Employment monitoring report (2022-2023)

This report forms part of Wiltshire Council's requirement to publish workforce data to demonstrate our compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and the Equality Act (2010). The PSED places a specific duty on the council to publish information about its employees and service users, broken down by relevant protected characteristic, to show how the council is having due regard to:

• eliminating discrimination, harassment, and victimisation
• advancing equality of opportunity
• fostering good relations between people

This report is based on all non-school workforce figures for 1 October 2022 or, where monitoring information is reviewed over a year, the reference period used is 12 months up to 1 October 2022 (for recruitment, leavers etc). The report does not include casual staff.

Further information

If you have any queries regarding the contents of this report, please contact us by post or email.

By email

HRstrategy@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window)

By post

Human Resources
Wiltshire Council
County Hall
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire BA14 8JN

As part of the public-sector equality duty the council is required to identify equality objectives. The current Equality Objectives 2023-2026 are:

1. Deliver on the vision of the Inclusive Workforce Strategy
2. Achieve an excellent standard of understanding and working with our communities, measured against the Equality Framework for local government.

As part of the policy framework, these objectives will be formally adopted by the Council in May 2023.

Further details of the council's equality objectives can be found on the council website.

Our vision for the council is to be an inclusive organisation that reflects the diverse backgrounds of the communities we serve, where everyone is valued as an individual and where fairness and respect run through everything we do. The council's Inclusive workforce strategy and action plan were informed by reviewing data and insight on our workforce and from staff surveys, as well as reviewing our policies and practices against the Local Government Equality Framework.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) steering group

To support the delivery of the Inclusive workforce strategy, we relaunched an EDI steering group, chaired by the Council's Inclusion Champion (member of our Extended Leadership Team and a Director), to provide strategic oversight for programmes of work relating to EDI. The steering group is made up of an EDI representative from each directorate at Head of Service level and the staff network leads.

The purpose of the council's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Steering Group is to provide strategic oversight and assurance for Wiltshire Council's programmes of work relating to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. It is an opportunity to share authentic employee voice, implement the inclusion strategy, improve outcomes, raise awareness, and identify areas for development.

To support the delivery of the Inclusive workforce strategy, we relaunched an EDI steering group, chaired by the Council's Inclusion Champion (member of our Extended Leadership Team and a Director), to provide strategic oversight for programmes of work relating to EDI. The steering group is made up of an EDI representative from each directorate at Head of Service level and the staff network leads.

The purpose of the council's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Steering Group is to provide strategic oversight and assurance for Wiltshire Council's programmes of work relating to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. It is an opportunity to share authentic employee voice, implement the inclusion strategy, improve outcomes, raise awareness, and identify areas for development.

The council is committed to continuing good practice in relation to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We demonstrate this commitment via the following:

• supporting the work of the staff networks
• engaging with trade unions
• supporting the work of the staff networks
• carrying out Equality Impact Assessments
• benchmarking and sharing good practice
• training, education, and awareness raising.

Supporting the work of the staff networks

The council has four staff networks which staff can choose to join. The networks offer mutual support, raise awareness, and give advice on specific equality issues and act as a consultative voice to the council. The staff networks are:

• carers and disability network
• Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) network
• LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) network (this is open to anyone working in the public sector, including the local authority area of Swindon).
• women's staff network.

Engaging with trade unions

We recognise and regularly engage with the trade unions via informal meetings and discussions and more formal meetings including the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC). Trade unions are regularly consulted on new and updated policies and projects, engaged in equality analysis panels, and take an active role as members of job evaluation panels.

Carrying out Equality Impact Assessments

Equality impact assessments are carried out to ensure that due regard is given to the aims of the general equality duty when we plan, deliver, and make decisions about the work of the council. Regular equality analysis panels are set up to consider the impact of new and amended policies and procedures. Representatives from HR&OD, Executive Office, trade unions and members of our staff networks attend the panels to ensure a breadth of perspective. Further information on Equality Analysis can be found on our Equality analysis page.

Benchmarking and sharing good practice

The council belongs to the South West Equalities Network (SWEN) and regularly attends meetings with colleagues from other local authorities to share information, benchmarking, and best practice. We are also members of the Bath, Swindon & Wiltshire (BSW) NHS Partnership Integrated Care System EDI Leads Network.

We have delivered and continue to deliver several equalities events, working with multiple partners across the South West and beyond, including eighteen private and public sector organisations.

