Responsible
New tech must earn people’s trust and transform lives for the better.
Inclusive
The future of tech must be diverse and inclusive for everyone to benefit.
Sustainable
Tech must accelerate our journey to net zero emissions and a circular economy.
Workplace adjustments are changes that are made to a work environment, job duties or work schedule that enables disabled people to perform their job duties effectively. If required the government’s Access to work scheme can help employee receive funding for both hard and soft adjustments.
There are so many benefits of having appropriate workplace adjustments. From improved productivity, increased job satisfaction to greater diversity with your team. The benefits are endless.
There are many different types of workplace adjustments that can be made, depending on the individual’s need and the nature of their job. But some examples are:
- Physical ‘hard’ adjustments - such as an adjusting desk or chair, ergonomic keyboards or assistive technology
- Schedule ‘soft’ adjustments - flexible working hours, part-time or reduced hours
- Communication adjustments - written or visual communication, interpreters (i.e. BSL interpreters), captioning services
We've realised our interview & assessment process may not be as inclusive as we needed it to be. Therefore we redesigned our strategy and allowed for our candidates to request any support they need throughout their application journey in order to become successful at BT Group
At 31 March 2023, 33.4% of our Board members, 30% of our Executive Committee members, and 22.5% of our senior leadership team were women.
Our Gender Equality Network (GEN) continues to represent its members effectively to help shape our I&D plans.
We’ve built relationships with Code First Girls, Women Returners, Black Girls Tech Summit and Girls Talk London to create more opportunities for women to move into technology careers.
Our last Gender pay gap has improved to 6.1% (6.7% previously) because we’ve recruited more women into senior roles. There has also been a slight rise in female representation in the upper 23.3% (0.3%) and lower middle 16.62% (1.3%) pay quarters.
The award-winning "Not her problem" campaign tackled sexist hate and ran during the UEFA Women’s Euros 2022.
At 31 March 2023, our Board comprised two directors from ethnic minority backgrounds. Our Ethnic Diversity Network (EDN) continues to champion its members’ concerns to help shape our I&D plans.
We’re making good progress in our ethnic minority representation, with notable gains against the diversity targets set in our Manifesto launched in 2021.
As lead sponsor of the Avado FastFutures programme, we’re helping upskill over 7,000 18-24 year old learners from ethnically diverse backgrounds. We want to help them develop digital and data skills to unlock opportunities and launch their careers.
We’ve built partnerships with The Aleto Foundation and 10,000 Black interns to attract and recruit young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Our Black middle managers continue to participate in the McKinsey Black Leadership programme which provides career development and networking opportunities..
At 31 March 2023, our Board had one disabled director.
Our Able2 Network continues to provide invaluable lived experience input into our I&D plans.
We’re a member of Valuable 500, a global business collective made up of 500 CEOs and their companies that are committed to disability inclusion. At the December 2022 disability summit, we renewed our commitment to three priorities: Workplace adjustment; Disability advocacy; and Career progression of our junior managers.
We renewed our status as a Disability Confident Leader and continue to work with several teams across the business, our Able2 People Network and external partner, the Business Disability Forum.
We partnered with Purple Goat, the UK’s only communications agencies run by disabled people, to deliver a series of awareness raising videos highlighting the experiences of colleagues with a range of disabilities – including diabetes, autism and visual and hearing impairments
We’re making good progress against the disability representation targets we set in our Manifesto.
- This year we ran several learning and Talent programmes to support our colleagues’ development such as Digital Campus, Accelerate, Elevate, and Aspire, a career development programme in our Consumer unit.
- We launched our reskilling programme CAPSLOCK, training existing employees for cybersecurity roles. Everyone who graduated now has a BT Group cybersecurity job. The programme won the ‘Recruitment and Workforce Planning Strategy’ award at the 2022 HR Excellence Awards.
- We launched our new ‘My HR’ system to simplify and digitise our HR technology landscape and give colleagues a better experience.
- We created our two-step ‘Covid Recovery Programme’ to help all employees manage the effects of long Covid and improve their health, wellbeing and functional capabilities. Those off work with long Covid dropped from 46% to 12% after referral to step two of the programme.
- To support our colleagues during the cost of living crisis we awarded a cost of living pay rise to 85% of our UK-based colleagues.
- Our 11 People Networks continue to play a key role in ensuring we maintain an intersectional lens as we work to achieve our I&D ambitions.
- We were a Gold Sponsor of London PRIDE 2022.
- The CCLA report on mental health for investors places us in the top 10% of the FTSE 100.
