We are committed to addressing our gender and ethnicity pay gaps.
We are rolling out a College-wide mentoring scheme which can help progress career development and address barriers. Mandatory training for all College staff via Imperial Essentials includes an equality, diversity, and inclusion online course. In 2021 the College introduced a new Pay Review framework that strengthens the governance around the processes, ensuring equity and consistent application of achievement pay review awards.
We have a commitment to improve recruitment of under-represented academic staff by increasing the ethnic diversity of appointment panels, especially for senior roles. We have implemented a gender de-coding tool which identifies hidden bias in language in recruitment materials, to avoid deterring women from applying for roles or promotion.
Please see below a comprehensive list of the College’s activity and initiatives in these areas.
Initiatives and actions on Gender and Ethnicity
- College context
- Recruitment and Progression
- Organisational Development and Inclusion
- Family-friendly
- Reward
College context
- The College’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Strategy Group has been developed into an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Group, chaired by the Co-Associate Provosts (EDI). The Group, whose membership comprises representatives from across the College has invited experts, debated salient issues, and developed strategic and policy proposals in relation to equality, diversity and inclusivity matters that impact staff and students. The EDIAG is supported by various sub-committees which report into it, including the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Forum, the Disability Action Committee, the Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment Teams, the Stonewall Action Committee, and other working groups.
- The Imperial Together initiative helped move the culture of the College to be more closely based on the new set of College Values co-developed with the community. The two-year action plan was delivered and going forward, the new People and Culture Committee builds on this positive work, sponsoring and championing activity to continue to improve the culture at Imperial.
- Two Co-Associate Provosts (for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) were appointed and these report to the Provost.
- The new People and Culture Committee (PCC) is a sub-committee of the University Management Board. It is chaired by the President and has assumed executive responsibility for delivering the College’s EDI strategy.
- The College continues to run centrally-supported diversity networks – Imperial As One for BAME staff, Able@Imperial for disabled staff, Imperial 600 for LGBTQ+ staff, Imperial’s Parents Network and Carers Network, PA and Admin Network.
- The College obtained a bronze Race Equality Charter (REC) in Autumn 2021 and is now focused on delivering its race equality action plan.
- A new anti-racist training module, Introduction to race equity, tailored to the College was made accessible to all staff and students in November 2022.
- The Beyond Ethnicity Conference for early career researchers from minority ethnic backgrounds, run annually since 2020, took place in November 2022 and ran again in September 2023.
- The PFDC-commissioned report “What Do Women Need to Succeed in Academia” was published in September 2022, with its recommendations being used to steer the College Athena Swan action plan and also inform the next College EDI Strategy.
- A 6-hour LGBTQ+ Inclusion and Mental Health course has been introduced for staff from the LGBTQ+ mental health charity, MindOut.
- Imperial 600 launched their new ally badges in June 2023.
- The College published its Mental Health Mental and Wellbeing Strategy in July 2023 and action Plan in spring 2024. The strategy aims to bring a renewed focus on good mental health and wellbeing; it is supported by an action plan to ensure students and staff get the support and advice they need, when they need it.
- A new process for workplace adjustments has been developed in the context of the Work Location Framework. Highlighted at PCC in February 2024, it will be reviewed at the end of the year.
- Disability briefings for staff and for managers were rolled out by the EDI Centre in October 2023.
- A revised draft Bullying and Harassment Policy and Procedure was created in 2023 with approval from the People and Culture Committee. Alongside this, the College has now recruited and trained 17 new Staff Harassment Support Contacts.
- The College has also continued with the embedding of Report and Support – with work now taking place to raise the profile, with the aim to increase reporting and from named, rather than anonymous individuals. The Report and Support data being is published online to share the number and nature of disclosures to show that reports are received, and action is taken.
- The College’s Values were developed via staff focus groups to improve our working culture and help build a positive environment. The Values and Behaviours enable the community to be clear about what is expected, recognise, and reward positive behaviour, and actively address poor conduct.
- Compliance training for all College staff via Imperial Essentials includes an equality, diversity, and inclusion online course.
- Events continue to take place to showcase equality and promote inclusion e.g. Women@Imperial, celebration of Black History Month, Disability History Month, Pride Month and LGBT+ History Month.
- Having steadily improved our position in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Ranking over the last several years, and achieved a top 100 employer rating in 2022, Imperial achieved a gold award in June 2024, ranking 33 out of 246.
