Glossary
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
Agile working
Agile working refers to employees working from multiple locations. These can include: home, on the train or in cafes. Access to appropriate technology enabling virtual meetings, online training, transfer of information through Personal Digital Assistants, laptops, mobile phones greatly extends these possibilities.
Adverse impact
Adverse impact refers to the detrimental effect of a public policy or decision on specific individuals and/or groups because of their difference. The differences are generally defined within the six equality dimensions: gender, race, disability, sexuality, age and religion/belief.
Adverse impact can occur as a consequence of policies that do not take into account the different needs of particular groups and/or individuals. It may be either intentional or unintentional and is measured relative to the benefits bestowed by the policy on more favoured groups. Evidence of adverse impact is likely to render the policy or decision unlawful.
B
Bias training
Bias training is training aimed at drawing attention to the effects of an individual's actions on others within the work environment. These actions result from the individual's personal biases, prejudices and preferences.
Black and minority ethnic (BME)
A summarised descriptor used to distinguish non-white and culturally distinct minority groups and individuals within British society. Sub-categories of this summarised term would include a broad range of different racial groups as defined within the 2001 Census. Minority ethnic describes people of an origin or country who may or may not be black, but are statistically and visibly fewer in number than the majority white population, either locally or nationally.
C
Career pathing
Refers to any number of diverse strategies for employee retention, training and promotion. Essentially career pathing entails creating a formal strategy for increasing the skills of your employees and matching these to your current and future needs as a business. In this way you can ensure that when new challenges or opportunities arise you have in place the right people with the right skills to meet them.
Competencies
Competencies are the person's individual traits or characteristics e.g. knowledge, skills, thought patterns, aspects of self-esteem, and social roles. Employers measure the candidate's competencies to assess their future performance. Competencies can be either technical or personal:
- technical competencies are the specialised and highly related knowledge and skills that the employee must possess and use in the specific employment position
- personal competencies are the employee's own individual characteristics that are required. These competencies can be generic, whilst others may be job specific
Conscious bias
An individual's awareness of their tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result.
Continuing professional development (CPD)
CPD is a combination of approaches, ideas and techniques that employers and employees use to manage learning and growth. The focus is on results and the benefits that CPD can bring to employees, the organisation and the sector.
D
Data monitoring
The process of collecting and analysing information that relates to the age, sex, racial or ethnic origins, disability status, sexual orientation, religion or belief of individuals and groups. It is commonly used to distinguish the experiences of different groups and individuals in relation to receiving employment opportunities and public services.
Dignity at work
The absolute right to be treated with dignity and respect by others. This concept is often associated with protecting individuals from harassment and bullying on the grounds of their differences inside the workplace.
Direct discrimination
Treating one person less favourably than another on the grounds of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. Direct discrimination may be overt or covert, as in the appointment of individuals to vacant posts where the reasons for non-selection may not be disclosed by an employing organisation. Direct discrimination is unlawful under all anti-discrimination law.
Discrimination
Treating someone unfairly or differently because he or she happens to belong to or is perceived to belong to a particular group of people.
Diversity
A term derived from the American management term "managing diversity" which is used to describe management practices which are aimed at valuing the diversity of each individual employee to maximise quality output. Diversity encompasses visible and non-visible individual differences. They may include, but are not limited to, differences protected by anti-discrimination legislation.
E
Equality
A revised term for 'equal opportunities'. It is based on the legal obligation to comply with anti-discrimination legislation. Equality protects people from minority groups from being discriminated against on the grounds of group membership, ie age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief.
Equal opportunities
A belief that individuals should receive an equal chance of obtaining opportunities to advance their personal ambition and welfare. Where such opportunities arise, they should take place through open and fair competition. There should be no unfair discrimination against any individual on the grounds of their gender, race, disability, sexuality, age or religion. To promote this view of equality, the potential of the individual is created and confined to meet the opportunity as and when it arises. It has been criticised by some thinkers as enabling or empowering individuals to be more equal than others.
Ethnic
A term used to describe the classification of individuals into groups according to their shared attributes. This may be on the grounds of their racial, religious, cultural and/or linguistic similarities or differences.
Exit interviews
These are interviews conducted with departing employees, with the primary aim of learning the reason for the employee's departure. They can also be an opportunity for the organisation to enable transfer of knowledge and experience from the departing employee to a successor or replacement, or even to brief a team on current projects, issues and contacts.
Explicit bias
A term used to describe an intentional tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result.
