Diversity & inclusion - Life at BT - Careers

Diversity and inclusion

We respect each other

We value diversity and celebrate difference. We want everyone who works at or for BT to feel able to be themselves. We know it's crucial that our people reflect the diversity of our communities and countries around the world.

And we know you expect that from us as well.

Our embrace of diversity and inclusion goes far beyond how we treat people within our company. The more diverse our company is, the more creative and innovative we will be and it’s that variety of experience, culture and background that inspires our teams to develop products and services which actually make a difference to everyone.

For us, diversity and inclusion are pivotal. Without them, we couldn’t fulfil our purpose: we connect for good.

Across BT Group, we are committed to embedding diversity and inclusion into everything that we do. It remains fundamental to our purpose: we connect for good.

Philip Jansen Chief Executive

Downloads

This is our second Diversity & Inclusion report. It includes our fifth Gender pay gap report, our second voluntary Ethnicity pay gap report, and the initiatives we have delivered in 2021 to build a diverse and inclusive BT Group. The report also highlights the progress we have made so far towards achieving our diversity targets in relation to women, ethnic minority colleagues and disabled colleagues.

Diversity and Inclusion Report 2022
pdf - 6.19 MB

Diversity and Inclusion Report 2022 - accessible version
This is an accessible version optimised for disabled people who use assistive technology.

pdf - 5.51 MB

What we’re doing today to make the difference

We believe that everyone has a role to play in making our business truly diverse and inclusive. While the D&I Centre of Expertise oversees our overarching D&I approach, strategy and portfolio, several company-wide functions and teams deliver programmes and interventions aimed at making BT even more diverse and inclusive.

Recruiting and supporting women

36.4% of our Board members, Executive Committee members, and 26.1% of our senior leadership teams are women.

Accelerate - Our new talent development programme for high potential middle managers has a fast stream for women.

Building on our partnership with Code First Girls, we have sponsored Nanodegree, a learning bootcamp for women interested in technology careers.

We signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge to signify our commitment to supporting all colleagues affected by menopause.

Our Gender Equality Network (GEN) continues to play a critical role as we work towards having a gender balanced workforce.

In India, we have been able to achieve a maternity returner rate of over 90%.
Ethnicity and Black inclusion

We now have two Board directors from ethnic minority backgrounds.

156 ethnic minority colleagues participating in Accelerate have been provided with external senior mentors.

41% of new graduate joiners came from ethnic minority backgrounds, an increase on 29% last year.

We continue to partner with The Aleto Foundation. The annual leadership programme had 417 delegates and 33 BT mentors.

A new partnership with 10,000 Black Interns led to a pilot programme where participants were offered paid internships.

As part of our Ethnicity Rapid Action Plan (ERAP), the mandatory ‘Let’s Talk about Race’ training has been rolled out to all colleagues. All Executive Committee members, and over 100 senior leaders have also participated in the reverse mentoring programme.

Sixty Black middle managers have participated in the McKinsey Black Leadership programme.

Our Ethnic Diversity Network (EDN) continues to act as a strategic D&I partner.
Disability inclusion

We launched our Disability Rapid Action Plan (DRAP) – with four measurable commitments - to accelerate the pace of progress we are making to support disabled and neurodiverse colleagues, and those that have an impairment, or a long-term health condition.

We have renewed our status as a Disability Confident Leader, signifying our commitment to disability inclusion.

Our Accessibility, Inclusion and Disability (AID) group refreshed our support for customers and colleagues who have different needs. Over 17,000 advisers have now completed training

The launch of the People With Disabilities (PWD) India Network has seen a re-energised focus on disability inclusion in India.

Our Able2 Network continues to provide invaluable lived experience input into our D&I plans.
Wider inclusion and Intersectionality

We continued to deliver mental health campaigns and we have developed over 500 wellbeing champions across the entire business.

The successful global rollout of our Peer-to-Peer Support Network will enable more volunteers help colleagues seeking confidential wellbeing support.

To ensure we support our colleagues with caring responsibilities effectively, we have worked to achieve Carer Confident Level 2: Accomplished Status.

Hope United, a nationwide campaign to educate the nation about the effects of online hate was launched in partnership with external agencies.

We continue to work to diversify our supply chain and support micro and small suppliers.