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Imperial College London is committed to providing a supportive environment and recognises that flexible working can be of benefit to both employees and the university. With effect from 1 April 2024, the university’s Flexible Working Policy was updated so that employees can request flexible working from their first day of employment and are able to make two flexible working requests in any 12-month period.
Recruitment and Progression
- All recruiting managers are required to be trained in fair recruitment and selection good practice. This includes equal pay issues, diversity, taking positive action and making pay-related decisions.
- All jobs new to the College, or those with significantly revised job descriptions, are evaluated by trained assessors using the internationally recognised Hay job evaluation system and we are currently in the process of training more HR staff to support this. This system ensures a sound and consistent judgement on the grading of individual jobs.
- An anonymised recruitment option is now available for hiring managers when appropriate.
- Review the language and material used in recruitment and use strategies to make it more attractive and inclusive to diverse and underrepresented groups.
- Ensured that search agencies are briefed on the College’s requirement for them to identify the widest range of possible candidates.
- Implemented feedback surveys to review the applicant experience and record where possible the reasons candidates decline an offer of employment.
- Data provided to implement workforce planning, enabling departments to identify current or future problem areas and take action to address them.
- Imperial have established a new partnership with Diversity Jobs Group which aims to attract more diverse talent.
- Proconsuls are Professors of the College who, having served as Consuls, provide additional support for the full range work of the Consuls as delegated by the Senior Consul. This includes, for example, assisting where required with Academic Promotions Panels.
- The Recruitment Hub have an online resource toolkit available to all staff involved in recruitment and selection which provides advice and practical tips on how to ensure they recruit in an inclusive manner. All hiring managers are sent a link to the toolkit as a reminder when they are shortlist candidates.
Organisational Development and Inclusion
- Providing tailored development (including but not limited to Academic Women’s Programme, Springboard development programme) to ensure that we have a pipeline of qualified and skilled women who feel confident and motivated to apply for promotion and be successful when applying for more senior roles.
- Leadership and management development programmes that stress the manager’s responsibility for equality, diversity and inclusion at all stages e.g. encouraging conversations about career development and ensuring access to development and opportunities, making recommendations for academic promotion and conducting Annual Review Conversations in line with the new process.
- College-wide provision of Unconscious Bias training for decision-makers, including those who make decisions on promotion.
- Positive action development provision provided regularly and for staff at all levels e.g. women-only courses and others such as IMPACT for staff from ethnic minorities, Calibre for disabled staff – all designed to increase skills and opportunities.
- Having College-wide coaching and mentoring schemes which can help progress career development and address barriers.
- Introducing the Career Moves Guide to create greater transparency about career development for Professional, Technical and Operational staff at Imperial and tips for all roles, including hiring managers.
- The College provides a scheme whereby staff who register for a part-time postgraduate degree at Imperial may be eligible for a reduction in their tuition fee through the tuition fee remission scheme.
- Micro-development sessions have been introduced to support managers and staff with different aspects of the working experience including managing hybrid working, career development and managing relationships
- Reverse mentoring scheme launched which involves a senior leader being mentored by a more junior colleague who - from a diversity and inclusion perspective - is different from them in some way and has a different experience of the organisation. This is to build empathy and understanding, leading to better, more inclusive decision making.
- Media academy – which was initiated by Imperial As One and supports development of media skills for BAME academics.
- The Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre (PFDC) provide career planning advice and training to support people to apply for roles. They also hold regular mock interviews to aid colleagues to be able to prepare and perform confidently in their actual interviews.
- PFDC - Updated registration forms to capture gender identity, ethnicity, and disability information to evaluate whether the PFDC programme of support is reaching all ECRs.
- PFDC - Disclosing disabilities information sent to all new postdocs by the PFDC. The aim is to provide information and encourage postdocs to disclose disabilities to allow appropriate support to be put in place.
- BAME Early Careers Conference to be held on an annual basis.
- The EDI Committee are currently working on the EDI Strategy 2024 ‘Imperial Cohesion’, looking at bringing the community together, adding support to the many people facing strategies that have been set out in recent times and reviewing metrics to identify gaps that need addressing.
- Neurodiversity Awareness training launched in 2022/23 had 30 people complete the course this year.
