Diversity, equity and inclusion

As a social change organisation, we believe in a world that is resilient, rebalanced and regenerative, where everyone can fulfil their potential.

To achieve our ambitions, we know we must nurture a culture of inclusion in all of our work - within our projects, with our Fellows, partners and communities and in our building of heritage.

We commit to celebrating, inspiring and making way for diverse changemakers. This means we have a responsibility to challenge systemic inequity and all forms of discrimination including racism:

• We will not accept unfair discrimination or less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, disability, socio-economic background or status, age, marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity.
• Our Fellowship Charter commits us to treating others with honesty, dignity and respect and refusing to engage in or support any form of harassment, bullying or unfair discrimination.
• Our research and programmatic work is designed to facilitate maximum participation and to be accessible.
• We seek content from a plurality of voices and perspectives across the globe.
• Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) principles and expectations underpin our policies and processes.
• In partnership with our DE&I hub comprising staff and Fellows, we explore our history and create spaces for reflection about belonging at the RSA.
• We actively seek suppliers and partners who demonstrate a commitment to inclusion.

We regularly revisit and update our DE&I commitments and run a detailed action-plan to make ongoing improvements.

Staff facts and figures

Recent (1 December 2023) audits of our staff demographics and pay and benefits demonstrate:

• 23% of our people (excluding casual staff) enjoy a flexible working pattern.
• 70% of our team are women, and this percentage is reflected in our senior leadership team.
• 26% of our team are from minority ethnic backgrounds which reflects the Office for National Statistics (ONS), statistics of the working population in London (out of 89% of staff that provided data)
• 8% of our team are from the LGBTQ+ community.
• 7% of our people state that they are a disabled person (out of 83% of staff that provided data)

The RSA’s (mean) gender pay gap (excluding the leadership team) is 1.45%. This indicates that men employees overall have slightly higher pay than women. According to ONS, the gender pay gap for all employees was 14.3% in 2023, demonstrating the RSA benchmarks highly favourably to the national average.

On detailed analysis, there is no bias of salaries for disabled people in our team and/or for those from a minority ethnic background and/or the LGBTQ+ community.

External consultants undertaking a pay and benefits audit during the financial year 2023-24 commented: “In overall terms, the analysis of diversity information indicates that the RSA is an exemplary employer for diversity”.

The RSA’s minimum salary is £25,500 a year which is around £1500 per annum higher than the London Living Wage.

Our internal processes for staff to support diversity, equity and inclusion

We are proud of our commitment to fairness and inclusivity in our ways of working and pay and promotion practices:

• We regularly benchmark our salaries against the job market, and undertake annual pay reviews gives all employees the opportunity for salary progression.  
• We run bi-annual promotion cycles and if people take on more responsibility during the year, we ensure they are rewarded for it.
• All job vacancies are advertised openly and internal candidates can apply.
• We publish our salary ranges for roles at all levels in the organisation.
• All new roles are job evaluated to ensure equity of grading and salary levels.
• We operate hybrid-flexible working and many of our roles can enjoy the benefits of working in the office for 3 days a week and work from anywhere on the other 2 days (pro rata for those who work part-time).  A number of our team work remotely and we work hard to ensure maximum inclusion.