Demographics Report iMatter Survey 2025

Themes and Patterns

Overall, the demographic profile of staff has remained quite constant over the 5 years in which the data has been collected through the iMatter process, though there are some increases in non-response to each of the questions.

Staff Profile

The staff profile is skewed considerably towards females, with the majority of staff aged between 35 and 64 years. White and specifically white Scottish is the prevalent ethnic group, with each other ethnicity accounting for 2% or less of the workforce.

Staff largely reflect the population profile for several of the other protected characteristics such as religion, marital status, sexual orientation etc. once the clustered age profile has been taken into account.

Among the workforce fewer staff report having a disability under the Equality Act definition than in the wider population, although the proportion has increased over the last 5 years. The distribution of health conditions is quite similar to the population. The types of conditions experienced varying by age, with mental health conditions more prevalent among younger staff and physical health conditions among older staff.

Staff Experience

In general, where there are differences between demographic groups, it is often the measures that relate to being seen and heard that are most accentuated:

• I am confident my ideas and suggestions are listened to
• I am confident my ideas and suggestion are acted upon
• I feel involved in decisions relating to my job
• I feel involved in decisions relating to my team

In the case of Senior Managers the scores for these measures are much higher than the average of Health and Social Care. Among minority groups such as those who are disabled, the scores are much lower than the average.

Differences seen across protected characteristics are:

• Sex - generally females score higher than males.
• Age – it is typically the very young and oldest staff who are most positive about their experience.
• Trans – those who are trans or have a trans history score lower than those who are not.
• Sexual orientation – typically staff who are gay/lesbian, bisexual or self-describe have less positive workplace experiences than those who are straight/heterosexual.
• Marital Status – appears to have little impact on staff experience, with any differences seen more linked to other characteristics (age, sexual orientation etc.)
• Disability – staff who consider themselves disabled score lower across all iMatter metrics.
• Health Conditions – staff who have health conditions typically score lower than those who do not. Within those that have conditions, those with mental health conditions score lower than those with physical health conditions, though the different age profile may contribute to this.
• Ethnicity – Typically those who are of Asian or African ethnicities are typically more positive about their workplace experience and Mixed or Multiple ethnicities the least positive.
• Religion – Some differences seen in scores by the various religious groups may be influenced by other characteristics (age, ethnicity etc.). Overall, Muslim and Hindu religions that are the most positive with Pagan and Jewish the least positive.

Within intersectional groups, experiences reflect the combination of the individual characteristics.

• Sex and Ethnicity - Females scoring higher than males across all ethnicities. African ethnicities whether male or female that score highest and Mixed ethnic groups score lowest.
• Sex and Age - Females aged 55 years and over score highest of all sex and age intersectional groups.

• Age and Ethnicity - Asian and African ethnicities typically scoring highest regardless of age.

  • I am conf