Diversity and Inclusion at the Law Society: Building an inclusive organisation

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1 Diversity and Inclusion at the Law Society: Building an inclusive organisation Developing a diversity profile of the organisation 1. At the Law Society, we recognise that it is important to analyse workforce data on a periodic basis so that we have a more detailed understanding of the needs of our staff and the impact of our workplace policies, procedures and culture on staff. Collating and analysing diversity workforce data has given us a robust evidence base of any disparities between staff groups in the workforce which will now shape and inform future actions to eradicate those disparities. 2. In line with the Equality Act 2010, we have published this monitoring report outlining our workforce profile during the period 1 st January 2014 to 31 st December The performance data has been broken down by six equality strands and within each strand there is a further analysis across pay grades. The six strands covered are: Gender, ethnicity, disability, age, religion/faith and sexual orientation. The report covers all key stages of the employment cycle. Management information (as at 31 December 2014) indicates that there were 303 members of staff working in this organisation at that time. Gender Overall, there are more women (194) working at the Law Society than men (109). Women are over represented at all levels of the organisation, except between grades J - L where they account for just over one third of the population (13 women compared to 24 men). Please see the chart below: Page 1

2 Chart 1: Workforce profile broken down by gender and grade The difference between men and women at grades J to L was 30%. Ethnicity Currently, the majority of people working at the Law Society would define themselves as White ; this group of people comprises 70% of the total workforce. All those people defining themselves as originating from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic 1(BAME) background made up 24% of the overall workforce. 6% of respondents declined to state or did not specify their ethnicity. The majority of people from a BAME background are concentrated in the lower grades of the workforce with 3% of all those at grades J to L stating their origins as being Black or Asian. A further 3% of those define themselves as being of mixed heritage. 84% of all employees at those grades define themselves as White. 20% of employees at grades A to D define themselves as Black; a further 7% of staff at grades E to I define themselves as Black. Asian staff are more equally spread across the grade bands of A to D (16%) and E to I (10%). Disability Over three quarters of the workforce (78%) have stated that they do not have a disability. We do not have any data for a further 19% of the workforce, as the respondent has declined to state or have not specified. Therefore, there is a very small percentage of people who have declared that they have a disability: 3%. 1 The term, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic was established by the Greater London Authority as it was considered to be more inclusive and a more accurate reflection of the diversity of London. Page 2

3 Chart 2: Workforce profile broken down by disability and grade The chart above illustrates that the numbers of people stating that they do have a disability is consistently low across all of the grades. The numbers of people who have not specified their disability status increases steadily across the grades; and conversely, the numbers of people who have stated that they do not have a disability steadily decreases across the grades, with 57% of those at grades J to L stating that they do not have a disability. Age The data in Chart 3 below suggests that the largest group of people working at the Law Society fall into the years age bracket at 37% of the total population. 28% of the workforce are aged between 35 to 44 years and 20% are aged between 45 to 54 years of age. 10% of the workforce are aged between 55 to 64 years, and less than 1% are over 65 years old. 6% are aged between 16 to 24 years, with the majority of them concentrated in grades A to D. Page 3

4 Chart 3: Workforce profile broken down by age and pay bands Religion and belief The largest group of people working at the Law Society would define themselves as not subscribing to any faith or religious beliefs (37%), followed closely by those who describe themselves as Christian (33%). There is a gap in the data in respect of 17% of the population, who have not specified. Chart 4: Workforce profile broken down by religion and/or belief Page 4

5 Sexual orientation Current data suggests that 6% of the workforce would define themselves as being gay, lesbian or bisexual. Stonewall has suggested that public service providers should adopt 6% as the relevant benchmark. This benchmark has been derived from the Treasury Office and it is based on research undertaken by the Government department. Of the 37 people employed at grades J - L, 19% have defined themselves as being gay or lesbian. 4% of Grade E - I have described themselves as gay or lesbian or bisexual, with this figure reducing to 3% for Grade A - D employees. The percentage of employees who did not specify their sexual orientation increases in higher Grades, with 10% of Grade A - D employees not specifying, rising to 17% in Grade E - I, and 35% for Grade J - L. 4. Leavers - there have been 70 people leaving the organisation in the last year. Of these 70, the majority, 47, were women and 23 were men. The majority of leavers would define themselves as White (69%). The next largest group is of those who chose not to specify their ethnicity (11%). 49% of all leavers during this time fell into the 25 to 34 age bracket, followed by those aged (23%) and 45 to 54 (20%). Of the 70 people who have left the organisation, 3% of these were gay or lesbian. 5. New starters - there were 73 new starters over the last year. Of these 73 people, 44 were women and 29 were men. There were 8 people employed at grades J - L, only 1 of which was female. 21% of new starters were of BAME origins and 66% were White. 14% of individuals fall into the not specified or declined to state categories. 3% of the new starters described themselves as disabled, and 17% declined to state or did not specify. 42% of new starters fall into the age bracket. 22% were 35-44, followed closely by the age group (19%) and group (15%). The largest group of new starters did not subscribe to any religion (42%), followed by those who identified their religious background as Christian (33%). 15% chose not to specify. 7% of new starters identified themselves as being gay or lesbian. 15% did not specify sexual orientation, with this number increasing significantly in higher grades (38% of Grades J - L compared to 12-13% in Grade A - I starters). 6. Maternity - 14 women took maternity leave during the last year, the majority of which were concentrated in Grades E - I (8). 4 Grade A - D and 2 Grade J - L employees also took maternity leave. The majority (93%) of these women defined themselves as White, and the remaining 7% defined themselves as Asian. Page 5

6 50% of these women defined themselves as not subscribing to any religion, and 36% described themselves as Christian. 7% described themselves as Muslim and 7% did not specify. 7. Promotions - 23 people in total have been promoted during the last year. Of the 23 people, 17 were women and 6 were men. The majority of people promoted were White (65%). 17% were Black, and a further 13% were Asian. 4% of the people promoted would define themselves as disabled. Over half of those promoted fell within the age bracket (57%). The and groups both accounted for 17% each. 8. Flexible working - there were 9 applications for flexible working during this time, of which 8 were agreed as at the end of The majority (78%) of these applications were made by women. Over half of these people define themselves as White (67%), the remainder split equally between those who describe themselves as Asian or Black, or who declined to state (11% each). 9. Training employees attended training courses during % of attendees were women, and 27% were men. The data broadly reflects the demographic population in the workforce, although 64% of the employee population are women and 36% are men, indicating that in general, more women attended courses than men. Conclusion 10. At the Law Society, we regularly collate and analyse demographic data to monitor and track emerging patterns and trends. This information is reported to our senior managers and Board and Committee members on a systematic basis. 11. These reports are used to track patterns and trends so that we can develop an evidence base to inform any positive action initiatives we might wish to undertake in the future. Page 6