Equality & fairness

Group of Royal Mail employees

We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity and mix of people living in the communities in which we work.

Royal Mail is committed to being an equal opportunities employer and we proactively seek to recruit people from socially excluded groups. To ensure we remove barriers to employment, we have established partnerships with a number of organisations that support inclusion.

We are proud of our work in this area, which includes the following programmes: 

  • Employment for the disabled.We’ve worked in partnership with Remploy, provider of employment services to people experiencing complex barriers to work, since 2005. Our work experience programme has a high success rate, with 80 per cent of individuals going on to be offered paid work within Royal Mail. We have placed more than 1,000 people through this scheme.
  • Ready for Work.We have employed more than 250 graduates from this employability programme over the past six years. This accounts for 11 per cent of the total placements secured by clients after completing the Ready for Work course.
  • Work Experience placements.In 2011, we committed to offering a minimum of 80 work experience placements each year for a period of up to eight weeks for 16 – 24 year olds.
  • Apprentices. We have committed to offer up to 30 apprentices a two-year Business Improvement apprentice scheme, which focuses on our World Class Mail programme.
  • Business Action on Homelessness.We have been a national partner of Business in the Community (BITC) Business Action on Homelessness programme since 2005. During this time we have offered more than 450 work experience placements, with185 of these people going on to work at Royal Mail or other organisations.

Gender equality 

Women currently represent 16 per cent of our workforce. We are seeking to increase this proportion and to increase the number of women in management positions.  Our Springboard Development Programme aims to encourage non-management female employees into junior management.

The Royal Mail Group Women’s Steering Group and Network is also seeking to increase the quality of opportunities available to women working for Royal Mail Group.

We also won a Silver in the 2011 Opportunity Now Awards, which celebrate excellent workplace practice with a focus on gender.