Age

• Headcounts: Staff aged between 16 and 29 and 60 or over are under-represented in the SG Core workforce when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 65) population.

• Recruitment: More applications come from 16 to 29 year olds than any other age group. This age group is the most over-represented at the application stage compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 65) population. They are also the group least likely to proceed to the interview stage.

• Turnover: Staff aged between 16 and 29 are over-represented among joiners compared to the SG Core population. Staff aged under 50 make up a higher percentage of joiners than leavers; this trend reverses for staff aged 50 and over.

• Absence levels: The average number of days absent is generally higher in older age groups, although the 16 to 29 age group have more absences per person than staff aged between 30 and 49 and the 60 and over age group have fewer absences than those in the 50 to 59 age group.

• Performance marking: Staff in the 16 to 29 or 60 and over age groups are more likely to receive a lower performance marking than their peers.

• Promotion: Younger staff are more likely to have been promoted in the past year. The percentage of each age group being promoted in the last year decreases as age increases. This trend is mostly true for staff on temporary promotions on 31 December 2021. These trends are likely influenced by grade, as younger staff are usually employed in lower grades with more room for promotion.

• Employee engagement: Younger staff feel slightly more engaged on average than older staff.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Younger staff on average feel slightly more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than older staff.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: There are no significant patterns for the rates of discrimination and/or bullying and harassment based on the age group of respondents.

Sex & gender

• Headcounts: Female staff are over-represented in the SG Core workforce when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 65) population. Part-time staff are also much more likely to be female than male.

• Recruitment: More applications progress through each stage for female applicants than for male applicants.

• Turnover: Female staff make up a higher percentage of joiners than either the SG Core workforce or Scotland’s working age (16 to 65) population. Female and male staff are equally likely to leave the organisation.

• Absence levels: Female staff take more days off for sickness per person than male staff.

• Performance marking: Female staff are more likely to receive a performance marking of “Exceptional” or “Highly Effective” than male staff.

• Promotion: Female staff are more likely to have been promoted in the last year than male staff.

• Average pay: Female staff earn less than male staff on average, though part-time female staff earn more than full-time male staff on average.

• Employee engagement: Female staff feel more engaged than male staff.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: Female staff experience more discrimination, bullying & harassment than male staff.

Trans status

• Employee engagement: Transgender staff feel less engaged than cisgender staff.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Transgender staff feel less included and feel that they are treated less fairly than cisgender staff.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: Transgender staff experience higher levels of discrimination, bullying and harassment than cisgender staff.

Disability

• Headcounts: Disabled staff are under-represented in the SG Core workforce when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population.

• Recruitment: Applications from disabled applicants are under-represented compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population. More applications from disabled applicants proceed to interview than for non-disabled applicants. Fewer of the applications from disabled applicants that proceed to interview result in a job offer.

• Turnover: A lower percentage of joiners are disabled compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population. Disabled staff make up a higher percentage of leavers than of joiners.

• Absence levels: Disabled staff take more days off for sickness per person than non-disabled staff.

• Performance marking: Disabled staff are more likely to receive a lower performance marking than non-disabled staff.

• Promotion: Staff declaring their disability status are more likely to have been promoted in the last year than those who have not.

• Average pay: Disabled staff earn less than non-disabled staff on average.

• Employee engagement: Disabled staff feel less engaged than non-disabled staff.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Disabled staff feel less included and feel that they are treated less fairly than non-disabled staff.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: Disabled staff experience more discrimination and bullying & harassment than non-disabled staff.

Ethnic group

• Headcounts: Ethnic minority staff are under-represented in the SG Core workforce when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population.

• Recruitment: Ethnic minority applicants are over-represented when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population. The percentage of ethnic minority applicants at each stage decreases at each successive stage except those attending an interview that then receive a job offer.

• Turnover: A higher percentage of joiners come from an ethnic minority background than expected from Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population.

• Performance marking: Ethnic minority staff are more likely to receive a lower performance marking than white staff.

• Promotion: Ethnic minority and white staff are promoted at approximately the same rate.

• Average pay: Ethnic minority staff earn less than white staff on average.

• Employee engagement: Ethnic minority staff feel more engaged than white staff.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: White English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and British staff feel more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than other groups.

• Discrimination: Black staff experience higher levels of discrimination than other staff.

Religion

• Recruitment: Applications from Christian applicants are under-represented when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population. Applications from applicants belonging to a non-Christian religion are over-represented when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population. Fewer applications from applicants belonging to a non-Christian religion progress through each stage than for other candidates.