Wiltshire Council is a lifetime partner of the inclusive job board Includability (opens new window) and has successfully gone through their 5-star verification process to become an Includability committed employer, demonstrating our commitment and achievements in the areas of Sustainability, Accessibility, Mental Health, Wellbeing and Diversity and Inclusion.

Training, education, and awareness raising

We have developed an Inclusion and Diversity training offer which is available to employees and external partners- including staff from across the NHS and other organisations. We have plans to introduce a new Cultural competence in the community training in 2023 which will be available to all employees and managers.

We will be launching Inclusion cafés, an opportunity for employees to share their experiences of inclusion at work; and a buddy programme which will pair up new starters at the council with existing employees with the aim of supporting new employees navigate the first few weeks at the council.

After the successful reverse mentoring pilot, we have now expanded and rolled out the programme to the rest of the organisation. In addition to senior leaders, heads of service, middle managers, and staff in key influential positions such as HR, can now also take part and be mentored by a junior employee or member of the staff networks. Reverse mentoring provides safe spaces to gain honest and relevant feedback and gives senior leaders an opportunity to learn from the lived experience of employees.

We have successfully implemented a Mediated Resolution approach, a voluntary and confidential method of resolving workplace conflict. Trained, impartial mediators have worked with over thirty colleagues in the last year to support effective dialogue to resolve conflict with a view to reaching an agreement about how to work together effectively. All respondents to the participants' evaluation survey have reported that the process resolved the conflict/issue either fully or in part, and all respondents to the referrers' evaluation survey have reported that they would use Mediated Resolution again and would recommend Mediated Resolution to colleagues.

We have launched a Mental Health Advocates (MHA) initiative to support the council to promote positive mental health and normalise talking about mental health in the workplace. The MHAs are a team of trained employee volunteers who can support employees via 1-2-1 conversations and signposting to resources.

A diversity calendar is published internally annually with regular communications to promote awareness and understanding of key dates and events through our internal weekly communications and social media.

We continue to deliver campaigns and events for LGBTQ History Month, Women's History Month, PRIDE Month, Race Equality Week and National Inclusion Week etc.

We also organise (and support our networks in organising) regular events including one-off talks, webinars, and conferences to promote awareness and understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion issues.

How we collect equality information

The monitoring information set out in this report has been collected from the council's management information system (SAP), our recruitment system (Talentlink), and the completion of an equality monitoring questionnaire which is sent out to staff annually.  The council also collects additional information through the employee experience survey.

The equalities monitoring questionnaire was supported with clear information about why we were collecting the information and how it would be used. Staff are encouraged to complete as much of the questionnaire as possible but could opt to state 'prefer not to say' if they did not feel comfortable sharing their information.

The council is currently going through a transformation phase with plans to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution late in 2023. The new ERP will help us use and analyse diversity and inclusion data more effectively and we will be reviewing our data collecting methods as part of our work to improve our workforce data analytics capability.

What data we collect

We collect data on all the protected characteristics in addition to caring responsibilities at different stages of the employee lifecycle. This enables the council to analyse and assess the impact of policies, procedures, practices and decisions on specific groups and to identify where action is required to remedy any disadvantage and ensure equality of opportunity for all.

Data gaps

The unstated figures across most areas have decreased this year although they remain high for some protected characteristics.  We will continue to seek to address this gap in data and reduce the unstated figures by building confidence amongst staff in sharing this information.

Census 2021

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) undertook a new national census in 2021 and workforce data on this report has been compared against the census data for the whole of the Wiltshire population as opposed to the age-specific data sets (i.e., working age population) which are not yet available. Further analysis will be undertaken in the future once age-specific data sets are released by the ONS.

This report sets out data based on the key areas of the employee lifecycle which the council currently monitors. These are:

