Gender pay reporting: Tips from those who've disclosed
Jenny Roper, January 03, 2018
Employers with 250-plus employees have until April to disclose. Here's some tips from those who've already published
Sarah Kaiser, diversity and inclusion lead, EMEIA at Fujitsu
1. Engage leadership as early as possible. The whole business needs to be accountable to make progress; not just HR.
2. Know your data. It's not enough just to know the stats required for reporting. You will need to really interrogate your data to explain your current position and identify how to move forward.
3. Involve a multi-disciplinary team so you can benefit from a range of perspectives and skills.
4. Have a plan. This is an opportunity to look at improving your performance on gender equality. What will you do to make sure your gender pay gap is smaller when you report again next year?
5. Be honest. Your employees and customers want to hear how you feel about your gap and what you're doing about it. If you're not happy with your results don't try to put a positive spin on them. Tell people you want to be better and explain what you're doing to make that happen.
Emma Codd, managing partner for talent at Deloitte
1. Ensure that your people are aware of your gap before you publish it externally.
2. Ensure that you have analysed the data (both pay gap data and other corresponding gender data you have), and that you have identified the ‘pain points’ that need addressing from a gender balance perspective.
3. Ensure that you have a clear plan to address your pain points and that your people are aware of this plan.
4. If you don’t have a plan prior to publishing your gap ensure you have one when you do – and that it shows your people how seriously your company’s leadership is taking this.
5. Make the most of the chance to publish a narrative alongside your data – this is your chance to clearly explain why your gap exists and what you are doing (or will commit to doing) to close it.
Helen Rose, chief operating officer at TSB Bank
1. Transparency – If companies are transparent about pay and are able to really get to grips with their numbers they can find the solutions they need.
2. Work out the root cause – Rather than just publish the top line figures for the pay and bonus gap we decided to analyse this figure to work out the root cause. We chose to focus on our mean pay gap – the higher figure – as it meant that we were really able to drill down.
3. Understanding the difference – Make sure people understand the difference between equal pay and the gender pay gap.
4. Know your audience – We focused on partners [staff], our customers and the media. To get the message right with employees we held an internal focus group to understand what they felt. Some of the messages are quite complex. We wanted to ensure they were well understood.
5. Accountability – Businesses must be held to account on the progress they are making by reporting annually, and include within their report, over time, a rolling five year trend which shows the progress they are making.
Sarah Churchman, head of diversity at PwC
1. This is an opportunity to stimulate broader change to address fairness in your organisation.
2. Take the time to get granular levels of data by grade, location, role, etc. to really understand the underlying picture and therefore where to focus action.
3. A clear and informative narrative to accompany the numbers is crucial. Your employees and stakeholders need to understand the reasons behind your pay gap and the actions you are taking.
4. This is a chance to review aspects of your people policies that might exacerbate pay gaps. Look at recruitment, promotion, talent development, leadership programmes, flexible working and parental leave policies and processes.
5. