Monitoring for equality - Monitoring is essential in medium-sized and large organisations if practitioners are to cheek that equal opportunities policies and procedures are working effectively, and to identify direct or indirect discrimination., according to an IRS survey of 75 employers. Among the IRS panel, which was questioned during autumn 2000, the most commonly monitored workforce characteristics are gender, ethnic origin, disability and age. Around three-quarters of our respondents undertake some form of monitoring on one or more of these characteristics. Most of our analysis is based on detailed questioning of the 59 employers in our panel that make use of some form of equality monitoring. Key findings include: the main reasonfor monitoring is to check the effectiveness of equal opportunities policies and procedures - 55 employers cite this as one reason for monitoring. In a similar vein, 39 say they monitor to ensure the best person is appointed to any position, and 26 use monitoring to help avoid or reduce the costs associated with employment tribunals (as a result, for example, of sex or race discrimination claims); the main practical use made of monitoring data is to check the effectiveness of equal opportunities policies and procedures - this reflects the reasons monitoring is introduced, and hence is reported to be the case by a large majority (50 out of 59) of our respondents. The next most common use to which monitoring data are put is to prepare reports, which typically go to boards or other senior managers; and: more than half of our sample monitor the take-up of equal opportunities initiatives - in addition to personal characteristics such as gender, monitoring can be used to measure the use of policies and procedures relating to issues such as parental leave, bullying and harassment, and childcare provision.