Our commitment

Funeral Recruitment Ltd (FR) is committed to providing equal opportunities in employment and to avoiding unlawful discrimination in employment and against our clients and customers.

This policy along with the FR Equal Opportunities Policy is intended to assist FR to put this commitment into practice and promote fair and inclusive business practices throughout the group. 

Diversity Policy & Procedures

FR is fully committed to the elimination of unlawful and unfair discrimination and values the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the organisation.

FR will not discriminate because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. It will not discriminate because of any other irrelevant factor and will build a culture that values meritocracy, openness, fairness and transparency.

All employees are responsible for the promotion and advancement of this policy. Behaviour, actions or words that transgress the policy will not be tolerated and will be dealt with in line with the organisation’s disciplinary policy.

Objectives relating to fair and inclusive practices will be included in all employees’ performance indicators and will form an integral part of performance reviews throughout the year.

The policy is applicable to all employees, secondees, agency staff, clients, communities, suppliers and contractors, whether permanent or temporary. The policy applies to all processes relating to employment and training and to any dealings with customers and clients. Decisions relating to customers and communities will be based on business-related criteria only and any irrelevant information will not form part of the process.

The policy will be reviewed on an ongoing basis to reflect changes in the law, demographics and internal business requirements. Progress relating to the policy will be recorded annually and a full report will be presented to the senior management team to debate progress and review the policy status.

Procedure wording: The publication of a diversity policy enables FR to send out a strong message of commitment, both internally and externally. Although the diversity policy is a fundamental part of the organisation’s diversity strategy, it will be brought to life only if it is reinforced by a focused and structured strategic diversity plan. In order to do this GPR is committed to the following processes.

Leadership

FR will:

• set diversity objectives;
• identify a senior level champion for leading the diversity strategy;
• secure top-level ownership and sponsorship for the programme; and
• develop and cascade a diversity vision statement.

Audit

FR will:

• undertake a full audit in relation to policies and procedures, practice of policy and perception of policy and process;
• obtain workforce metrics and compare them with sector and best practice organisations; and
• produce a risk analysis report for senior board members to act as a catalyst for future activity across the business.

The audit will include a review of all the processes to establish the FR’s position with regard to compliance and best practice. This will be done by administering a questionnaire to all staff, undertaking one-to-one interviews with key leaders and stakeholders, and facilitating focus groups to establish employees’ perception in relation to key areas of the questionnaire.

Policy development

FR will:

• benchmark existing policy statements from other organisations and advisory groups;
• develop human resources and other policies (outlining vision, scope, responsibility, accountability and measurements); and
• cascade new policies with chief executive endorsement through business briefings.

Training and education

FR will:

• conduct a full training needs analysis relating to the understanding and management of diversity;
• consult key stakeholders and players on the organisational learning requirements;
• evaluate suppliers’ training and secure budget for training design and delivery;
• integrate diversity into mainstream training and development programmes;
• establish education programmes for all staff (including programmes that move from awareness to behavioural change); and
• integrate diversity competencies into development programmes and assessment and selection processes.

Communication and consultation

FR will:

• establish key lines of communication across the business through consultation with key stakeholders;
• undertake an audit of existing communications channels so that compliance and inclusiveness are assured;
• ensure that communication imagery and graphics are inclusive, and reflect and reinforce the words within the documentation;
• distribute a top-level communications plan to senior management for team briefings, and develop “reporting back” communication lines to ensure feedback;
• ensure that mainstream business communications reinforce the inclusive messages and become mainstreamed into day-to-day processes; and
• communicate and celebrate the organisation’s successes in diversity.

Resources

FR will:

• establish formal reporting lines for monitoring progress against targets and objectives;
• select and establish a diversity steering council with representatives from across all parts of the organisation;
• identify and appoint functional diversity champions to report progress to the diversity council on a quarterly basis; and
• secure financial sign-off from the chief executive to enable related activities to be undertaken (for example reasonable adjustments to comply with the Equality Act 2010, and communication and training programmes).

Measurement

FR will:

• capture all available workforce metrics from existing databases to benchmark against sector companies, demographics and best practice standards;
• agree the aspirational targets for the workforce composition over a five-year period with the chief executive, the board and the diversity steering council;
• establish formal measurement tools to assess the climate in the organisation (for example regular staff surveys, 360° feedback mechanisms and diversity perception audits);
• assess progress in achieving its diversity objectives;
• develop relationships with external benchmarking bodies to assess progress (with, for example, Business in the Community, the Prince’s Responsible Business Network, Stonewall, Business Disability Forum and the Equality and Human Rights Commission); and
• evaluate network fairness (both in and out of sector) to assess value for benchmarking purposes.

External profile

FR will:

• join appropriate organisations in order to network, exchange best practice and generally raise the FR’s profile;
• build relationships with trade, and the local and national press to develop a good external image and to position FR at the leading edge;
• market the FR key representatives on to the human resources/diversity conference circuit in order to present case studies and capture external best practice; and
• develop relationships outside the human resources press sector in order to mainstream the diversity context into business.