Brightwave and ScottishPower develop a positive approach to Avoiding Discrimination

Date posted: 23 January 2007

Developing a generic awareness portal for discrimination

Brightwave, the workplace learning specialist, has developed a discrimination awareness portal for ScottishPower, the international energy company, to support their positive approach to employee relations.

The portal offers access to a number of resources including a high impact 'trailer', and links to the Company Intranet, as well as two e-learning modules. The portal also tracks usage allowing ScottishPower to ensure all employees have undertaken this critical training.

The employee module uses a powerful video narrative filmed at Shoreham Power station. It deals with the key areas of potential discrimination: age, religion and belief, disability, race, gender and sexual orientation. It has been rolled out to all ScottishPower employees. The course was designed in response to the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations which came into effect on 1 October 2006, as well as ScottishPower’s continued commitment to raising awareness on the wider aspects of discrimination.

"We commissioned Brightwave to work closely with our HR Project Team to create these modules following a successful relationship with them over the last five years" said Joyce Thomson, Senior Project Consultant. "Brightwave understands our Company goals and requirements, which made them a suitable partner for this project. The project management for development of the modules was also important as we were working to tight timescales and Brightwave was able to work with us to meet our deadlines."

As well as the main module for all ScottishPower employees, an additional Managers’ Guide was also created, drawing from the scenarios in the employee module. This module covers individual and organisational obligations in relation to discrimination legislation in more depth.

"Development of The Managers’ Guide was essential for our management population as it covers the possible questions which may arise as a result of the raised awareness of discrimination issues amongst our employees." said Joyce. "Brightwave worked with us to develop a module, which covers the topic from a management perspective to ensure we meet the needs of all ScottishPower employees. It will largely be our managers who need to identify and handle situations where there may be the possibility of discrimination in the workplace. The Brightwave module will help to reinforce our managers’ understanding of ScottishPower’s existing procedures for dealing with these kinds of situations and raise awareness of our managers’ responsibility to avoid discrimination in the workplace."

"Diversity and regulatory compliance are an increasing concern in the workplace and the right solution can really challenge negatives as a result of diversity issues." said Charles Gould, Managing Director at Brightwave. "Our new portal solution enables a company to focus on how the issues really affect them and portray that to their employees so they will feel the company is making a positive step to avoiding discrimination."

The package developed for ScottishPower was created using Brightwave's new generic discrimination course which has been developed to allow organisations to purchase a programme that meets and tracks legislation requirements as well as saving on the cost of developing a purely bespoke course. The portal, which contains generic discrimination content, can be customised using an organisation's brand guidelines and additional features are also available. The SCORM compliant courses have been designed specifically for the utilities, telecoms, manufacturing and construction sectors using suitable video scenarios and assessments for these industries. For further information about the discrimination portal, or to discuss your needs, Brightwave's details can be found at www.brightwave.co.uk.

Notes to Editors – About Brightwave

Brightwave is a specialist in integrating communications, learning and performance in the workplace. Our approach is highly collaborative, innovative and all our projects leverage technology to deliver efficient and effective training and ongoing support. Whether your needs are induction, compliance/regulatory, IT systems, management/sales skills or product/process knowledge, Brightwave has the skills and experience to help you. We have developed over 300 solutions that are used by more than 500,000 people in the UK and internationally. We work with a broad range of clients from a wide variety of industries. Our clients include BT, Bupa, Cable&Wireless, IKEA, T-Mobile, AIB, Swiss Re, The Royal Bank of Scotland, British Red Cross, First Choice and Sky, as well as public sector organisations such as the Healthcare Commission, City of Edinburgh Council, and West Sussex County Council.

Media contact


Jade Moore
Marketing Coordinator, Brightwave

+44 (0) 1273 828421

Click here to send an email to Jade

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