Employment monitoring report (2022-2023)

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.