By law, all employers must take steps to prevent discrimination.
Discrimination remains a persistent challenge in the workplace and for those looking for jobs. A recent survey of 4,000 UK workers by Ciphr found that nearly half of people (45%) have experienced some form of discrimination at work. This alarming statistic underlines a need for employers to take positive steps to combat and prevent discrimination across the workplace.
Despite advancements in diversity and inclusion, many employees continue to face bias and unfair treatment based on their race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or other protected characteristics. Combatting discrimination is of the upmost importance for employers, given that, outside of the obvious legal risks and ethical issues that it poses, workplace discrimination often stifles innovation, hampers productivity, and, most pressing of all, erodes company culture.
Andrew Moore, Partner at international law firm, Addleshaw Goddard LLP, talks to us about the importance of preventing discrimination in the workplace and creating an inclusive environment for all.
Q: What are the most common forms of discrimination that are encountered in the workplace?
A: We see many claims of disability discrimination, as well as race, sex, age, and maternity discrimination. There's also been an increase in recent years of complaints and claims in respect of sexual harassment, especially since the #MeToo movement and people being far more conscious of harassing behaviours and being far more willing to come out and talk about it.
At the same time, we've seen an increase in internal discrimination investigations; again, perhaps partially driven by more people feeling willing and able to raise issues and concerns.
Q: What legal protections are in place to help prevent workplace discrimination?
A: The main one is the Equality Act 2010 which prohibits different types of actions against nine protected characteristics including age, race, sex, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment and marriage and civil partnership. Claims include direct or indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation, disability-related discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Some claims can be quite nuanced, as matters giving rise to indirect discrimination can be complicated as this involves acts, decisions, or policies which aren't intended to treat anyone less favourably, but which, in practice, have the effect of disadvantaging a group of people with a particular protected characteristic. For example, a requirement to work full time can have a disproportionate impact on women because they often have primary childcare responsibilities – which can be discriminatory.
The Act can covers a range of situations ranging from dismissal, terms of employment, pay and benefits, to training, recruitment, and redundancy.
Q: How can employers ensure they are compliant with anti-discrimination laws?
A: I think a lot of businesses focus on trying to make sure that there are policies, procedures and training in place, which absolutely is a crucial part of it.
But I'd say that the fundamental element is ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is embedded in the whole culture of the organisation. An effective DE&I strategy goes beyond legal compliance and adds real value to an organisation, contributing to employee wellbeing and engagement, as well as reducing the risk of claims. So, rather than seeing it as a tick box exercise that you need to do, it's about making sure that you understand what DE&I is and implementing inclusive practices that make a difference.
In doing this, you will also ensure your business is more productive. Studies show those companies that are the most diverse, especially at board level, tend to perform better. Training and understanding policies are absolutely fundamental, but people forget the initial part, which is making it part of your culture and making sure all those involved really buy into it.
Q: What role does company culture play in preventing workplace discrimination?
A: It is fundamental. An employer's culture needs to align to its true values, otherwise it risks being undermined.
The DE&I strategy needs to be genuine and embedded into every single thing that the employer does. And that's not just in recruitment processes, but also throughout the whole employment journey – monitoring compliance and application, ensuring that you're carrying out surveys, reviewing organisational practices and policies from an inclusion perspective, ensuring leaders champion inclusion and role model behaviour, and listening to your teams before acting.
Discrimination is less likely to happen in an organisation that recognises the benefits of an inclusive and diverse workforce.
Q: Can you provide examples of effective anti-discrimination policies and practices?
A: Where we see business with effective anti-discrimination policies and practices, it is largely assisted by them being drafted in a manner that employees can understand and engage with. They are not drafted as form of coercion to have employees conform to particular behaviours but rather demonstrating what the employer believes in, and why they believe in it – it’s all very positive.