F
Flexible working
A working pattern in which the hours of work are adapted to better suit the employee's lifestyle. This could mean working from home, or adapting working times so that employees can start earlier or work later if either is more convenient.
G
Gay
A colloquial term adopted and used by homosexual men and women to describe themselves in relation to heterosexual groups. A person should not be referred to as 'a gay', rather that they 'are gay'.
Gender
A concept that refers to the social differences between women and men that have been learned, are changeable over time and have wide variations both within and between cultures.
H
Harassment
Unwanted conduct that violates people's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. This definition is limited to anti-discrimination legislation and therefore only applies to harassment on grounds of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief.
Human rights
The term ‘human rights’ is used to describe an individual's rights to protection against encroachment and mistreatment by the state. The concept of international human rights acknowledges that every single human being is entitled to enjoy his or her human rights without distinction as to race, colour, sex, language, religion or political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
In 1948 the United Nations adopted and proclaimed resolution 217 A (III), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It remains one of the most important international documents produced within the 20th century. Rights identified within the Declaration include the following:
- Life liberty and security of person
- Freedom from slavery and servitude
- Freedom from torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Equality before the law (isonomia)
- Not be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile
- Freedom of movement and residence
- Nationality
- The right to marriage and to found a family
- Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- Peaceful assembly and association
- Work
- Health
- Education
In 1952, the European Convention on Human Rights was agreed and adopted by a number of European Countries. This incorporated similar articles to those detailed within the UN Declaration. In 1998, the Convention was incorporated into British Law with the introduction of the Human Rights Act.
The following are some of the most important characteristics of human rights:
- human rights are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each person
- human rights are universal, meaning that they are applied equally and without discrimination to all people
- human rights are inalienable, in that no one can have his or her human rights taken away other than in specific situations – for example, the right to liberty can be restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime by a court of law
- human rights are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent, for the reason that is insufficient to respect some human rights and not others. In practice, the violation of one right will often affect the respect of several other rights. All human rights should therefore be seen as having equal importance and of being equally essential to respect for the dignity and worth of every person
I
Implicit bias
Describes an individual's unintentional tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result.
Inclusion
The act or action of including an employee or employees in all relevant aspects of the organisation.
Indirect discrimination
Applying a provision, criterion or practice which disadvantages people of a particular group (defined by sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief or age). Indirect discrimination is illegal if it cannot be justified as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
New regulations effective from October 2001 have widened the definition of indirect discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and shifted the burden of proof towards the employer in circumstances where indirect discrimination is alleged to have taken place. Applicants no longer have to provide statistical evidence to show that "it would be to the detriment of a considerably larger proportion of women than men" and employers must justify their actions.
Induction
A training session designed to help new employees understand their new role at your organisation. An induction generally covers business philosophy, "mission statement" and ethical standards – as well as basic information on job roles, organisational structure, etc.
Inequality
Unfair treatment usually occurring as a consequence of the denial of the right to be different. Inequality can occur on several grounds but is most commonly associated with gender, race, disability, sexuality, age and religion.
Institutional racism
A term most often used in association with the Macpherson Report, which was published following the public inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, to explain the presence and nature of racism within public services.
The following definition of institutional racism was provided by Macpherson within the report:
"Institutional racism consists of the collective failure to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviours which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."
J
Job rotation
Moving employees between different departments or tasks to increase their range of experience and to prevent boredom.
Job sharing
Job-sharing is where two people both fill one job. Each person has a permanent part-time post and split the hours, pay, holidays and benefits between them according to how many hours they each work. There are three types of job share:
-
shared responsibility – no division of duties exists and partners are interchangeable
-
divided responsibility – workload can be split into different clients or projects and each partner has their own caseload or projects
-
unrelated responsibility – partners perform unrelated tasks yet work in the same department
L
Lesbian
A woman with a sexual orientation towards other women.
M
Managing diversity
Managing diversity is a concept associated with human resource development and building ways to promote effective people management. It challenges traditional managerial models of standardising treatment, by seeking to harness the diversity of the working population to improve the performance of the organisation. This is achieved by recognising the different contributions individuals are able to make and promoting practices that enhance the performance of all staff.
The dimensions of difference implicit within the diversity model include gender, race, culture, age, family/carer status, religion, sexuality and disability. It is founded on the premise that harnessing these differences will create a productive environment in which everybody feels valued, where their talents are being fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. The three stages to managing diversity are: acknowledging or recognising diversity, valuing diversity and utilising or managing diversity.
