Chwarae Teg, Wales’ leading gender equality charity, formally presented the DVLA with its FairPlay Employer award at its Swansea HQ.

The award recognises the DVLA’s continued commitment to gender equality and modern working practices. As an organisation it strives to provide its employees with a better work life balance, whilst continuing to improve its own efficiency.

Going forward it is already progressing plans to close its gender pay gap and to encourage more women into its IT department. Practices include publishing further information alongside its job adverts, such as blogs and success stories and using software to ensure adverts are written in a language that is appealing to female candidates.

The presentation of the award caps a successful 12 months for the DVLA which saw it win the FairPlay Employer Award at Chwarae Teg’s Womenspire 2018 and Jill Callan, its Contact Centre Head, become a finalist in the Leadership award category.

Karys Dermody, HR, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, DVLA said:

“Our employees are our best asset, and we are honoured to have received this silver award in recognition of our culture of creating, building and maintaining an effective forward thinking workplace.  We have run a number of pilot projects aimed at supporting and engaging our staff, which have been incredibly well received, particularly by those with caring responsibilities. I believe our efforts are reflected in the fact that our staff have overwhelmingly told us that they feel trusted to make decisions and are able to work flexibly.”

“It’s crucial that we attract, recognise and nurture diverse talent and thanks to Chwarae Teg, the FairPlay Employer service has made a massive difference to us and provided opportunities to improve further. We will certainly continue working together in the future towards the gold and platinum standards.”

Chwarae Teg Business Lead, Louise David, said:

“Chwarae Teg would like to congratulate the DVLA on its well-deserved award, which demonstrates a real commitment to gender equality. The FairPlay Employer service aims to help organisations improve equality and diversity, tackle the gender pay gap and reap the rewards of a balanced workforce.

“At Chwarae Teg we have worked for over 25 years to enable women to achieve and prosper across all sectors and at all levels of the economy in Wales. We launched the FairPlay employer service to help organisations identify and overcome barriers, giving them a clear path to success.”

For further information on the FairPlay Employer service, visit www.chwaraeteg.com/projects/fairplay.