Age

• Headcounts: Staff aged between 16 and 29 and 60 or over are under-represented in the Scottish Government workforce when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64.

• Recruitment: More applications come from 16 to 29 year olds than any other age group. They are also the group least likely to proceed to the interview stage.

• Turnover: Staff aged under 40 are over-represented among joiners compared to Scottish Government staff. 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 per staff year increases as age increases.

• Performance marking: Staff in the 16 to 29 age group 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. A similar proportion of staff in each age group under 50 are on temporary promotions on 31 December 2023, though this proportion decreases among older staff. 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.

• 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 Scottish Government workforce when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. 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 Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. Female and male staff are equally likely to leave the organisation.

• Absence levels: Female staff take more days off per person for sickness 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 and Male staff are similarly likely to have been promoted in 2023 and are similarly likely to be on a temporary promotion on 31 December 2023.

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

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

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Female staff feel more included and that they are treated more fairly than male staff, while non-binary staff feel less included and that they are treated less fairly.

• Discrimination, bullying & harassment: Female staff experience more discrimination, bullying & harassment than male staff, and non-binary staff experience more discrimination, bullying & harassment than female 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 Scottish Government workforce when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64.

• Recruitment: Applications from disabled applicants are under-represented compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. Fewer of the applications from disabled applicants that proceed to interview result in a job offer.

• Turnover: A similar percentage of joiners are disabled compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. However, there is high level of uncertainty here due to a low number of joiners compared to previous years and a low declaration rate among joiners in 2023.

• 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: Non-disabled staff are more likely to be promoted in 2023 or on a temporary promotion on 31 December 2023 than disabled staff.

• 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 Scottish Government workforce when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64.

• Recruitment: Ethnic minority applicants are over-represented when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. Fewer ethnic minority applicants are successful at getting an interview or being offered a job than white applicants.

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

• Absence levels: Ethnic minority staff take more days off for sickness per person than white staff.

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

• Promotion: Ethnic minority staff are more likely to have been promoted in 2023 or be on a temporary promotion on 31 December 2023 than white staff.

• 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 and Asian or Asian British staff feel more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than other groups.

• Discrimination: Staff from mixed or multiple ethnic groups experience higher levels of discrimination than other staff.

Religion

• Recruitment: Applications from Christian applicants are under-represented when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. Applications from applicants belonging to a non-Christian religion are over-represented when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. A higher percentage of non-religious applicants are successful at getting an interview or being offered a job than Christian applicants or applicants belonging to a non-Christian religion.

• Turnover: Christian staff make up a lower percentage of joiners than in the Scottish Government workforce.

• Absences: Non-Christian religious staff take more days off for sickness per person than their peers.

• Performance marking: Non-Christian religious staff are more likely to receive a lower performance marking than their peers.

• Promotion: Christian staff are less likely to have been promoted in 2023 than their peers. Non-religious staff are more likely to have been promoted in 2023 or be on a temporary promotion than their peers.

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

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Christian and Hindu 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: Staff with a non-Christian, non-Buddhist, non-Hindu, non-Jewish, non-Muslim and non-Sikh religion experience more discrimination than the average SG Core staff member.

Sexual orientation

• Headcounts: LGB+ staff are over-represented in the Scottish Government workforce when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64, especially among pay band A or full-time employees.

• Recruitment: Applications from LGB+ applicants are over-represented when compared to Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. LGB+ applicants progress through each successive stage at a similar rate to heterosexual applicants.

• Turnover: A higher percentage of joiners are LGB+ than in Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64.

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

• Performance marking: Heterosexual staff are more likely to get a higher performance marking than their peers.

• Promotion: LGB+ staff are more likely to have been promoted in 2023 than their peers.

• Employee engagement: Heterosexual staff feel more engaged their peers.

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

Socio-economic background

• Recruitment: Applicants progress to each stage at a similar rate regardless of their socio-economic background (NS-SEC).

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

• Inclusion & fair treatment: Staff from a high socio-economic background feel more included and feel that they are treated more fairly than their peers.

• 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 2023
  • Applications in 2023 at each stage of the recruitment process
  • Staff joining and leaving the organisation in 2023

• 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 2023
  • 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 2022. 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, defined as the population aged between 16 and 64. 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 population aged between 16 and 64. For example, a significant proportion 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.