Our 11 People Networks continue to play a key role in ensuring we maintain an intersectional lens as we work to achieve our D&I ambitions.

PRIDE India network was launched to help us build a strong foundation as an inclusive employer in India.

BT Ireland continues to organise the annual Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition and support the BITC Ireland ‘Employment for People from Immigrant Communities’ programme (EPIC)

Behind our targets - key priorities

We have established an effective D&I governance process that ensures an inclusive approach which values D&I is consistently integrated when making key decisions. We have five clear strategic priorities:

A balanced workforce that reflects diverse societies

A representative workforce that reflects the different regions in which we operate.
Inclusive design built into all products and customer offerings

Inclusive, innovative culture where people feel respected, engaged and able to speak out and this translates into innovative inclusive design for customers – creating differentiation for BT.
A consistent approach to inclusivity for colleagues and customers

A best practice inclusive design approach is embedded into our policies, practices and offerings for all our people and customers.
Improved outcomes for disadvantaged groups in society

We’re proactively using digital technology to connect for good and actively removing barriers to learning to ensure fairness and inclusion. This is essential for our business and nation, now and in the future.
External recognition

Strong external reputation for leading the D&I agenda through bold action, research, influencing others in industry and sharing best practice.

Our D&I ambition

To help guide progress towards our 2030 ambitions, we have set stretching targets for 2025 in relation to women, ethnic minority and disabled colleagues for different parts of our business.

Our 2025 targets include for the whole of BT Group (including Openreach), targets for the leadership teams across BT Group, including Openreach, and targets for BT Group, excluding Openreach. We have deliberately made these distinctions due to the significantly different colleague demographics within Openreach, which are more typical of an engineering business.

All of our targets for women relate to our global workforce, whereas our targets for ethnic minority, Black and disabled colleagues relate only to our UK colleagues, and is based on declared data only. The different legislative frameworks, that vary from country to country, and cultural factors where we operate, prevent us from being able to collect and process accurate data in relation to ethnicity and disability outside of the UK.

We are making gradual progress towards achieving our 2025 D&I targets and 2030 ambitions.

Our workforce diversity targets for 2025

Click image to enlarge

The D&I interventions that we are delivering to create a culture in which everyone feels included are focused on three areas: recruitment and attraction, better conversion rates and improved retention of our existing talent.

Our People Networks and our allies

Our eleven People Networks are inclusive and are open to all our colleagues: those who are members of a specific community and those who are allies. Each network works in collaboration with the business to promote equality, diversity and inclusion across our company.

Allyship is important. We think of an ally as an advocate, supporter, and friend. Someone who stands up for their colleagues and helps to create an environment where people in specific communities feel included, accepted, and valued.

In our People Networks, and across the business, we’ve a growing ally base.

Able2 network
We support all BT people who have a neurodiverse condition, an impairment or a long-term health condition.
Armed Forces network
We build 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.
Carers network
Our aim is to connect and support people within the company who have caring responsibilities.
Christian network
We support Christians within BT and are happy to answer any questions that anyone has about the Christian faith.
Ethnic diversity network
We're helping make BT the best place to work, by supporting and engaging our workforce from diverse backgrounds.
Gender equality network
We're here to champion the value that people from differing backgrounds bring to BT and support them in realising their full potential.

Jewish network
We provide a social and support network for like-minded individuals and promote interfaith relations as well as inclusivity through social action, volunteering, and networking events.
Muslim network
We provide a platform for harnessing the talent of Muslims and our members across BT, by connecting to our people, business and communities. We are an inclusive and open community and welcome everyone across BT.
Peer-to-Peer network
We're a team of volunteers that helps our colleagues by talking – and listening – in confidence, to anyone who is looking for support with their mental health and wellbeing.
Pride network
This group is for LGBTQI+ people, allies and anyone who wants to support their LGBTQI+ colleagues and friends.
Sikh network
The BT Sikh Network aspires to create a network which empowers and inspires everyone to share the core values of Sikhi; Equality, Inclusivity, Spirituality, Humility and Compassion.

All our People Networks have elected chairs and co-chairs that lead their network. Each network has an executive sponsor who acts as an advocate for their network, contributing to the network’s direction, championing its purpose and work, and providing counsel.