At the Environment Agency, we are committed to promoting diversity and equality in all our policies, practices and procedures and to valuing the diversity or our workforce and the customers and communities we deal with.
Our Commitment
We believe that diversity is as important to the workplace as it is in the natural environment. Diversity in this context means differences visible and non-visible, differences of background, socio-economic group, personality, and work-style, as much as the more overt differences of the protected characteristics: age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity, religion/belief and sexual orientation.
At the end of December 2011, the Environment Agency employed 11,404 people. We know that our workforce is predominantly white, male, not disabled, heterosexual/straight and aged over 40. We are comparing data gathered over the years to see developing trends. More details of our workforce in the ‘Our people’ section.
What we are doing
To fulfil our vision of a better environment for present and future generations, we will develop an organisation where all employees are actively supported in giving their best contribution to the Environment Agency aims and objectives. This means attracting developing and retaining people from all parts of the community, valuing the differing skills and abilities of all our employees, and responding flexibly to the needs of individuals in achieving organisational goals.
In addition, we will ensure that the service we provide to our customers, communities and partners is free from discrimination. We will endeavour to ensure our services are accessible to all and that the diverse needs of our customers are understood and met wherever reasonably possible. We will work to reach out to vulnerable groups to ensure that there is a mutual understanding of our respective needs and requirements.
To help us with equality objectives we will consult with:
- our current employees;
- our employee networks;
- our leadership (our Board and Directors);
- our committees.
We are also consulting with our external partners including Defra (our Government sponsor) our diversity partners, and our customers - those we regulate, advise and support.
We will publish our finalised equality objectives by the statutory date of 6 April 2012. We would welcome your views and suggestions to help us further with our equality objectives. Please use our feedback button under the page tools section on the right, alternatively you can share your comments throughout February through our e-consultation survey or social media sites.
