The Herald and GenAnalytics, in association with Standard Life Aberdeen, are delighted to announce Scotland’s Diversity Awards - now in its third year.

The event is supported by Standard Life Aberdeen, BAE Systems, City Building, City of Glasgow College, Diageo, Taylor Wimpey, MacRoberts, Royal Mail, ScottishPower, Wheatley Group, and YSC.

The last two years have shown the scale, variety and unwavering commitment to overcome hurdles and barriers and a strong focus for change.

With a record number of entries for the 2017 Diversity Awards we want to build on this for the 2018 Awards and showcase the outstanding achievement of individuals and employers across our range of award categories.

City Building is supporting a new category this year - Building Inclusive Communites.

Dr Graham Paterson, Executive Director, City Building, said: “We are extremely proud to be supporting the Building Inclusive Communities category. As a substantial employer with over 2,200 staff, diversity is extremely important to us as it encourages innovation and helps us to better reflect the communities we serve.

“We are also keen to encourage as many people as possible to fulfil their potential and contribute to Scotland’s future success."

Our award categories encourage applications from the public, private and third sector and from individual champions of diversity and inclusion. We know that for many organisations this is an early stage journey and we welcome applications from those organisations too who are starting out but can demonstrate progress and a real commitment to deliver change,

Lynne Connolly, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at sponsor Standard Life Aberdeen said: “We’re delighted to be sponsoring the Diversity Awards and look forward to celebrating the winners; those driving real change in making our workplaces more inclusive.”

Roy Gardner, Executive Director, Corporate Development & Innovation, City of Glasgow College, added: "Equality and diversity are at the heart of City of Glasgow College. We are delighted to once again support the Herald's Diversity Awards and look forward to seeing a strong range of entries."

Katy Wedderburn, Head of Employment at MacRoberts said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring the diversity awards for the third time this year. Over the last three years we have watched the awards grow and prosper into a true celebration of diversity in the workplace. It is always an hugely enjoyable evening and we can’t wait to attend again this year.”

Andreyana Ivanova, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Royal Mail said “Royal Mail Group is one of the largest employers in the UK and is an integral part of the UK’s social fabric. We are hugely proud of that and take our role of promoting diversity and inclusion very seriously. We chose to sponsor the Diversity Star Performer award because we believe that the largest employers have a huge role and responsibility in improving social mobility and advancing diversity and inclusion, both in the workplace and in society.

"There are a number of large employers in Scotland that demonstrate an outstanding commitment and strategic leadership in diversity and inclusion and we would strongly encourage them to share their best practice and inspire others to follow suit.”

You can read more on the event, award categories and get all the information on how to apply at http://newsquestscotlandevents.com/events/the-diversity-awards/

The closing date for entries is Wednesday August 15, the awards will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Glasgow on Thursday, October 11. Contact Kerry Medford, Event Manager on 0141 302 7319 for more information.