Employers are struggling to get to grips with new areas of discrimination law and diversity monitoring, according to research launched today.
The IRS survey of 75 HR departments found that religion/belief is monitored by less than one organisation in 10 and just 4% of employers monitor sexual orientation.
Yet 77% of respondents monitor ethnicity, 73% monitor gender, 62% monitor disability and 60% monitor age. Marital status is monitored by 17% of employers.
What do employers monitor?
Ranked in order:
* Recruitment applications – 64%
* Selection: acceptances/appointments 57.3%
* Selection: job offers: 44%
* Selection: shortlists: 41.3%
* Resignations: 33.3%
* Grievances: 24.3%
* Dismissals: 30.6%
* Disciplinary procedures: 30.6%
* Access to training: 28%
* Promotion decisions: 22.6%
* Appraisal decisions: 21.3%
* Pay decisions: 12.1%
* Job evaluation decisions: 13.3%
Monitoring categories have been changed by 23% of organisations in the past two years and 27% of respondents said they are likely to change theirs in the next two years.
Who is responsible for monitoring?
Half of the respondents reported that monitoring was the responsibility of the HR department rather than of any one individual. 13% of organisations said that a named person in HR was responsible for monitoring, while 7% had an equalities officer or manager.
What is the data used for?
56% of respondents had used the data as the basis of reports to their own boards or as a basis for public reporting and almost half the respondents had used the data in a review of their equal opportunities policies.
Monitoring data was used by 11% of organisations as part of their defence against an employment tribunal claim, while 5% had used the data to deal with internal grievances.