• Turnover: Christian staff make up a lower percentage of joiners and a higher percentage of leavers than in the SG Core workforce. Non-Christian religious staff make up a higher percentage of both joiners and leavers. Non-religious staff make up a higher percentage of joiners and lower percentage of leavers.

• Performance marking: Christian, non-Christian and non-religious staff have a similar breakdown of performance markings.

• Promotion: Non-religious staff are more likely to have been promoted in the past year than their peers.

• Employee engagement: Christian, Hindu and Muslim staff feel more engaged than their peers.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Christian staff feel more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than their peers. Staff with a non-Christian, non-Buddhist, non-Hindu, non-Jewish, non-Muslim and non-Sikh religion feel less included and feel that they are treated less fairly than their peers.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: Jewish and Muslim staff experience more discrimination than their peers. Staff with a non-Christian, non-Buddhist, non-Hindu, non-Jewish, non-Muslim and non-Sikh religion experience more discrimination, bullying and harassment than the average SG Core staff member.

Sexual orientation

• Headcounts: LGB+ staff are over-represented in the SG Core workforce when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population, especially among full-time employees.

• Recruitment: Applications from LGB+ applicants are over-represented when compared to Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population. Fewer applications from LGB+ applicants progress through each stage than for other candidates.

• Turnover: A higher percentage of joiners are LGB+ than in the SG Core workforce or Scotland’s working age (16 to 64) population.

• Absence levels: LGB+ staff take more days off for sickness per person than heterosexual staff.

• Performance marking: LGB+ and heterosexual staff have the same breakdown of performance markings.

• Promotion: Staff declaring their sexual orientation are more likely to have been promoted in the last year.

• Employee engagement: Heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and bisexual staff feel more engaged than staff with any other sexual orientation.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Heterosexual staff feel more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than their peers, while staff with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, gay, lesbian or bisexual feel less included.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: Bisexual staff experience more bullying & harassment than the average SG Core staff member. Staff with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, gay, lesbian or bisexual experience more discrimination, bullying & harassment than the average SG Core staff member.

Socio-economic background

• Employee engagement: Staff from a high or intermediate socio-economic background feel more engaged than their peers.

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Staff from a high or intermediate socio-economic background feel more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than their peers, while staff whose parents never worked feel less included.

• Discrimination: Staff whose parents never worked experience more discrimination than their peers.

Contents of the report

The statistics presented in this report come from data from a number of internal sources. Under each demographic characteristic, the report is split into three sections (where data is available):

• Workforce composition: these sections contain statistics on the changing workforce in the Scottish Government using management information. They are demographic characteristic breakdowns of:

  • Occupational segregation of staff on 31 December 2021
  • Applications in 2021 at each stage of the recruitment process
  • Staff joining and leaving the organisation in 2021

• Staff experiences: these sections contain statistics on additional management information measures for each demographic group. They are:

  • Levels of absence by demographic group
  • Proportion of each demographic group achieving each performance marking
  • Proportion of promotion of each demographic group in 2021
  • Proportion of each demographic group on a temporary promotion
  • Average pay by sex, disability status or ethnic group

• Workforce culture: these sections contain results from the Civil Service People Survey 2021. They are the following scores for each demographic group:

  • Employee engagement score
  • Inclusion and fair treatment score
  • Proportion of respondents experiencing bullying and/or harassment
  • Proportion of respondents experiencing discrimination

Significance

Some charts below feature arrows (↑, ↓) or colours to indicate when results are statistically significant, which is defined further in the notes page. Testing for statistical significance here does not factor in other variables such as pay grade that can affect results. Results can be marked as statistically significant even when that demographic characteristic is not the contributing factor to the difference. For example, younger staff are more likely to be promoted in a given year than older staff, but rates of promotion are impacted more by pay grade which is closely linked to age.

Comparators

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the diversity of its staff, with the percentage breakdown within Scotland’s working age population as a target. The diversity of the economically active population is often a useful comparison as well, as some groups are less represented among the economically active population than the working age population. For example, a significant percentage of Scotland’s population aged between 16 and 29 are in full-time education and are not considered economically active.

Occupational segregation

“Occupational segregation” in this report refers to a breakdown across pay bands and between full-time and part-time workers. Occupational segregation also occurs across job families, but our data on which job family staff belong to is not yet robust enough to report on.

More detailed notes on declaration rates, our data sources, significance and comparators can be found in the notes page of this publication.