Scottish Government core – position on hybrid working Equality Impact Assessment – Results

Stage 3: Assessing the impacts and identifying opportunities to promote equality

Having considered the data and evidence you have gathered, this section requires you to consider the potential impacts – negative and positive – that your policy might have on each of the protected characteristics. It is important to remember the duty is also a positive one – that we must explore whether the policy offers the opportunity to promote equality and/or foster good relations.

Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of their age?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: None
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: Policy will have a greater emphasis on time in the office for activities such as team building and induction so managers can ensure youngers colleagues are better supported in the office.
• Promoting good relations among and between different age groups
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: As above

Do you think that the policy impacts disabled people?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: Policy ensures that reasonable adjustments are built into decisions about where staff can work.
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: Opportunity to ensure that colleagues with disabilities can best work in the way that supports them and manages their conditions, and that mental health is best supported through anchors of time in the office. Hybrid working is likely to involve various desk and room booking arrangements. These need to be set up in a way which ensures that those with workplace adjustments are able to take advantage of these. The guidance will address this and ensure that any desk allocation schemes prioritises space for employees who require workplace adjustments’. Separate guidance (not under hybrid working policy) recognises that full-time home working may be appropriate for some disabled staff as a workplace adjustment.
• Promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: More flexible working patterns available to all staff (compared to pre Covid) should reduce proximity bias

Do you think that the policy impacts men and women in different ways?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: None
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: Policy is designed to support the combination of work and non paid responsibilities which tend to follow more greatly on women. There are likely to be benefits of hybrid working – for example being able to work around school pickups and caring responsibilities. However, we recognise that there are also risks of a conflict between work and caring and this will need to be addressed in guidance (managers and staff need to agree on the time required to undertake caring responsibilities within the working week including where it is not possible to combine some forms of caring and childcare with work, and where managers need to give as much notice as possible of requirement to attend the workplace). Special leave remains available to deal with domestic emergencies and other caring issues. Once concern which we will require monitoring going forward is the possibility that people will reduce their external support on the days when they work from home. They might, for example, no longer put their children into after school clubs and then work evenings to make up the time. This could adversely affect wellbeing and raise the risk of burnout.
• Promoting good relations among and between men and womenAdvancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: None

Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of pregnancy and maternity?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: Can help support breastfeeding
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: N/A
  • Reasons for your decision: Opportunities available to all staff should reduce proximity bias
• Promoting good relations
  • Potential impact: None

Do you think your policy impacts on people proposing to undergo, undergoing, or who have undergone a process for the purpose of reassigning their sex? (NB: the Equality Act 2010 uses the term ‘transsexual people’ but ‘trans people’ is more commonly used)

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: Mixed bag – some trans people may be more comfortable working from home but harassment can be harder to see and call out
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: Possible lack of visibility of trans people in the office; but some may feel more comfortable working from home.
• Promoting good relations
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: As above, Those undergoing gender reassignment may find the home working element of hybrid working makes it easier to arrange work around appointments. These employees will remain entitled to the relevant special leave provisions.

Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of their sexual orientation?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: Mixed bag – some LGBT colleagues may feel working at home avoids harassment but it can be harder to see and call out.
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: Possible lack of visibility of LGBT staff in the office; but some may feel more comfortable working from home
• Promoting good relations
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: As above

Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of their race?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: Positive & Negative
  • Reasons for your decision: Again balance between working from home reducing harassment but also harder to identify
• Advancing equality of opportunity
  • Potential impact: Positive
  • Reasons for your decision: Working from home can increase opportunities to balance work with religious imperatives and community involvement
• Promoting good relations
  • Potential impact: None
  • Reasons for your decision: On the days they work from home, employees may find it easier to observe certain religious rituals such as praying or fasting. However, support to undertake these in the workplace will remain

Do you think that the policy impacts on people because of their marriage or civil partnership?

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Potential impact: None
  • Reasons for your decision: No evidence that a hybrid policy as described would have a differential impact on those who are married or in a civil partnership