuit - monitoring the workforce

Employers have been quick to take on board new guidance on how to monitor the ethnic origin of their staff. But they appear less certain about how to deal with religious beliefs and sexual orientation, according to research launched today (28 May 2004).

IRS Employment Review, published by LexisNexis UK, conducted the survey to look at how and why organisations use diversity monitoring and whether they have got to grips with the new areas of potentially unlawful discrimination.

Eight in 10 (81%) respondent organisations monitor their workforce in some way; 77% of respondents monitor ethnicity while 73% monitor gender. The next most commonly monitored characteristics are disability (62%) and age (60%). Marital status is monitored by fewer than two in 10 employers (17%).

By far the least monitored workforce characteristics were those covered by new areas of discrimination law after December 2003: religion/belief is monitored by less than one organisation in 10 (9.3%), and just 4% of employers monitor sexual orientation.

This research, conducted in early 2004, is based on a survey of 75 HR departments. The results are available in the new issue (800) of IRS Employment Review (www.irsemploymentreview.com).
Other key findings include:

-56% of respondents had used the data as the basis of reports to their own boards or as a basis for public reporting - most frequently in the public sector.

-Almost half the respondents (49.3%) had used the data in a review of their equal opportunities policies.

-10.6% of organisations had used their monitoring data as part of their defence against an employment tribunal claim, while four (5.3%) had used the data to deal with internal grievances.

-5.3% of organisations claimed to have made no use whatever of their monitoring data in the past two years.

What do employers monitor? Ranked in order:

- Recruitment applications - 64%
- Selection: acceptances/appointments 57.3%
- Selection: job offers: 44%
- Selection: shortlists: 41.3%
- Resignations: 33.3%
- Grievances: 24.3%
- Dismissals: 30.6%
- Disciplinary procedures - 30.6%
- Access to training: 28%
- Promotion decisions: 22.6%
- Appraisal decisions: 21.3%
- Pay decisions: 12.1%
- Job evaluation decisions: 13.3%

-22.6% of organisations reported they had changed their monitoring categories in the past two years. Most had done so to bring their practices into line with advice on monitoring ethnic origin issued by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Commission for Racial Equality.

-26.6% of respondents predict changes to monitoring categories in the next two years.

-Almost half of the respondents (49.3%) reported that monitoring was the responsibility of the HR department rather than of any one individual.

-13% of organisations said that a named person in HR was responsible for monitoring, while 6.66% had an equalities officer or manager. In 4% of organisations, a board member took the lead on monitoring, while in less than 3% of organisations (2.6%) it fell to a senior manager below board level.


IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail said:

ìIt is clear that employers are struggling to get to grips with new areas of employment discrimination law. In 2007, they will also have to cope with the potential minefield of a ban on age discrimination. So there are compelling reasons for human resource managers to go back to their policy documents, employee handbooks and contracts of employment to ensure that they are thoroughly future-proofed.

ìThe campaigning organisation, Stonewall estimates that by 2011, only 18% of the UK workforce will be white, male, able bodied, under 35 and heterosexual. Public sectors employers are legally obliged to monitor their workforce but private sector organisations can choose. By monitoring the characteristics of potential, current and departing employees, organisations can get a clear picture of the make-up of their workforce and identify problem areas where particular groups appear to do less well and may be facing unlawful discrimination.î