Human Resources Review
Our people

Diversity

Atkins operates as a local company which needs to reflect the diversity of its community in several regions and which recruits from most parts of the world. We assemble teams which cross geographical and cultural boundaries and compete for skilled staff in highly competitive markets, so we need to ensure that we are making the most of the varied talents of our people. During the year we held diversity training sessions for the Board and Group Executive.

We have made progress in several areas through internal initiatives and through our collaboration with clients and with national organisations.

Of particular note is our collaboration with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) where we have worked closely with colleagues in the ODA, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and other delivery partners to ensure that we reflect the diversity objectives of the Games in the work we undertake and in the Olympics supply chain. This has included support for a diversity week run by ODA and LOCOG to which we invited a Paralympics sailing team to share their experiences with our project team; community engagement to raise money to send 250 London children to a Stoke Mandeville sports camp; and the development of a diversity education programme to be rolled out across Atkins using a theatre company.

Atkins has hosted a number of supplier events jointly with the ODA to encourage more SMEs to do business with us and is currently working with the London Development Agency and LOCOG to maximise the benefits of a self-assessment tool - 'Diversity Works for London'.

We have forged closer links with Scope, a charity working for disabled people's equality, and have recruited our first graduate trainee through their leadership programme. We have also taken on our first recruits through Total Support, an employment agency which specialises in placing people with disabilities or requiring rehabilitation.

Our business in the Middle East employs staff of over 40 different nationalities and in the UK we continue to work closely with the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science and Engineering to contribute to the government's agenda for increasing participation in engineering and science professions.

Encouragingly we are seeing a shift in attitudes and clear evidence of progress with increasing numbers of women represented at most levels of the organisation but realise we have a journey to complete.