Note: Our Diversity reporting tool is currently available to HR Advice customers
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Once diversity information collection is enabled within your account, a form will appear on the Personal Details tab of each team member's profile, allowing them to add information on 14 diversity categories.

In Charlie, It's not possible to enable or disable reporting of specific categories. This is because asking team members to provide information on only some aspects of diversity may give the impression these are more important than others. It's also impossible to know which aspects of diversity are most relevant for your company to focus on until you've gathered data on where you are to begin with.

Note: Choosing to initially focus your company’s efforts to improve representation on one or two demographic categories is absolutely fine. It would be ineffective to implement effective strategies across the board simultaneously. Focusing allows you to choose the most impactful changes to improve representation in your company.

There are characteristics of diversity that tend to be more visible and outward facing: gender and ethnicity. Diversity can also exist in a number of less visible ways that are equally important, but hard to spot unless you ask. It’s arguably even more important to gather information on these aspects of diversity, as you are less likely to be aware of them otherwise.

In the UK, the The Equality Act 2010 offers legal protection from discrimination in the workplace. Under the act, there are nine protected characteristics:

Some companies may choose to focus their diversity reporting on these characteristics. These are important aspects of diversity to focus on, and are vital to ensure you are not at legal risk from potentially discriminatory policies or processes.

However, at Charlie we want to go one step further and allow you to not only be legally compliant but also collect all aspects of diversity, including those important characteristics not included within the act.

You are able to gather diversity information on the following 14 categories (every category is multiple choice and includes the option "prefer not to say"):

Age
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Knowing the age profile of your organisation can help you decide on what sort of benefits to offer, and this increases the likelihood of them being valued and utilised by your colleagues. For example, research shows that employees in companies with a younger age profile usually show less interest in life insurance compared to those with an older age profile, and instead prefer debt-repayment support.
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It can also help you make future succession plans.

Gender
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Capturing gender information and cross-referencing with answers to other diversity characteristics (such as age) and also inclusion questions, you will be able to identify if policy enhancements or additions are needed eg to maternity and parental leave policies or menopause and wellbeing policies.
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It may also help with top-line gender pay-gap reporting, and understand training requirements related to subjects such sexual harassment.

Transgender
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Collecting information on gender identity will help you understand what levels of support your organisation might need to provide. This could include a more comprehensive set of HR policies that support transgender colleagues and/or specifically targeted wellbeing support for those who request it (including wellbeing spaces for those on hormone treatment).
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It will also help you identify what level of additional training might be required by people managers.
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Ethnicity
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Understanding the ethnicity profile of your organisation will help you set appropriate goals to work towards achieving greater representation. This information, combined with answers to the inclusion questions and cross-referenced against other diversity characteristics, will help you identify any barriers to progression and wellbeing needs.
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And it will help you begin your preparations for the likely introduction of ethnicity pay-gap reporting.
(Source: CIPD Race Inclusion Report March 2021)
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Disability
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Capturing disability information and cross-referencing with answers to other diversity characteristics (such as age) and also inclusion questions, you will be able to identify if policy enhancements or additions are needed e.g. medical leave policies, the types of workplace adjustments that might be needed and relevant wellbeing policies.

Neurodiversity
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Whilst neurodiversity falls underneath disability in the eyes of the Equality Act, we realise that the huge diversity of those who are neurodiverse means you need more detailed information. This will help your organisation identify if policy enhancements or additions are needed e.g. the types of workplace and work practice adjustments that might be needed, relevant wellbeing policies and training for managers.
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Sexual Orientation
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Understanding the sexual orientation profile of your colleagues, cross-referencing this with other diversity characteristics and their answers to inclusion questions will help you understand the experience of your straight and LGB+ colleagues.
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This will help you address any imbalances in their feelings of inclusion and belonging, and also design and implement policies that will help with this.

Marriage and Civil partnership
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Understanding the marriage and civil partnership profile of your colleagues will help you design better benefits that are useful to everyone. Research has shown that imbalances in such benefits can mean people who are married or in a civil partnership receive more than their single counterparts so this information will help you make necessary changes that lead to greater inclusion.
(Source: CIPP - Benefits for married and single people)

Parental Status
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Understanding the parental status profile of your colleagues will help you design better benefits that are useful to everyone. This can include support related to childcare and family bereavement policies, and identify areas where you need to train your managers to lead with empathy.

Pregnancy and Maternity
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Understanding the pregnancy / maternity status profile of your colleagues will help you design better benefits that are useful to everyone. This can include parental leave policies; adoption leave policies and other support related to infertility treatment (including wellbeing spaces for those on hormone treatment), and identify areas where you need to equip your managers with specific knowledge and skills.

Caring Responsibilities
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Understanding what caring responsibilities your colleagues might have will help you not only design policies to support them, but it will also identify areas where you need to provide additional training for managers.

Religion or Belief
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The right and freedom to express your religion and beliefs are protected under the Equality Act and Human Rights Act. Understanding the faith and belief profile your colleagues will help you ensure you create an inclusive environment where people can share what they are comfortable sharing. It will also help you design policies to facilitate this, e.g. Flexible Public Holiday policies.

Education Level
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Capturing information on education level and cross-referencing with answers to other diversity characteristics (such as age and class) and the inclusion questions, you will be able to identify if policy enhancements or additions are needed e.g. where you seek out new candidates, training for hiring managers.

Socioeconomic Background
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Capturing information on socioeconomic background and cross-referencing with answers to other diversity characteristics (such as gender and education level) and the inclusion questions, you will be able to identify if policy enhancements or additions are needed e.g. where you seek out new candidates, training for hiring managers.

“Need tailored support to build your diversity categories? Book in a call to discuss our HR advice service."
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