Equal Opportunities Policy [2011]

Al Jazeera International Ltd is committed to providing a workplace that is free from unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and to ensuring that all employees and job applicants are treated with dignity and respect and that the Company attracts, recruits and retains the best talent.

Al Jazeera International Ltd is an Equal Opportunities employer and seeks to ensure that no current or future employee receives less favourable treatment or direct or indirect discrimination on the grounds of one of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, including Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Race, Religion or Belief, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Marriage and Civil Partnership or Pregnancy and Maternity.

Equality of opportunity leads to the best use of talents, skills and knowledge, maximising the potential of individuals and enhancing the quality of service provided by:

• removing artificial and irrelevant barriers to recruitment, training and promotion

• drawing from the widest pool of possible talent

• assisting in the achievement of business objectives

• promoting a positive working environment, fairness and equal opportunities for all

• ensuring that the structure of the workforce reflects the diversity of the population it serves

At Al Jazeera International we actively and regularly examine and review our existing recruitment and selection procedures to ensure that our selection criteria and procedures are objective and relevant and that they provide for individuals to be selected, promoted and assessed solely on the basis of merit and ability to do the job. We also aim to break down any barriers relating to equality of opportunity to ensure that people who are under-represented realise their full potential and areas for action are identified.

Diversity Statistics – London Broadcast Centre 2011

All staff, freelancers and job applicants selected for interview are invited to complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring form to enable Al Jazeera to monitor and analyse our Equal Opportunities policy, and eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sex, age, ethnicity and disability.

Al Jazeera International in London monitor the sex, ethnicity, disability and age of all permanent employees.  

Sex

47% of Al Jazeera International’s workforce is Female with the remaining 53% men.

Ethnicity

Al Jazeera International is proud of its diversity. 51.3% of all Al Jazeera International employees classify themselves as White British, with a further 22% describing themselves as White Other inc European and White Irish. 26.7% of employees are of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) origin.

43.2% of female employees classified themselves as White British, and 25% as White Other inc White European & White Irish. BME females accounted for 31.8% of the workforce.

58.6% male employees described themselves as White British, with a further 19.2% as White Other inc White European & White Irish Male. 22.2% of all male employees certified themselves as of BME.

Disability

Employees that classified themselves as having a disability accounted for 0.5% of the workforce in London.

Age

The largest group of employees by age was the 30-39 age group which accounted for 44.4% of the workforce. This was followed by 23.5% in the 40-49 age group, 18.7% in the 20-29 and 10.7% aged between 50-59. 2.7% of the workforce were aged 60 or over in 2011.  

Move on Up in News

Four members of staff from Al Jazeera International attended the Move on Up in News initiative at the BBC in May 2011. The event aimed to promote equal opportunities in News by setting up a number of one to one meetings with organisations and BME professionals looking to enhance their careers in the media industry and seek new opportunities and our Al Jazeera representatives met with over 25 people.

Internships

In 2011 we offered a series of Internships within our Newsroom and Programmes and Sports departments. In total Al Jazeera International was able to offer 20 candidates an unpaid internship at our offices in Knightsbridge lasting between 2 weeks and 1 month in duration. The successful applicants were a combination of students from City University and direct applications.

Training and Development

In 2011 Al Jazeera employees attended a variety of internal and external training courses in order to enhance performance and encourage development.

Some of the external training courses attended included Social Media, Health and Safety, Hostile Environment, Public Awareness and Microsoft Excel. In addition the Company provided a variety of internal on the job training in the form of coaching and shadowing.

Training needs are highlighted both through the performance appraisal process and as specific needs arise.