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What does 'equality and diversity' mean?

Whether you are a large multinational company, a small business or a freelance worker, it pays to know about equality and diversity in the workplace – to act within the law and to make the best of your workforce and your business opportunities.

Equality is the current term for ‘Equal Opportunities’. It is based on the legal obligation to comply with anti-discrimination legislation. Equality protects people from being discriminated against on the grounds of group membership i.e. sex, race disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, or age.

Diversity implies a wide range of conditions and characteristics. In terms of businesses and their workforces it is about valuing and reaping the benefits of a varied workforce that makes the best of people’s talents whatever their backgrounds. Diversity encompasses visible and non-visible individual differences. It can be seen in the makeup of your workforce in terms of gender, ethnic minorities, disabled people etc., about where those people are in terms of management positions, job opportunities, terms and conditions in the workplace.

Diversity is about respecting individual differences, and people's differences can be many and varied:

Embracing equality and diversity brings to an organisation a wide range of experience, ideas and creativity whilst giving the individual employee a feeling of being enabled to work to their full potential.

Combined together, equality and diversity drive an organisation to comply with anti-discrimination legislation as well as emphasising the positive benefits of diversity such as drawing on a wider pool of talent, positively motivating all employees and meeting the needs of a wider customer base.

Employers are now encouraged to deepen and enrich their “equal opportunities” policies and strategies into an encompassing Equality and Diversity policy with a strategy and action plans that managers, workers and other stakeholders can contribute to and benefit from.

If you would like to find out more about this topic, see our useful links pages or our strategy and action plan templates and action plan and the business case for equality and diversity.