• Recruitment: We monitor the protected characteristics of all applicants who apply for roles through our e-recruitment system and this report looks at the overall applications received, the number of shortlisted applicants and successful/appointed applicants.
• Internal appointments and promotions: We monitor applications for internal appointments and promotions. The information presented in this report relates to jobs advertised internally and includes all positions regardless of whether that job represents a promotion or a sideways move within the council.
• Turnover and leaver information: Turnover refers to the proportion of employees that leave within a specified period, expressed as a percentage of total workforce numbers. The report provides a breakdown of turnover rates by protected characteristics and compares this to the whole council turnover average. The report also includes information about the main reason for leaving employment for different protected characteristics (where known).
• Disciplinary and grievance:The report includes the proportion of staff that have raised a grievance or are the subject of a disciplinary procedure. The figures reflect the number of cases that resulted in a formal outcome and excludes cases which were not completed or resulted in informal or no action. Figures tend to vary from year to year and represent small numbers.
• Remuneration: The data contained in the report includes a breakdown of our pay grades against some of the protected characteristics to show the distribution of staff across the different pay grades. For ease of presentation, we have not included unstated figures in the charts. The council has also produced figures for the ethnicity pay gap and the disability pay gap in the ethnicity and disability sections. Our gender pay gap figures are covered in another report which can be found here.
• Training:The report includes attendance figures for the Wiltshire Leader programme which is a programme aimed at developing future leaders

The total headcount of staff in post as of 1 October 2022 has increased slightly from last year. The figures exclude our schools' workforce. The headcount figures used in this report are different to the Gender pay gap report figures which are based on data taken at a different point in time.

Headcount by Ethnicity

4.5% of the workforce indicated that they have a BME background compared to 3.7% in 2021. The figures from the Wiltshire census 2021 indicate that 5.7% of the population in Wiltshire have a BME background and 3.8% a White Other background. When compared with the latest census data, Wiltshire Council's BME workforce is marginally lower than the BME population in Wiltshire.

95.7% of staff have disclosed their ethnicity. This is an improvement on the figures from last year where 94.1% of staff disclosed their ethnicity.

Recruitment by ethnicity

The proportion of people appointed from a BME background was less than the proportion of total applicants from the same group.

The proportion of appointments made for the White Other ethnic group is also lower compared to the proportion of applicants from the same group for both total and internal recruitment.

Total recruitment

Internal recruitment

Remuneration, Pay Gap, and Pay Quartiles by Ethnicity

The largest representational proportion of BME staff (48.8%) is concentrated in the salary grades H-K. The proportion of BME staff in the upper grades N/O/Hay has decreased from 5.3% in 2021 to 3.8% in 2022. This represents a small actual number, and it is not an area of concern.

The mean ethnicity pay gap has reduced from 1.6% to 0.5% compared with last year. The median pay gap remains negative (-3.4% in 2021 and -2.2% in 2022) with the BME median hourly rate higher than the non BME median hourly rate. The ethnicity pay quartiles show a slight increase from last year, with a higher proportion of BME staff in the upper quartile (4.2% in 2021 and 4.5% in 2022).

Pay grade

Pay Gap

Pay quartiles

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Ethnicity

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership programme by BME staff was 5.4% which is higher compared to last year (3.6%), and higher than workforce proportionality. Participation by employees from a White Other background has decreased from 4.9% last year to 1.4%.

Disciplinary and grievance cases by ethnicity

 No grievances were raised by BME or White Other staff in this period. The proportion of disciplinaries for BME staff was 3.6% which is lower than in the previous period (12.5% in 2021). People from a White Other ethnicity represented 7.1% of all the disciplinaries and this is proportionally higher than the workforce figures. The figures, however, represent small numbers.

Turnover rates by ethnicity

The turnover rate for BME staff (16.1%) and White Other staff (17.6%) are higher than the whole council turnover average (15.1%). The main reason for leaving for all groups, as in previous years, was resignation.

Headcount by Disability

The figures from the census 2021 indicate that 17% of the population in Wiltshire have their day-to-day activities limited a little or a lot because of a health condition or disability.

10.4% of the workforce has declared a disability compared to 9.4% in last year's report. 81.8% of staff have disclosed whether they consider themselves to have a disability or not, compared to 80.6% in the last period.

Mental Health conditions made up the highest proportion of type of disability. This saw a rise from 17.7% in 2021 to 20.5% this year.

Recruitment by Disability

Total recruitment

A lower proportion of people appointed were disabled compared to the proportion of total applicants who were disabled. The percentage appointed is lower than last year's report of 5.7%.

Internal recruitment

A lower proportion of people appointed internally were disabled compared to the proportion of total applicants who were disabled.

Remuneration, Pay Gap, and Pay Quartiles by Disability

Staff with a disability are represented at most levels of the grading structure but are proportionally less represented in the highest (N/O/Hay) and lowest (B/C) grades. 45.7% of all disabled staff are in salary grades F-I.

