Purpose: The City of Oslo aims to be open, inclusive and tolerant. The municipality's employees should reflect the diversity of the city's population at all levels. The aim of the action plan is to achieve a management and board composition that is representative of the citizens of the Municipality of Oslo. The action plan aims to increase the proportion of managers and board members from non-European immigrant backgrounds, with concrete percentage targets from different areas of the municipality within specific time frames. Representative recruitment will contribute to trust and legitimacy, as well as better quality and innovation in the delivery of municipal services.
Stimulus/Rationale: Oslo is a diverse city with a population of 700,000, a third of whom have immigrant backgrounds from over 200 nationalities. A quarter have a non-European background, and a tenth have a European (and North American) background. The municipality has about 55,000 employees and about 3,500 managers at various levels.
A report on recruitment by the Municipality's Agency for Improvement and Development (UKE 2022) shows that employees with a non-European immigrant background in the Municipality of Oslo are underrepresented in management (9%) and management and planning positions, and overrepresented in lower service delivery positions (31%). The agency's report also shows that the proportion of applicants with a non-European immigrant background falls during the recruitment process. Employees with a European background reflect the city's population.
Process: The City of Oslo's policy on representative recruitment (diversity of managers and employees reflecting the diversity of the population) dates back to 2001 and the adoption of the OXLO charter (Oslo - a city for all) by the City Council. Since then, statistics have shown slow progress.
In 2019, the city council delegated the task of developing a measure to increase the recruitment of managers and employees from ethnic minorities to the Ministry of Finance and the Municipal Agency for Improvement and Development.
The department and the agency set up a working group in 2020 with representatives from three council departments (responsible for human resources, top management recruitment, ownership and diversity), the agency and the council's intercultural minorities board.
The working group, led by the agency, produced a report and proposed a plan based on insights into imbalances and challenges - from statistics on ethnic municipal employees, the recruitment process and the composition of council-appointed boards, from DEI's practice in international research, from best practice in European and Nordic cities, and from methodologies used in both the business and public sectors in Norway. These findings were complemented by feedback from the municipality's minority leaders and employees.
The plan was approved by both the outgoing centre-left and incoming centre-right governments in late 2023, with the Ministry of Finance and the Municipal Agency for Improvement and Development responsible for implementation.
Impact: The Action Plan Introduce sector targets for representation of leaders with a non-European immigrant background. 25% of new board members appointed by the Municipality of Oslo must have a non-European immigrant background. A top management programme will be launched in the autumn of 2024 to identify the tools, training and understanding that top managers need to achieve the goals and to develop plans, measures and targets for the organisations they lead.
Several measures aim to professionalise the recruitment process to remove bias in selection, interviewing and appointment. Other measures aim to re-brand the council as an attractive employer for minority talent.
The municipality aims to achieve the objectives of its diversity policy through its leadership and internal governance structure. The report on recruitment from 2022 onwards sets the baseline.
Municipal agencies and boroughs report annually on locally implemented measures for representative recruitment. The Agency (UKE) will continue its monitoring as a contribution to the annual reports to the City Government and the City Council.
Key reference documents:
- City of Oslo Action plan to strengthen the recruitment of managers, employees and board members with a minority background 2023-2027 (PDF)
- The OXLO charter (PDF)
- OXLO – a city for all – webpage www.oslo.kommune.no/oxlo/
