Shaping welcoming and inclusive workplaces

The Commission’s Statement on Key Inequalities in Employment in Northern Ireland highlighted that:
 

Prejudicial attitudes both within and outside the workplace are experienced by people with disabilities, women, Trans people, lesbian, gay and bisexual people, people from minority ethnic groups, migrant workers and those of different religious beliefs’.

Following on from this Statement, the Commission seeks to obtain further evidence to improve practices on harmonious working environments across the range of equality grounds.

Presenting the evidence

We reviewed recent literature on addressing negative workplace attitudes across a range of equality grounds and developed:
 

• An Evidence Base for Shaping Welcoming and Inclusive Workplaces: Literature Review (pdf)

 

Employer and employee information gathering exercises

Between 29th November 2018 and 1st March 2019, we asked employers and employees to complete two online information gathering exercises, in the form of surveys, to help us in our work to improve practices on harmonious working environments across a range of equality grounds in Northern Ireland.

More than 3,500 employees and nearly 300 employers of all sizes and in all sectors completed the questionnaire for their organisations. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey.  Read the press release - the findings of our analyses are available below:
 

• Updated:  Welcoming and inclusive workplaces - Employer Experiences (pdf, March 2020) - Initial findings on employer views of the diversity of their workforces, their workplace values and their development, implementation and monitoring of workplace policies.

 

• Updated:  Welcoming and inclusive workplaces - Employee Experiences (pdf, March 2020) - Initial findings on employee views on whether their workplaces are welcoming and inclusive, their experiences of unwanted behaviours and whether they did anything about such behaviours.

Workplace Stories

For those employees and employers who left their contact details, a selection were contacted by our third party researchers, Ipsos Mori. Nine employees and five employers graciously gave accounts of their positive experiences of welcoming and inclusive workplaces. Read their stories in the publication Workplace Stories (pdf).