ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Image: Some of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Local Radio New Voices of 2021

Our 2021–2023 Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Plan was designed to shape a more creative, inclusive, and diverse organisation.

Some key areas of achievement have included:

• all of our career development schemes were open to all staff and all either met or exceeded our 50:20:12:25 diversity goals
• our 2024 survey showed we are making steady progress in this area: 78% of staff feel their manager builds an inclusive team environment, up five percentage points from 2022; 70% feel they can be their authentic selves, up three percentage points from 2022 and 68% feel they belong at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, up four percentage points from 2022
• our one-year Accelerator Programme prepared participants for roles of greater seniority or complexity or depth. From over 900 applications, 26 individuals were selected to participate and, since the programme ended, 44% of participants had been promoted and a further 32% had taken on more stretching, broader responsibilities, inside or outside the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½
• our award-winning Early Careers Apprentices Programme is about increasing the number of entry level opportunities across the organisation. So far, we have employed over 700 Early Careers Apprentices from a diverse range of backgrounds, including 70% of the latest cohort from outside London
• our staff apprenticeships are enabling colleagues to gather knowledge, deepen skills and gain formal qualifications
• colleagues spend at least 20% of their normal working hours on a staff apprenticeship, and so far over 250 staff have participated, receiving industry designed training from leading apprenticeship providers whilst remaining within their existing role
• with our 'Accessible First' approach we have reviewed existing policies in consultation with staff and implemented a series of changes to improve inclusivity for disabled staff
• our Disability Passport scheme has helped over 100 staff have conversations with their managers about the adjustments they need, with additional funding put in place to upgrade our technology where needed
• a new Disability Allies programme is helping staff take an active role in these changes, and targeted recruitment campaigns are helping attract disabled talent to News, Nations and Content, through our award-winning ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Extend programme
• to help our teams recognise the value of diverse talent we produced a new hiring toolkit for Team Leaders that helps them check and refine their process for any potential bias. We followed this up with a new values-based interview framework, designed to recognise a candidate’s potential rather than just their experience
• we rolled out a new Senior Leader Index, which helps leaders understand the diversity of their teams and how engaged staff are, to introduce a new level of accountability and help our senior team continually develop
• to improve the diversity of senior leaders, we focused on how to support our future leaders to perform at their best and maximise their potential, no matter what their background
• to meet a gold standard for inclusion, we launched an Inclusion Toolkit to educate and equip all staff with an understanding of how they can create an inclusive culture for everyone in their role