It's also a good idea to review policies and procedures through a DE&I lens. Do your recruitment and promotion practices and policies actively encourage more diverse recruitment and promotion? How inclusive are your family-friendly and other employee policies or your salary and benefits practices when viewed from different standpoints?
For those businesses looking to understand more about how DE&I operates, engagement surveys are a must to then learn from what colleagues have to say and experience in the workplace. One of the fundamental elements is being transparent about your DE&I strategies and outlining clearly what you do. We’ve got a team internally at Addleshaw Goddard that concentrate heavily on ensuring our policies are relevant and appropriate. Employees are given a platform to share their experiences – that could be from a social mobility perspective, or faith, and what inclusion means to them. I have found these sessions interesting and insightful. It gives people a platform to ask what may be perceived as difficult questions about various topics, which helps to build on the culture of openness and transparency.
Q: How important is training and education in preventing workplace discrimination?
A: It’s vital, provided that it’s being reinforced by the company's actions and its culture.
Employers should provide regular training on their equality and anti-harassment policies to ensure employees understand their own and their employer's rights, duties, and obligations. Sometimes, if the training is only a tick box exercise where employees just read a policy, then I wouldn’t necessarily consider that as particularly helpful. Training should be tailored to the organisation and conducted by someone experienced in discrimination issues and familiar with the relevant policies, with employees given the opportunity to raise questions or concerns throughout.
Training that is engaging and promotes reflection is most helpful. For example, unconscious bias training can be extremely useful to help employees reflect and consider behaviours. Encouraging people to talk and interact about their experiences can also lead to greater openness. It's important to constantly reinforce those messages and ensure any training you do offer is refreshed regularly, and that you have some form of evaluation and assessment of its effectiveness.
Companies like ACAS provide online training for employers and managers, which includes free eLearning, equality, diversity and inclusion training, and training on dealing with unacceptable behaviours at work.
Q: What are the potential legal consequences for employers who fail to address discrimination?
A: If an employee is successful in their discrimination claim, it usually leads to compensation being awarded, which can be significant; as the amount that can be awarded is unlimited. Some of the largest claims in employment law have been in relation to discrimination claims – sometimes running to several millions of pounds where this has resulted in career-long losses. There are also class actions lawsuits that can be significant, especially in equal pay which we've seen going through the courts recently.
The tribunal can also order an employer to take steps to prevent the discrimination happening again. However, many businesses find the most profound impact to be through the negative public relations (PR) and lack of employee engagement that a claim can bring – which can directly impact culture, productivity, retention and recruitment.
Q: What steps can employers take to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace environment?
A: I consider a fundament element is being open and transparent and facilitating those opportunities for discussion, people to be heard, and then taking action on the matters raised – that is a crucial element. It's often about ensuring that instead of waiting for employees to raise issues, you are on the front foot and are supportive from the outset.
Consider ways to make inclusion more relevant to everyone, perhaps by establishing and supporting DE&I networks, providing a budget for DE&I initiatives to enable ideas to grow and flourish, or recognising and rewarding DE&I contributions by adding DE&I objectives into job descriptions and performance reviews.
It's important to carry out regular employee engagement surveys to find out what people think and make sure that you respond and action any feedback.
Q: What advice would you give to small businesses, that may not have dedicated HR departments, that are looking to prevent discrimination claims?
A: There’s a lot of support out there now for small businesses in terms of creating policies and making sure you understand them, but ensure that they are relevant to your business. There’s no need to have a 30-page DE&I document you found online when you’ve only got five employees – you must make sure it's deliverable and credible to your team.
It’s beneficial to be open and be present for when people have concerns – you want to make sure they can raise them in an open manner where someone's going to listen and then take action.
Signpost how employees can flag issues and who they can go to without having to go straight to the CEO, to avoid issues escalating. Don't just solely rely on having a policy or procedure in place. Embrace DE&I. Live it.
Whether you're an employer looking to expand your team, or a jobseeker exploring new opportunities, reach out to one of our expert recruiters to find out how we can help you.
