Our new three-year D&I Strategy has four themes, with everyone playing a role in their delivery:

• Representation
• Ownership
• Leadership
• Engagement

Each theme has goals, which can be short-term (i.e. within this strategy timeframe), longer-term or ongoing, with progress tracked year on year and enablers, which are areas of focus to aid achieving the goal. We have a separate annual action plan which lists the specific actions through which we will achieve these goals and enablers, along with their owners and delivery dates.

Representation

Goals

A workforce that is representative of the UK population (long-term goal)

• We recognise that we won’t achieve an exact match to the UK population, but we will ensure our recruitment process is accessible, attractive and promoted to a diverse range of applicants, and use a variety of mechanisms to introduce people from different backgrounds to what we do.
• While this is primarily focussed on protected characteristics, we also have actions around social mobility, which will benefit those with multiple characteristics (intersectionality).

Consistent representation at all levels and all directorates in the organisation (long-term)

• We will explore ways we can obtain the skills and experience we need from a more diverse pool (for example through appropriately targeted campaigns or building talent through different channels such as apprenticeships). We will ensure the whole organisation is committed to our recruitment goals.

Minimal pay gaps between people with and without protected characteristics (long-term)

• This goal is closely linked to the first because improving representation should reduce pay gaps. We will also ensure that there are no structural issues that cause people with different characteristics doing the same job to earn different amounts.

Enablers

We will:

• ensure our people follow our recruitment processes based on the Civil Service recruitment principles and enable the open attraction of diverse candidates to be recruited fairly and on merit
• continue to collect the diversity data of our workforce and recruitment decisions to ensure inequalities and bias are identified and targeted
• be transparent about our diversity data, holding ourselves accountable to promoting fairness and addressing inequality

Ownership

Goals

We all own our D&I responsibilities (ongoing)

• We will ensure everyone recognises this, and commits to and promotes the D&I strategy as well as contributing to its achievement. All of us will personally demonstrate and be responsible for our inclusive behaviours.

Continue to consider if, and how, our regulatory decisions impact on people with protected characteristics (ongoing)

• The Public Sector Equality Duty requires us to consider the need to promote equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people with a protected characteristic and those without and we need to ensure all our colleagues fully understand and implement this in their day-to-day work.

Enablers

We will ensure:

• 100% of colleagues have a D&I objective (currently 81%); that the objective is meaningful and that progress is discussed in performance reviews.
• everyone understands when and how to create equality impact assessments as part of our regulatory decision-making.

Leadership

Goals

Our leaders champion D&I and role model expected behaviours (short-term)

• In addition to our individual ownership goal, our leaders will lead by example and ensure their teams are owning and implementing the strategy.

Our leaders lead teams that operate in an open and inclusive way (short-term)

• Our leadership will help to create a positive workplace where individuals are respected.

Enablers

We will:

• ensure each of our leaders has a specific D&I leadership objective.
• train our leaders and line managers to lead and manage inclusively.
• assess leaders against both goals in their performance reviews.

Engagement

Goals

Everyone in ORR recognises that D&I is their responsibility and embodies good practice (long-term)

• This links to the ownership goal – for ORR to have an inclusive culture we need everyone to be proactive in understanding the role they play and living it day-to-day.

Everyone recognises ORR as an inclusive working environment that enables them to thrive and be their best selves at work (long-term)

• This is the flip side to the previous goal – we want everyone to feel the benefit and have an inclusive and respectful experience at work.

Enablers

We will:

• measure our workplace culture and experiences through surveys and other feedback channels.
• continue to increase D&I awareness through our employee networks, activities, events and learning resources.
• promote our resolution policy, and how our fair treatment ambassadors support it, to address grievances, bullying and harassment and ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect.