Work practices - diversity

Age

Age diversity is a central issue to British Airways as we need to attract and retain a wide range of employees with key skills. We also work to ensure our products and services meet the needs of an ageing population.

BA and the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act 2006

We work with key stakeholders across the airline to implement the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act (2006) and ensure compliance.

We run age awareness diversity campaigns and we have held discussions with employees to help us challenge assumptions linked to age.

We have been members of the Employers Forum on Age since its inception and steering group members since 2005.

Ageism, affecting both the young and old, is the most widely experienced prejudice in Britain, according to the first major study into age discrimination. The survey found that ageism now eclipses racism, sexism and discrimination based on disability. The average age of employees in British Airways in 43 years and the average length of service is 13 years.

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Disability

We seek to treat our employees and passengers according to their individual needs. This is particularly important for people with additional needs such as disabilities.

We seek to provide reasonable adjustments to support employees in the workplace and we provide a range of assistance for disabled customers. We have disabled employee and managerial working groups that work on the disability strategy for our employees and customers.

Other ways British Airways supports disability

• Mandatory awareness training for all customer facing employees.
• Disability issues factored into the planning of new and existing products and services.
• ba.com currently meets level 1 W3C (World wide web consortium) standards for website accessibility.
• Accessibility and work planning for Heathrow Terminal 5 project.

• Additional needs

• Accessibility on ba.com

Flexible working

We support a wide variety of flexible working options for employees. These options focus on assisting employees to achieve work and home life balance whilst contributing to the ongoing changes and challenges to the business.

We have a flexible working group which brings together both parents, carers and people interested in flexible working and work-life balance issues. This group is designed to share information and best practice and to work with departments on relevant issues.

"Flexible working has become an important part of the way we work and represents part of a continuing change of attitude. There are clear benefits for our people and for our business and we will continue to support flexible working solutions that are appropriate and meet our needs." – Kim Pettigrew, General Manager, People Department.

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Gender

Gender equality is a central aspect of our diversity strategy. Women make up 44% of our workforce and over 35% of our managers are women (2007).

Business women make up an increasing percentage of our passenger base:

• currently, 38% of our frequent travellers are female
• we continue to develop our products and services toward the more than 50,000 women joining the Executive Club every year

British Airways won the female FTSE 100 award for the most women on its Board of Directors in 2005-6 and 2006-7.

We have also received gold awards from Opportunity Now (the networking organisation committed to gender equality in the workplace) for its work on gender equality.

How we support gender equality

• A senior women's network group meet regularly to discuss issues such as career progression and leadership behaviours.
• Discussion groups convene to get the views of both genders on issues such as flexible working and career progression.
• 90% of women return from maternity leave, helping to meet British Airways' aim to retain talent.

We aim to achieve a more balanced female representation in traditional, male dominated areas such as Flight Operations and Engineering. To help facilitate this we worked with GERI (Gender Equality and Racial Inclusion) which is a partnership funded by Europe. GERI works closely with schools, organisations and the community to encourage males and females to look at job roles where they are under-represented.

Finally, we support the Hillingdon based Cranford Community Women's project to help women back into work.

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Harassment and bullying

The company is committed to ensuring that any form of harassment and bullying is taken seriously and appropriately dealt with. The company has had a Harassment and Bullying policy in place since 1999 that includes mandatory training on the issue for managers.

"In British Airways, we are committed to creating a workplace where dignity and respect is at the core of our relationships with others." – Willie Walsh, Chief Executive.

The company's Dignity at Work steering group works to create a positive and productive environment for all British Airways employees with representatives from British Airways trade unions and the diversity team.

Employee helpline

An employee helpline provides support and advice on a range of work and personal issues. Harassment and bullying complaints can be raised and be reported anonymously via this secure reporting service.

British Airways supports banning bullying

We support the Ban Bullying at Work Day, which raises awareness of the negative impact of harassment and bullying for the individual and the business.

Racial equality and cultural awareness

Our employees and customers come from a wide range of cultures, backgrounds and nationalities. We recognise that it is important that we understand and respond to individual customer needs, especially as we explore and extend to new overseas markets.

• We work with local travel agents and tailor our products and services to our customers including catering and in-flight entertainment.
• We employ international cabin crew and ensure that all front-line employees receive cultural awareness training.

We support racial equality and cultural awareness in other ways too by:

• attending events to attract a wider range of customers from different cultures and religions
• providing students with opportunities to meet British Airways staff including managers, cabin crew and pilots. e.g. in 2006 we worked with Brentside High School as part of the Black Pupils Achievement programme
• having a Race and Culture Group consisting of employees who support work on race
• working with Race for Opportunity, a business in the community organisation, committed to promote the business case for race and diversity

ba.com is multi-lingual

Our main selling and servicing channel, ba.com, supports 5 key languages – English, French, Spanish, Italian and German and features local language pages for many other languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese.

Religion and belief

We employ people from a range of faiths and beliefs, reflecting the diversity of our passenger base. Awareness and understanding of the importance of religion and belief in the workplace is covered in mandatory training for managers. Customer facing staff also receive training to understand the needs of different religious and faith groups.

How we support religion and belief in the workplace:

• ability to order special meals for different dietary needs
• an interfaith network group works on issues such as uniforms, catering, and the provision of prayer rooms
• production of a monthly newsletter called 'Religious Festivals' to highlight key events
• members of the Employers Forum on Belief who meet regularly to share best practice on managing faith issue.

Sexual orientation

British Airways is committed to providing an inclusive environment for all employees, whether they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian or bisexual. The company's employee led Sexual Orientation Group covers these issues and supports the Pride event.

• Learn about the Pride event

We work closely with Stonewall, an organisation committed to equality in the workplace, participating in a video to raise awareness and champion the Stonewall programme.

• Visit the Stonewall website

We audited our policies and procedures to meet compliance with the Civil Partnership Act 2005 and the extension of discrimination legislation to goods and services in 2006. We have provided training and guidance on the provisions of the Act to ensure we treat all our colleagues and customers with respect and dignity.

British Airways training in diversity

Diversity and Inclusion training for managers is mandatory and focuses on behaviour and leadership as well as legislative and policy requirements. We also train all front-line employees in Diversity and Inclusion. We run the following sessions:

• understanding the legislative and policy framework
• focus on increasing knowledge and understanding of the diversity of our customers and sensitivity to different needs
• include awareness around issues to do with disability

In addition, we provide all new employees with a Diversity in the Workplace booklet outlining a range of information and advice on the topic.

Membership organisations and awards

British Airways is a member of a range of best practice organisations such as:

• The Employers Forum on Disability
• The Employers Forum on Age
• Race for Opportunity
• Opportunity Now
• The Employers Forum on Belief
• Stonewall

Recognition for our efforts

• Gold award by the race organisation Race for Opportunity
• Top 100 companies in Stonewall's annual gender Equality Index
• Recognised by Opportunity Now for our work on gender equality
• FTSE 100 award for the number of women on our board

Employee data

British Airways values a diverse workforce and recognises the importance of creating a workplace climate where everyone feels part of the business and is motivated to deliver. Here we provide some of our latest employee data:

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