Gender pay reporting is here. In just over four weeks, on 6 April, we will hit the snapshot date for 2017 reporting. If you haven’t carried out a dry run yet, we have a free calculator that will give you an idea of your position. Importantly you need to have read and understood the regulations. Get in touch if you need help. At this stage, your numbers are going to be what they are, but you can be like the many other forward-thinking organisations and take responsibility and control.

To do that, we work with clients through a six step process to add value to the headline numbers, answer deeper questions and drive the agenda forward. This enables them to share an improving story over the coming reporting years, with a strong narrative. Read about our six steps below and start your journey to gender pay reporting success.

1. Preparing your data

Before you start you need to gather the right data. Understanding which of your employees you need to include, the elements of base pay that are in and out of scope and the bonus calculations that are required, will be a challenging task for many. Sourcing and gathering that data is your important first step.

2. Finding the headlines

One of the first, and last parts of the process is finding your numbers, accurately and to the required standard. To investigate the situation, running the calculations to get a broad outline of the overall picture against the regulations is key. This gives you a baseline from which to start taking further action.

3. Uncovering risk

One of the main concerns of organisations is that publishing the gender pay difference is likely to cause disquiet and uncertainty among previously engaged employees. It is likely that ‘no win no fee’ lawyers will target firms with a large gender pay difference and a high profile to encourage female employees to bring a case against their employers for an equal pay claim. Doing further discovery work and a full equal pay audit where you can compare male and female employees doing the same work and of equal value, will help you identify and resolve any risk and mitigate against legal claims.

4. Taking control

The direction of travel on gender pay is to improve results over future years. At the moment, many clients are struggling to understand what they can do to make a difference, particularly in the face of overwhelming gender pay differences. Developing and tracking key metrics will enable you to understand where current policy and practice may be subtly driving differences which build over time.

5. Leading the way

Building an organisation that employees can be proud of is key to employee engagement and attracting and retaining talent. Creating a clear narrative on gender pay differences with a richer context than the headline figures, published alongside your numbers, helps to demonstrate commitment to improvement.

6. Running for real

After 5 April 2017, we will calculate your actual final numbers and produce graphs and data to help you produce your report for yours and the government website. We are expecting clients to want to publish in the first three months to demonstrate their commitment to fairness.

You can read our guide to understanding the gender pay reporting regulations here, or if you want some help or support from us, get in touch: 020 3457 0894.

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