The mean disability pay gap has decreased from 6.5% in 2021 to 3.9% in 2022. The median pay gap has increased from 5.7% in 2021 to 7.5% in 2022. The proportion of disabled staff in the upper quartile has increased from 8.7% in 2021 to 10.4% in 2022.

Pay grade

Pay Gap

Pay Quartiles

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Disability

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership training by disabled employees was in line with the proportion of disabled employees in the workforce.

Disciplinary and Grievance cases by Disability

Disabled employees accounted for 10% of grievances and 14.3% of disciplinaries, compared to 22.2% and 4.2% in 2021. The numbers of cases are low and this variation in a single year is not unusual.

Turnover rates by Disability

The turnover rate for staff with a disability is 15.6% which is in line with the figure for all staff (15.1%). The main reasons for leaving for disabled employees was resignation followed by retirement.

Headcount by sex

The percentage of females is 74.2% and males 25.8% and these remain similar to the figures in last year's report which were female 73.9% and male 26.1%. Staff were invited to self-describe their gender identity if they wished to. However, as the number of staff using this category was small, the figures only reflect sex (female/male) to maintain the confidentiality of staff. Across the workforce 50.6% of women and 25.2% of men work part-time.

Recruitment by sex

Total recruitment

57.8% of applications received by the council were from female applicants and 24.6% were from male applicants and 17.6% did not state. 59.7% of posts were filled by female applicants, with 16.8% filled by male applicants and 23.4% did not state their sex.

Internal recruitment

70.9% of internal appointments were female and 20.3% male which is line with the total workforce figures. 8.7% were unstated.

Remuneration

Pay grade

Female staff are represented at all levels of the grading structure although they are slightly overrepresented in the lowest pay grades (B/C) and underrepresented in the top pay grades (L-Hay).

Gender Pay Gap

The council is required to report details of its gender pay gap. For further details please refer to our Gender pay gap. The council's gender pay gap remains lower than the national gender pay gap and gender pay gap for the public sector.

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Sex

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership programme was 75.7% female and 24.3% for male staff which was in line with the overall workforce figures.

Disciplinary and grievance cases by Sex

Men represented 50% of all the disciplinaries and 40% of all grievances and this is proportionally higher than the workforce figures. The figures, however, represent small numbers.

Turnover rates by Sex

The turnover rate for both female and male staff is in line with the whole council turnover rate (15.1%). The main reasons for leaving were resignation followed by retirement.

Headcount by Age

The largest group within the workforce are in the age range 45-54, 26.4%

Under 25's make up 7.2% of the workforce (an increase from 6.8% in 2021) but slightly lower than the Census 2021 data for this group (10.1%).

Recruitment by age

Total recruitment

There were similar levels of applicants appointed across the age groups 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54; with the highest number of applications received from the age group 25-34. The percentage of under 25s appointed has decreased compared to last year from 10.5% to 8.4%.

Internal recruitment

The proportion of those appointed compared to the proportion of those who applied are similar across all age groups. Figures also suggest that proportionally, there are fewer applications from those in the 55-64 and 65+ age groups when compared with the proportion of staff in those age groups in the council. This might be explained by the fact that older age groups might have intentions to retire. This is supported by our leaver data which shows that the main reason for the 65+ age group to leave employment with the council is retirement. 

Remuneration by age

Pay grade

Staff representation is lower for the under 34's and over 65's in the N/O/Hay grades. The largest proportion of under 25-year-olds is concentrated in the D/E salary scales. This is expected given that this age group is more likely to be in entry level roles or at the early stages in their careers.

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Age

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership training is highest in the 35 - 44 age range. The attendance figures are representative for most of the age bands but are low for under 25s: 7.3% of the workforce are under 25, but they represented only 1.3% of the leadership programme attendants. This might be explained by the fact that this age group is more likely to be in entry level roles or be at the early stages in their careers. There was no participation from the 65+ age group.

Disciplinary and Grievance cases by Age

Disciplinary and grievance cases occurred amongst all age groups although they were proportionally slightly higher for the under 25s, 25-34 and over 65 age groups when compared with the total workforce figures. With small numbers these percentages will vary from the workforce figures within a single year.

Turnover rates by Age

The turnover rate was highest for staff over 65 (28.6%) although the figure is lower compared to last year's figure (36.8%) for this age group. Staff under 25 have the next highest turnover at 25.5% which is slightly higher than this age groups turnover rate last year. The main reason for leaving in under 25 group was resignation and for the over 65 age group retirement. The whole council turnover rate (15.1%) has increased from last year (13.7%) and this is reflective of the buoyant job market which has placed an increased demand for talent.

