The snapshot date for gender pay reporting is less than three weeks away. However, our sense from lots of organisations is that they aren’t ready. At this stage, there’s nothing you can do to change the numbers. But what you can do is take responsibility and control over the results; uncovering risk, developing key metrics to track and improve on, and creating a clear narrative with a richer context to publish alongside your headline gender pay gap figures.

We want to hear about your plans for gender pay reporting. Please complete this quick survey to help us understand where you are in your gender pay reporting process, whether you are just beginning or almost ready to publish. The results of the survey will help you compare your status to other organisations. You will find out how others are preparing to report and when they are planning to publish their data. Look out for the results which will be published in next week’s blog.

With this in mind, we thought we would look at the flavour of the reporting from companies who have published ahead of time. Aside from reporting the mandatory headline pay gaps, are they demonstrating a commitment to fairness and improvement with a strong gender pay story?

Virgin Money

One of the most recent organisations to publish is Virgin Money. Alongside the mean and median pay gaps of 36% and 39%, Virgin Money has:

• Provided a clear explanation of what drives the gap; ‘the under representation of women in the senior leadership team’ and ‘the under representation of men in more junior roles’.
• Reinforced its commitment to the Women in Finance Charter and target to achieve a 50:50 gender balance at senior management level by 2020.
• Shared measures aimed at reducing the gender pay gap; unconscious bias training for managers, an app to help employees on parental leave keep in touch with the business, and a gender analysis tool within the annual pay review to help managers see the impact decisions could have on their team’s gender pay gap.

Bank of England

The Bank of England published its figures in September. The organisation disclosed its mean and median pay gaps for 2016 of 18.7% and 26.4%, and also:

• Cited the main reason for its gender pay gap as ‘the lower proportion of females in senior roles relative to males’.
• Described targets for promoting gender diversity, reporting an increase in senior management female representation to 28% in 2016, and its Women in Finance Charter commitments to increase this to 35% and have an equal split of men and women at all levels below senior management by 2020.

Tesco

Tesco has been reporting on pay equality for a number of years. It postponed calculating new gender pay figures while the government finalised the regulations, but latest data from 2014, shows a gender pay gap of less than 1%. Alongside this, the organisation:

• Shared its women’s network and development programme, ‘Women in Leadership’ aimed at helping female employees reach their full potential within the business.
• Reported on its increased number of female directors, with over 30% of PLC Board members being women.

EasyJet

EasyJet most recently published its gender pay gap in its 2016 annual report. In addition to the headline gender pay gap of 35%, the airline:

• Explained the gap is influenced by the gender balance of its two biggest employee populations; pilots who are predominantly male and cabin crew who are predominantly female.
• Shared its new strategy to encourage more women to become pilots with a target to increase female pilot cadets to 20% by 2020 and priority to increase the number of women in middle management which will provide the pipeline for future senior managers.
• Provided a breakdown of the Board and Executive Management team gender balance – two female Directors on the Board and 5/9 females on the EMT.

Deloitte

Gender diversity is cited as a key priority for Deloitte. The firm published its latest gender pay gap figures in its 2016 annual report, reporting a gap of 16.8%. Alongside the numbers, Deloitte:

• Outlined its commitment to attract, retain and develop female staff, with a target that 25% of partners will be women by 2020.
• Shared details of two programmes aimed at helping women returning to work; the Return to Work programme which helps women who have been away from work for a long time, and the Working Parents Transitions Programme which has seen a significant reduction in the number of women leaving following maternity leave.

These organisations are just a selection of ‘early-reporters’ but what they demonstrate is that publishing headline figures alone won’t do the job. To add value to the headline numbers, you need to answer deeper questions and create a strong narrative that shares how your organisation will improve your gender pay gap in coming years.

To find out more about how we can help you with gender pay reporting, please get in touch: 020 3457 0894.

« Back to Insights