Diversity and inclusion

O2 has a diverse customer base and we want the people who work for O2 to be equally diverse. 

Danuta Gray, Chief Executive Officer of O2 Ireland, champions our diversity programme.

Group-wide we want to:

• Provide a culture where everyone feels valued, respected and included.
• Serve all parts of society with the benefits of mobile communications.
• Reach out to under-represented groups in our community and the community at large.

We take into account people’s different needs in the workplace, including respect for religious differences and practices. We help managers to plan employees’ work around religious festivals and other personal needs.

In 2006 O2 was the first major company to adopt the Segala trustmark as standard in its online content. The trustmark is helping us make sure our corporate website www.O2.com is accessible to all.

This year we continued to measure our diversity policies more closely in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and disability – and we aim to do more every year.

We have a full-time diversity and inclusion manager in the UK to raise awareness among employees and increase the diversity of job applicants. We are working with external consultants to help us develop diversity policies and processes.

Also in the UK, we launched a diversity awareness initiative, using an interactive board game for employees. This aims to bring mixed groups together to gain knowledge of different cultures and the need for inclusion. It also enables participants to discuss ways to accommodate the needs of people such as carers in the workplace.

All line managers in O2 Ireland undergo disability awareness training.

Following the passing of the Antidiscrimination Act in Germany, in line with European Union law, we developed and implemented online training in 2006. The training gives information on discriminatory behaviour and diversity and underlines the consequences of discriminatory action for employees and the company.

The training was rolled out to all employees in January 2007 and will be available to all new employees as well. Employees working in HR, as well as managers, will receive more detailed information through an extended version of the online training. In addition, we introduced a new section on diversity and anti-discrimination to the standard training for managers.

The O2 Executive Committee again reviewed employee diversity data twice in the year.

O2 aims to treat all employees, contractors, suppliers and customers equally.

Printable version | Accessibility | Glossary | FAQ | Disclaimer