Headcount by Sexual Orientation

76.3% (compared to 73.6% in 2021) of employees have stated their sexual orientation. This is an improvement although the number of unstated is high when compared to the latest census (2021) data on sexual orientation for Wiltshire (below):

• LGBT+ - 2.5%
• Heterosexual - 91%
• Not answered - 6.6%

Recruitment by Sexual Orientation

Total recruitment figures indicate that the proportion of LGBT+ staff appointed is lower compared to the proportion of those who apply. For internal appointments, the proportion of LGBT+ staff appointed is broadly in line with the proportion of those who apply.

Total recruitment

Internal recruitment

Remuneration by Sexual orientation

Pay grade

LGBT+ staff are represented across all grades, including the highest salary grades.

Turnover rates by Sexual Orientation

The turnover rate for LGBT+ staff is slightly higher than the total workforce turnover rate and has increased compared to last year.

Headcount by Religion and Belief

76.3% (compared to 73.7% in 2021) of employees have stated their religion and belief. Wiltshire census data 2021 indicates that 50.2% of the Wiltshire population is Christian, 41.3% have no religion and 2.5% have other religion or belief. Low figures in some of the other religion or belief categories have meant that we are not able to include all data due to confidentiality reasons. Our unstated figure is 23.7% compared to 6.02% for the Wiltshire population (ONS, census 2021).

Recruitment by Religion and Belief

A lower proportion of people appointed were Christian and from other religion or beliefs relative to the proportion of total applicants who were from those groups.

Remuneration by Religion and Belief

Pay grade

The proportion of staff from 'other religion or beliefs' in the top pay grades has increased from 5.5% in 2021 to 6.6% in 2022.

Turnover rates by Religion and Belief

The turnover rate for staff from 'Other religion or belief' was 15.3% which is almost equal to the total workforce at 15.1%.

Headcount by Caring Responsibilities

The definition of unpaid caring responsibilities is someone who gives help or support to anyone who has long-term physical or mental ill-health conditions, illness or problems related to old age. It does not include any activities as part of paid employment and the help can be within or outside of the carer's household (ONS, 2021).

14.5% (compared to 14.7% in 2021) of the workforce indicated that they had unpaid caring responsibilities, and this compares with 8.3% of the Wiltshire population in the 2021 census. 63.8% indicated that they had no unpaid caring responsibilities compared to 86.7% of the Wiltshire population in the 2021 census.

Recruitment by Caring Responsibilities

Internal recruitment figures indicate that staff with caring responsibilities were less successful at appointment than non-carers.

Total recruitment

Internal recruitment

Remuneration by Caring responsibilities

Pay grade

Staff with caring responsibilities are represented at all grades, including the highest salary grades.

Turnover rates by Caring Responsibilities

The turnover rate for carers is below the whole council average.

Headcount by Marital Status

76.8% (compared to 74.5% in 2021) of employees have disclosed their marital status. For comparative purposes the figures from the census 2021 for Wiltshire are as follows:

• Single (never married or never registered a civil partnership - 24.9%
• Married or in a registered civil partnership - 41.9%
• Divorced, separated, or widowed - 15.3%

Recruitment by Marital Status

A lower proportion of people appointed were single compared to the proportion of total applicants who were single.

Total recruitment

Internal recruitment

Remuneration by Marital Status

Pay grade

Representation of staff who are single starts to decline after grades J/K.

Turnover rates by Marital Status

The turnover rate across all groups is lower than the whole council turnover rate.

The council had 92 employees on maternity leave who returned or left during the period 1st October 2021 to 30th September 2022, of these employees, 84 returned to work after maternity leave and 8 did not. The figures for the non-returners are low so a further breakdown for equality and statistical reporting has not been included.

The council offers a period of enhanced maternity pay to employees who return to work for a period of at least three months following maternity leave in line with the national local government scheme. The council also has a shared parental leave policy, ordinary parental leave policy and flexible working policy which can provide further flexibility.

The proportion of the workforce who does not identify with their sex as registered at birth is 2% and this compares to 1.4% in 2021.  Data from the census 2021 for Wiltshire estimates that 0.4% of the Wiltshire population does not identify with their sex registered at birth.

4.9% of the population did not answer and this compares to 22.9% for our workforce.