As any large membership organisation should, the PDA confidentially records diversity information to enable the association to review data and look for any trends relating to protected characteristics such as race, sex or disability. While the data is linked to an individual’s record within the membership database so that it can be used to produce aggregate reports, only the date of birth is visible to members of the PDA Service Centre team.
Monitoring diversity data can help the PDA to identify if pharmacists with particular characteristics are affected more or less by certain situations, which could indicate possible structural discrimination. For example, if there is a disproportionate frequency of those with a certain characteristic being subject to workplace disciplinary processes or redundancy.
Looking at the PDA’s own activity the data can highlight if there is any difference among those who take up opportunities within the PDA, such as becoming union representatives or participating in training. That enables the organisation to understand where it should increase efforts to engage members of any under-represented groups.
However, this process relies on members disclosing their diversity information and though the process is available to all, many members have not yet provided their data, giving the PDA only a partial understanding of their membership profile.
The PDA is therefore once again inviting all members to complete this part of their membership record to improve the overall data and help the PDA do even better regarding equality. It is important to note that “prefer not to say” is an option for questions, so members are not required to disclose information to any particular question, but answering with “prefer not to say” does help complete the picture.
PDA members can provide their diversity information by signing into their PDA record by clicking the button below.
COMPLETE THE DIVERSITY MONITORING FORM HERE
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