- We’re helping our most vulnerable customers during these tough times. We offer eligible customers our Home Essentials broadband and EE Basics mobile. This helped almost 180,000 customers this year. 3 million customers were excluded from April 2023 price increases.
- This year we helped 4.6m people and over 465,000 businesses and their employees in the UK improve their digital skills – a total of 19.3m people since FY15.
- We continuously engage with and challenge key suppliers on pricing and supply chain diversity.
Nothing without us - supporting Disability across BT.
Our ambition is to reflect the same level of disability representation across BT, as in the UK. This is because we believe a diverse workforce is better connected to customers, and creates more inclusive products. Our focus across BT Group, is promoting inclusive education, processes, workplaces & digital access. This will give a great employee experience which drives the retention and promotion of people who have a disability throughout out our business. A disability can be anything from physical, life impacting and neurodiverse conditions, temporary or permanent.
The AFN builds on BT's proud tradition of supporting armed forces people; everyone is welcome to join the network, whether you're a veteran, reservist, family member or somebody who has an interest. The AFN will:
- Champion, inspire and support ex-armed forces personnel who are BT employees.
- Help new recruits with their transition into BT from the military.
- Identify topics from the military that may enhance BT ways of working (e.g. leadership).
- Support for armed-forces related causes such as Openreach's partnership with SSAFA.
- Encourage volunteering and employee participation across the business.
We set up the Carers Network in recognition of the huge commitment and responsibilities borne by a large number of BT people. BT's Carers Network aims to connect and support people within the company who have caring responsibilities. BT supports its people with caring responsibilities, through flexible working arrangements, time off to meet caring commitments and flexible team-working.
As the BT Christian Network, our purpose is to connect with God for Good, by building a culture of kindness, support and Christlikeness at BT. Through the Word of God, we are guided by faith, harmony and kindness. We bring value to BT by encouraging our members to grow in Christlikeness in the workplace, by encouraging our colleagues with acts of kindness, and by encouraging our communities through generous charitable giving and volunteering.
Promoting Equality, Opportunity, and Participation for ALL Ethnicities.
We believe in the power of connection, the importance of everyone’s contribution, and the transformative potential of working together towards a common good. Together we will create a simple, inclusive, and dynamic environment that fosters belonging, personal growth, and empowerment for all.
The Gender Equality Network (GEN) is an inclusive people network where everyone is welcome, and we encourage colleagues to engage in the subject matters they’re passionate about.
The GEN aims to raise awareness, support our colleagues, hold the business to account and inspire change to policy, process and culture to drive gender equality.
We provide a social and support network connecting individuals from Jewish backgrounds, as well as a safe space for colleagues of any (or no) religion to engage with colleagues that practice Judaism
We educate colleagues about Jewish culture, customs and festivals and ensure Jewish identity and practices aren’t compromised in the workplace.
We promote interfaith relations and partake in a variety of social action and volunteering initiatives. Everyone is welcome!
Our goal is to provide a platform to harness the talent of Muslims and our members across BT Group, by connecting to our people, business and communities. We are an inclusive and open community and welcome everyone across BT Group.
At BT, our employee networks are established groups who come together to represent the views and issues of that group. We believe a high performing employee network connects individuals with others sharing similar experiences, interests and challenges:
- it creates a communication channel between members and the business;
- creates developmental opportunities for members;
- enhances the corporate brand and works with the Inclusion team to plan and implement our diversity and inclusion strategy.
The Peer to Peer Support Network is a team of volunteers, who are trained to listen to other colleagues who are struggling with their mental health or mental illness. They will listen non-judgmentally and in confidence to anybody who needs to talk.
How can we help?
We understand it can be difficult to open up about issues that you may be facing; we are here for you, to offer a friendly ear. Although we are not professionally qualified, and cannot claim to be experts, we do have experience of mental health problems and can signpost you to other services if needed.
This group is for LGBTQ+ people, allies, and anyone who wants to support their LGBTQ+ colleagues and friends.
The term LGBTQ+ is shorthand for a spectrum of descriptors for different forms of sexual orientations and gender identities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and many more!). You might be interested in the group because:
- you fall under the LGBTQ+ umbrella yourself;
- you might have direct reports/friends/family members who are;
- or it's simply a subject of interest you want to learn more about and support.
The BT Group Sikh Network aspires to create a network that empowers and inspires everyone to share the core values of Sikhi; Equality, Inclusivity, Spirituality, Humility, and Compassion.
