Inclusion within the council
I feel I’m working for all the people of Leicester, building a council that caters for everybody’s needs.
Kalvaran Sandhu, Equalities Manager
Inclusion within the council
Kalvaran Sandhu, Equalities Manager
I feel I’m working for all the people of Leicester, building a council that caters for everybody’s needs.
An inclusive employer
We want everyone who works for us to feel safe, secure, comfortable and confident because of who they are. That’s why when you join us, you’ll be treated fairly and with dignity and respect, regardless of, for example, your race, ethnic or national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, responsibility for dependents, disability, age, marital or civil partnership status, sexual orientation or trade union activity.
We recognise that individual people or groups who face discrimination on any grounds can potentially experience greater disadvantage in recruitment, selection, training, development and promotion. So, we encourage a variety of employee groups that represent people who identify themselves with a specific protected characteristic. Working closely with Human Resources and the Equality Team, these groups challenge and support the council to promote change and advance equality of opportunity.
Embracing cultural diversity
Leicester is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the UK. It’s home to approximately 350,000 people, with roughly 70 different languages and dialects and a rich diversity of different faiths and beliefs. At the council, we not only represent every one of these communities, but we’re also committed to reflecting and celebrating the city’s cultural diversity in our workforce.
Why? Because we believe that employing people with different backgrounds, outlooks and life experiences will help us to better support peoples’ needs, both as a council and an employer. Just as importantly, we benefit from people bringing different ideas and perspectives to our work by challenging the way things have always been done.
So, join us and you’ll find an atmosphere that encourages you to be yourself, voice your opinions and influence decisions by bringing your unique perspective to our work. In short, you’ll enable us to be more innovative in how we enrich the lives of the people of Leicester.
Our disabled colleagues
We’re committed to removing barriers to work for people who have disabilities. So, if you join us as a disabled employee, you’ll find plenty of support to enable you to do your best work and to fulfil your potential.
Our Disabled Employees Group (DEG) supports a wide range of disabled employees, as well as those with long-term health conditions. Their role is to help you get all the right support you need to make working for the council as welcoming and stress-free as possible.
With regular monthly meetings at the Town Hall, the DEG also gives you a forum to discuss any issues around your disability and present any concerns to the council. We encourage all our managers to enable team members to go to DEG meetings, in line with the needs of our services.
Our LGBT+ network
Join our LGBT+ network and you’ll find an active community of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), as well as those with other gender identities and sexual orientations.
As an open, inclusive community, we’re here to offer advice and support on all LGBT+ issues. You’ll find a friendly, welcoming and confidential place where you can discuss anything to do with your work. You’ll also find lots of information about LGBT+ events in the council and across the wider local area - not to mention plenty of opportunities for networking and socialising.
As well as supporting each other, we also advise council managers and the HR team on policies to ensure that they are LGBT+ inclusive. And we work closely with other council employee groups to encourage a multi-layered approach and raise awareness of all relevant issues across the council.
Supporting flexible working
If you’re looking for some flexibility in where or how you work, we’ll try to support you. Most of our people enjoy the option of flexible working hours, with different start and finish times, depending on their and our needs. You could ‘earn’ up to 13 extra days off work under the scheme.
Depending on your role, you may be able to work part of the day or part of the week. All our jobs are also potentially open to job share. It’s a great way for working parents to fit work around family responsibilities.
Some of our roles are also available for term time working. This means you’ll be on a permanent full or part-time contract, with the ability to take unpaid leave during the school holidays. If the role allows, you’ll have the flexibility to use work space at any of our locations. You also may have the option to work from home either permanently, or as and when you need to due to domestic or health reasons.
The armed forces community
We recognise that military veterans can find adjusting to civilian life difficult, but we believe many have valuable transferable skills. As a major local employer offering a variety of opportunities, we’re committed to helping them to fulfil their potential.
That’s why we’ve introduced our guaranteed interview scheme. Under this scheme, we guarantee to give you an interview for any council job you apply for, as long as:
- Your last full-time employer was one of the British armed forces
- You left the armed forces less than three years ago
- You have the essential skills for the job you apply for
- You tell us you’re an armed forces veteran when you apply.
If all these apply to you, we’ll add you to our interview shortlist and follow our normal recruitment processes. The programme doesn’t guarantee you a job - we’ll make our decision on who’s best suited to the job from all those we interview. But it does give you the chance to show us your skills and capabilities.
If your armed forces connection is as a reservist, cadet leader or a family member of someone who is serving we have policies which can help you balance those commitments with your employment. In fact, our support as an employer for the Armed Forces has been recognised with a Ministry of Defence employer recognition scheme silver award.