O
Outreach
Put simply: to reach out. More specifically in this context it refers to the act of extending services and benefits to a wider section of the population, as in community work.
P
Policies
A statement of intent that generally incorporates a plan of action to affect the way in which services are provided. A reference to the formal and informal decisions about how a public authority carries out its duties and uses its powers.
Positive action
Activity intended to improve the representation in a workforce where monitoring has shown a particular group to be under-represented, either in proportion to the profile of the total workforce or of the local population. Positive action permitted by the anti-discrimination legislation allows a person to:
- provide facilities to meet the special needs of people from particular groups in relation to their training, education or welfare
- target job training at people from groups that are under–represented in a particular area of work, or encourage them to apply for such work
Positive action is not the same as positive discrimination.
Positive discrimination
Selecting someone for a job, promotion, training, transfer, etc purely on the basis of their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, not on their ability to do the job. This is illegal under anti-discrimination legislation.
Positive discrimination is only legal when it applies to disabled people who, if meeting the minimum criteria for a job, are guaranteed an interview for that post. Any other form of positive discrimination is simply direct discrimination and therefore illegal.
Prejudice
A negative judgement formed and expressed about others on the basis of inadequate information. It may be as banal as not being fond of the supporters of a particular sports team and presuming they share a set of characteristics that are inferior to one's own. However, being prejudiced against someone because of who he or she is or what they represent becomes very serious if that prejudice has an effect on the way that person is treated. Once a prejudicial thought is translated into a deed it becomes an act of discrimination.
Presenteeism
Refers to employees who feel too stigmatised and fearful of discrimination to disclose an illness or take time off to recover because of the prevailing taboo at work. The term is the opposite to absenteeism, but has the same negative consequences for business in reduced levels of productivity from employees taking longer to recover from illness.
S
Sex
The biological characteristics that distinguish human beings as female or male.
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is a combination of emotional, romantic, sexual or affectionate attraction to another person. Within the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, sexual orientation is defined as:
- an orientation towards persons of the same sex (lesbians and gay men)
- an orientation towards persons of the opposite sex (heterosexual)
- an orientation towards persons of the same sex and opposite sex (bisexual)
Social justice
A summarised concept embodying the related themes of freedom, fairness and equivalence and operated in the design of public institutions that function with the purpose of promoting the well-being of individuals within their communities.
Stereotyping
A standardised image or conception shared by members of one group about another. Stereotyping is the process of assuming a person or group has one or more characteristics because most members of that group have (or are thought to have) the same characteristics. It is a simplification and generalisation process that helps people categorise and understand their world, but at the same time often leads to significant errors.
Strengths
Strengths are used by employers to identify candidates that are 'made for the job' rather than 'able to do the job'. Job candidates therefore, are not necessarily required to have direct experience or demonstrable competencies, just the ability to demonstrate desire and strengths required for the vacancy. Strengths can include:
- clarity of response to questions/requests
- quality of response to questions/requests
- speed of thought
- personal interests
- confidence
- body language
- personal drive
T
Term-time working
A term that predominantly refers to working parents that are able to negotiate their working hours to fit with school term times in order to reduce the costs of childcare.
Transsexual/transgender people
A transgender, transsexual or trans person describes a person who appears as, wishes to be considered as, or has undergone or is undergoing surgery to become a member of the opposite sex.
Press for Change and other organisations worldwide advocate the use of the adjective trans to describe people who, in expressing their sense of identity, come into conflict with the contemporary gender behaviour norms of their society. Press for Change issue the following advice:
"We stress ... that whether you use the word "trans" or older, more prescriptive, terms like "transsexual" these are adjectives not nouns. Please remember that trans people, transsexual people, transgender people...are people first, and the "T" adjective describes only one of the many interesting and individual characteristics which make up that person."
U
Unconscious bias
When an individual is unaware of some tendency or preference, towards particular perspectives, ideologies or results.
V
Victimisation
The act of targeting mistreatment towards an individual or individuals who may have submitted a complaint on the grounds of discrimination or harassment or supported someone else in doing so, or who are vulnerable and open to abuse because of their diminished capacity to challenge such behaviour.
W
Work/life balance
This refers to an acknowledgement that employees – and managers – have lives outside of work and that these other commitments should be respected. A good work/life balance is a sign of a well run business. This does not just improve the quality of employees' home lives but can also improve the quality of their contributions at work.
