Astar - Management Consultants - Areas of Work

HR & Diversity Strategy Development

To enable a programme of change, people focused strategies need to be developed. Often employees are confused about what diversity and equality means, and why their organisation is choosing to focus on it. New processes and plans need to be put into place in order to achieve business objectives. Astar works with clients to develop these strategies and plans, including:

Ensuring that changed business priorities such as moving from market focus to customer focus or managing in a more decentralised environment can be supported by Human Resources Management activities
Putting plans into place to effect the necessary HR activities
Putting new processes together such as appraisals, recruitment and development to support the business objectives
Developing employee communication plans
Advice on the implications for organisations on mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

Through developing clear and relevant strategies and plans, organisations can effectively recruit and retain the best employees, widen their consumer market and successfully meet their business goals.

View movie - What is Equality and Diversity

Mainstreaming Diversity

Mainstreaming diversity is about including everyone. It is about creating a working culture that respects, welcomes and harnesses differences for the benefit of the organisation and the individual. Astar works with organisations to help them foster an environment that will ensure that the organisation maximises the resources and skills available to it. This includes:

Advising on the integration of equality and diversity into strategy, values, policy and service delivery
Monitoring or auditing existing processes to ensure diversity targets become an integral part of good business management
Delivering training programmes to equip staff with the knowledge and skills sets to make valuing diversity part of their day-to-day work

An organisation that effectively values equality and diversity has competitive advantage. It will not only have access to the widest pool of the most talented people, it will also be better equipped to proactively respond to the needs of a diverse customer base. (see Astar Workshops & Events)

View movie - What is Equality and Diversity

Equality & Diversity Legislation

For many organisations, the need to comply with equality legislation is one of the key drivers to mainstream and value diversity. Legislation, including the Sex Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act, Employment Act, Race Relations Act, Race Relations (Amendment) Act and more recent legislative changes such as the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations and the Equality Act 2006, all have a significant impact on employment, policy and service delivery. Astar works with organisations to help them understand and respond to their legal duties. This includes:

Training staff to understand the legislation and how this impacts on the organisation, their own role and function, ways of working and service delivery
Strategic consultancy e.g. for developing, reviewing and implementing a race or diversity strategy
An audit of current policies and practices against the requirements of legislation and organisational objectives
Purpose designed training and tools using impact assessment frameworks to conduct meaningful consultation and community engagement

By ensuring clear understanding and consideration of equality and diversity legislation, organisations can build legal requirements into their functions and ways of working. An organisation that reflects and responds to equality and diversity is well equipped to deliver business to a diverse customer base in the 21st Century. Through using theatre, role-play and video we are also able to highlight the risks to the business when equality and diversity is not valued. (see Astar Workshops & Events)

View movie clips

Equality Impact Assessment

Public authorities are legally required to conduct assessments of the impact of their current or intended policies and services for any disadvantageous experiences or outcomes of Black or Minority Ethnic groups and of people with disabilities. Furthermore the principles of Equality Impact Assessments can be applied to all aspects of equality and diversity such as gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. In addition, Equality Impact Assessments enable organisations to examine current or intended policies, practices, procedures and services for their impact on service users, employees and stakeholders. It is an essential part of achieving effective and people focused policies and services which meet needs and objectives in a fair and equitable way.

In addition to bespoke consultancy support, Astar offers the following in relation to Equality Impact Assessment:

Impact Assessment training – tailor-made or as a workshop package
Development of bespoke impact assessment tools for use by practitioners
Strategic consultancy e.g. for developing, reviewing and implementing a race or diversity strategy
An audit of current policies and practices against the requirements of legislation and organisational objectives

By assessing the impact of functions, policies and services, organisations can ensure that that they are not only meeting legislative requirements, but also ensuring that the benefits of policies are realised and that equality for stakeholders begins to become a reality. (see Astar Workshops & Events)

Positive Action

Capitalising on the talent in organisations may need different approaches. How can an organisation ensure that a diverse pool of people, including those from under-represented groups, are able to take advantage of opportunities for advancement and promotion within the organisation? How can an organisation prevent the kind of experiences talked about in this movie clip?

View movie - Sexual Orientation

Astar has experience in designing, delivering and supporting Positive Action Programmes. Our programmes have several elements including practical workshops, mentoring, group development, all of which contribute not only to the development of individuals, but also to increasing talent within the organisation.

Positive Action Programmes support a dynamic and open organisation culture. By running Positive Action Programmes, organisations actively demonstrate their investment in the future of employees and increase the skills and talents available to the business.

View movie - Race Networking

Organisational Networks

Effective Networks can prove a powerful resource within organisations. They can provide powerful information for policy development, organisation and people development, and in creating new markets through new product and service development. Networks within organisations can form part of a best practice approach to implementing the wider diversity agenda and, in particular, for the Public Sector, the positive duty to promote race equality and disability equality.

Networks can also help organisations provide alternatives to the traditional existing networks thereby helping to level the playing field. However, often in organisations, there is a fair amount of confusion as to why these networks are needed.

View movie - Race Networking

Astar offers clients a wealth of experience in the following areas:

Creating and developing Networks to enhance the delivery of an organisation’s business goals including those relating to Equality and Diversity
Facilitating the development of the Network Business Plan
Personal training and development, coaching and mentoring for members
Setting up and mainstreaming mentoring programmes to facilitate access to development opportunities

View movie - Sexual Orientation

Community Engagement

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 highlighted the importance of involving all communities and removing adverse impacts on under-represented groups both in the workplace and in the way services are delivered to them. All too often, minority groups can be left at the margins of community partnerships. Ineffective community involvement can lead to poor service outcomes, dissatisfaction and disenfranchised communities.

Astar’s experience of working with community groups, in the Public and Voluntary Sectors enables us to work with you to:

Support effective consultation techniques
Foster a partnership approach to understanding
Meaningfully engage and work with purpose with communities to achieve desired outcomes

These actions ensure that communities have better access to public services and that such services are planned and delivered in ways which meet their needs and which result in improved service outcomes. Such actions can also ensure best value in the use of resources, leaving communities with a greater feeling of empowerment and a meaningful stake in their neighbourhoods.