Diversity workforce analysis has been conducted in order to see where we are not equally represented across the six major protected characteristics groups.
Workforce diversity statistics
Diversity workforce analysis has been undertaken in order to see where our organisation may not be equally represented across the six major protected characteristics groups.
Our workforce information has been prepared in accordance with our responsibilities under The Equality Act 2010, and refers to those aspects of equality that relate to our employees, and the impact of our policies and processes on identified protected characteristics groups.
The Government Equalities Office guidance recommends a “light touch approach” to gathering and analysing evidence.
The documents containing our workforce information can be downloaded below. We have reported only aspects where data is reliably available and of sufficient quality to provide robust analysis. We will also be reporting length of service analysis for each characteristic with a sufficient data in quarter 2.
Quarter 1 2012-13 Environment Agency Workforce Diversity Statistics (Excel,182KB)
Quarter 1 2012-13 Environment Agency Workforce Diversity Statistics (PDF, 82KB)
The commentary below relates to the quarter 1 documents above.
Employee Profile
In total, the Environment Agency’s current profile contains 11,747 employees spread across eight grades. Grades 4 and 5 comprise the majority of Environment Agency employees with 51.5% of employees between them. Only 1.2% of employees is in the highest grade group (Executive Managers). See figures 1 & 2.
Age
48.1% of Environment Agency’s current workforce is aged 30-45 years, with 30-35 year (17%) olds comprising the largest group, as has been the case for the last four years, see figure 3.
The grades with an age profile most closely aligned to the overall age profile of the organisation are Executive Managers and Other (Nuclear, Non-Standard and Graduate Trainees). Very few (3.9%) under 25’s are in a higher level grade. See figure 3a.
The over 60’s group make up approximately 3% of the organisation and every grade has approximately 3% of employees who are over 60; the exception to this is the Operations Delivery Manual grade which has 10% of employees who are over 60. The next age group breakdown which closely follows the overall age profile is the 56-60 age group where each grade almost matches the overall 8% age profile except Executive Managers (14.5%) and Operations Deliver Manual (13.8%) grades. The majority of Executive Managers are aged 46-50 (26.9%). See figure 3b.
Disability
Employees with disabilities and long term health conditions currently make up only 7.2% of Environment Agency employees, compared with 24% of the general population in England . Only 54.8% of Environment Agency employees have declared their disability status, therefore the information is not complete enough to analyse the grade breakdown. This is the first year that more than 50% of employees have declared their disability status, therefore there is no trend analysis. See figure 4.
The top 3 disability types that have been declared are; Chronic / long term health condition (3.6%), Mobility difficulties (1.8%) and Dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties (1.6%). However it should be noted that of those that have declared that they have a disability, 2.3% have not declared the type of disability. See figure 4a.
The disability age breakdown in Figure 4b indicates that the disability population is spread evenly across all the age groups except for the under 25s and the over 60s.
Gender
The Environment Agency’s workforce comprises a higher proportion of men (59.2%) than women (40.8%); this does not reflect the general population which is the other way around . This figure has remained stable with an approximate 60/40 Male/Female split for the last four years. See figure 5.
There are more men (60.1%) than women (39.8%) in high grades, this is particularly the case with gender breakdown for Executive Managers grade which is approximately 70:30 Men:Women. There are more men (95.6%) than women (4.4%) in non-employees grades; these grades include Operations Delivery Manual Employees, Nuclear, Non-Standard and Graduate Trainees. See figures 5b.
Gender Identity
As only 43.6% of employees have declared their gender identity, there is not enough information to draw any conclusions. See figure 6.
Race/Ethnicity
Employees from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups only comprises 3.2% of Environment Agency employees; this is lower than the general population where BAME ethnic groups represent 13% of the general population . The figure increases to 3.5% when we include employees from Eastern European backgrounds. The BAME proportion of employees has remained stable for the last three years. See figure 7 & 7a.
The largest grade groups for BAME employees are grade 4 (26.2%) and grade 5 (22.8%), this is the same as the overall grade profile for the Environment Agency. See Figure 7c.
Religion
Only 47.8% of Environment Agency employees have declared their religion, therefore the information is not complete enough to analyse the religious breakdown. See figure 8.
Sexual Orientation
As only 49.3% of employees have declared their sexual orientation, there is not enough information to draw any conclusions. See figure 9.
Working pattern
Approximately 12% of employees have a part time working pattern, see figure 10. Less than 50% have declared if they are working flexibly. This is not enough information to draw any conclusions.
More women (26.2%) than men (3.3%) work part time, see figure 10a. The age group with the highest part time working pattern is the 36-40 year olds (25.6%), see figure 11. The grade with the highest part time working pattern is grade 5 (29.4%), see figure 10b.
Previous statistics
Quarter 4 2011-12 Environment Agency Workforce Diversity Statistics (Excel, 82KB)
Quarter 4 2011-12 Environment Agency Workforce Diversity Statistics (PDF, 144KB)
Quarter 3 2011-12 Environment Agency Workforce Diversity Statistics (Excel, 19KB)
Quarter 3 2011-12 Environment Agency Workforce Diversity Statistics (PDF, 13KB)
Information about the data
Grades: Due to the range of specialist employees required by the Environment Agency, there are a number of different grading structures used as well as the standard employees grades of 1-7 and Executive Management. For example Nuclear employees and Operations Delivery employees each have their own grading structure. For the purposes of this exercise all employees in these departments are shown as one grade each. For the purposes of this exercise the grades have also been grouped into lower (grades 1-4) and higher (grades 5-EM).
A breakdown of the characteristics’ data by grade has been provided where there is at least 50% of the data is valid.
Glossary:
EM – Executive Manager
EW – Operations Delivery
