Most organisations have got to grips with their gender pay reporting for this year – either completed or well on the way.  And although they have breathed a sigh of relief, this is only the start of the journey on gender pay.

Typical findings include the fact the most organisations have more men in the senior roles, more women in junior roles, and that explains the gap. Which it does… to some extent. So, the most obvious answer is to recruit more senior women, or junior men. But it’s hard to see how that will work in practice. The gender pay results reveal a general shortage of senior women, and there simply aren’t enough to go around.

So organisations will end up fighting over a small pool of candidates, particularly in male-dominated sectors like financial services, energy and engineering.  It doesn’t take a genius to do the maths and work out it’s not a sustainable solution for all companies. What’s more, parachuting in senior women is a quick fix to a long-term problem. Companies need to be smarter in how they close their gender pay gap, because recruitment doesn’t address the underlying issues in pay practise.

In fact, senior Reward leaders have suggested to me that the next two years will polarise businesses between those who can demonstrate a reduction in the gap and those who can’t. Organisations who haven’t been able to reduce their gap risk cutting the talent pool by about 50% because you will reduce female applicants. It’s therefore vital that gender pay reporting doesn’t end with the headline figures, but drives your company’s commitment to developing women’s careers.

So if you can’t recruit your way out of a gender pay problem, how else can you fix it?

I’m going to help you look for the weak spots in your pay practise which are driving your underlying issues. These are pay tests you can use to predict if your organisation will be able to get the gender pay gap under control, and help you decide where you should focus attention.

Innecto have done a great deal of research into the gender pay data we’ve received. Having done gender pay analysis covering just under 100,000 employees across the UK, we used conjoint analysis to assess a wide range of factors which have allowed us to spot and then correlate the key elements which point to long-term systemic problems with gender and the way that men and women are paid. 

The tests:

Test 1: The hourglass test

Test 2: Follow the money

Test 3: Paying for performance

Test 4: Allowances

We’ll only feel the full impact of gender pay reporting over the next few years. That’s why it’s so important to get out ahead of the crowd when it comes to closing your gap. Forgive me for not giving you full details here, but if that’s piqued your interest, get in touch on 020 3457 0894. 

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