Bosses at a Bradford finance firm have been taking extra trips to the theatre - to pick up important messages about diversity.

Provident Financial has teamed up with the West Yorkshire Playhouse to take a creative approach on issues such as cultural diversity, disability, race and gender.

The project, funded through the Yorkshire Arts and Business fund, included training sessions entitled Diversity, Language and Leadership.

The course has been launched to help make senior managers aware of the changing profile of the nation's workforce, with increasing numbers of female and ethnic minority staff.

The training courses use theatre and role-play to demonstrate how to recruit and manage personnel with diversity issues in mind.

It is expected to result in both Provident and the Playhouse having a better understanding of the law and an action plan for the recruitment of a more diverse workforce.

The project follows an Arts Council of England report which outlined the need for theatres to address racial issues in both employees and audience of regional theatres.

The Eclipse Report called for the need to review equal opportunity policies and to develop 'positive action plans' to expand the opportunities for black and Asian people in regional theatres.

Mark Collier, managing director of Provident Insurance, said the ground-breaking programme had been beneficial to staff.

"Diversity is a complex and increasingly important issue," he said. "This joint initiative has enabled us to share business and creative skills and apply them to the workplace.

"Recruiting people from a variety of backgrounds will increase innovation and bring new talent to the business."