- Disability briefings for staff and for managers were rolled out by the EDI Centre in October 2023
- A number of departments moved forward constructively as a result of the first Inclusive Recruitment workshop in November 2022. The I-X recruitment model has been held up as an extremely successful hiring strategy (50% female in first round, 75% minority ethnic in the second round). An annual recruitment workshop (first held in Nov 2022) is planned for Dec 4 2024, to discuss the positive lessons from the I-X recruitment
- The impact of the 2023-24 Seed Fund projects highlight the continuing innovative ideas for supporting needs within Imperial’s community. From diversifying and raising awareness of the rich contributions of different cultural literature (IAO Meet the Author series) to the empowerment of the LGBTQ+ student voice (LGBTQ+ SU Officer), these projects demonstrate the commitment to creating an more inclusive environment at Imperial.
- This year we aim to fund seven projects to include themes focusing on Power and Privilege, ‘The things I wish I knew-Disable Student Campaign’, Belonging- Diversifying visual representations of successful figures in academia. As well as student-led mentoring programmes and initiatives aimed at supporting Mental Health issues faced by students at Imperial.
- The new anti-racist online training module, Introduction to race equity, tailored to Imperial was made accessible to all staff and students in Nov 2022 and has been completed by 54 people to date.
Family-friendly
- Elsie Widdowson Fellowships for academics returning from either maternity, adoption/surrogacy or shared parental leave so that they can concentrate on their research and their career breaks do not hold back their professional progression.
- Imperial recognises the demands of family life and is committed to supporting members of staff to obtain a good work-life balance by enhancing family-friendly pay for maternity, shared parental, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity/maternity support leave.
- In June 2021, the Provost’s Board agreed to enhance the terms for Shared Parental Leave to enable both parents to each receive up to a maximum of 16 weeks’ shared parental leave at full pay when they are both employed by the university.
- In December 2023, the University Management Board agreed for all enhanced family leave and pay provisions (for maternity, shared parental, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity/maternity support leave) to be a day one right, effective, from 1 August 2024.
- In December 2023, the University Management Board also agreed to increase the level of Family Emergency Leave from three to five days, effective from 1 August 2024.
- Imperial continues to support both parents and staff with other caring responsibilities to achieve a work-life balance. The Parents and Carers networks are available for staff in addition to a newly introduced PFDC Parents Network. Monthly parent sessions are run for colleagues to meet others in similar situations across the university whilst providing an opportunity to engage with the HR team.
- Imperial continues to run three termly workshops aimed at both parents and carers. The workshops look at both the practical and emotional aspects to enable staff to develop in their careers post parental leave and/or balancing their caring responsibilities, through effective planning and communication. They are all free for Imperial staff to attend.
- Imperial has signed up to P&Ps fully supported online platform known as the Parental Leave Portal. This offers parents and managers access to tailored, self-directed learning to manage the parental transition.
- Family savings are offered to all staff via the Perks at Work platform with a number of providers/retailers.
- Financial support is offered for carers to attend work-related events outside of Imperial/Imperial hours and/or during school holidays.
- Other provisions include charged school holiday cover plus a number of on-campus baby changing facilities and nursing rooms to support new parents.
- Imperial has a qualified Parental Transition Coach who can offer support to employees as they transition to parenthood and with their return to work.
- The university runs an informal Parent Buddy Scheme which is available to both before and after their period of parental leave. This informal networking scheme provides employees with the opportunity to be paired up with someone from Imperial who has recently gone through the same experience.
Reward
- Annual pay review (previously known as Pay Relativity) for every member of staff informed by the provision of benchmark data with recommendations moderated centrally. The new Pay Review framework covers both Equity Pay and Achievement Pay reviews.
- An independent Remuneration Committee that makes decisions on remuneration for Imperial’s most senior staff.
- The Total Remuneration Package has been designed to ensure salaries are regularly reviewed to accurately reflect role responsibilities, with achievement being a key part of this.
- Starting salary policy guidance designed to help line managers make sound appointment decisions when hiring a new member of staff. Ensuring salaries are consistent and equitable across groups of staff employed in similar jobs within the Department/Faculty/Support Services and university level.
- The introduction of Imperial’s Attraction and Retention Framework which encompasses all of the elements of the employee life cycle in addition to supporting our current Total Remuneration Package (TRP), to ensure we are competitively positioned within the UK Higher Education sector, across our London peers and in an international context. It is a recognition that our employees are our greatest asset and underpins the commitment to continue developing our people with the skills and expertise which is required to fulfil our longstanding mission and cement our global standing.
- The university undertakes benchmarking on an annual basis across all our job families to assess how Imperial’s overall remuneration package compares with national comparators, and to ensure compliance with our principles of aiming to pay in the median-to-upper quartile compared with those we're benchmarking against.