Local Authority

Vercida Consulting were appointed to support this local authority to identify key D&I themes and create a three-year action plan. The objectives of the project were to:

1. Set out a strategic three-year D&I action plan to make a significant impact on closing the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps across the 2,500 council employees.
   
   
2. Support the team to build an inclusive culture, ensuring that D&I is everyone’s priority in everything they do, aligned to their people strategy.

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Programme delivery

The project consisted of three key phases:

1. Diagnose: We undertook a review of key data including employee demographics, employee engagement survey results, pay gap data, and existing action metrics to identify trends and potentially biased decision-making.
   
   
2. Engage: We engaged with more than 500 colleagues and key stakeholders to gain an understanding of the culture at the council through the eyes of their people and to identify bold actions to address the pay gaps.
   More than 25 focus groups were held as part of a Big Conversation, with groups targeted to all directorates and locations across the authority. 1-to-1 interviews were held with the executive leadership team, the chairs of employee networks and key stakeholders such as the Communications and HR teams.
   
   
3. Report: We presented our findings along with suggested actions, aligned to global best practices, in a report to the executive leadership and People Services teams.
   We then worked with the executive leadership team to prioritise the suggested actions into a three-year strategic roadmap that is fully aligned to they local authority’s ambition to be a world-class employer and to reduce the pay gaps.

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The local authority implemented a clear strategic plan to reduce the pay gaps and build an inclusive culture. 

Diversity and inclusion performance goals have been introduced for senior leaders across the directorates, ensuring that responsibility for reducing the pay gaps, increasing employee engagement and inclusive leadership behaviours are embedded across the organisation. 

They have now committed to a zero pay gap within 3 years.

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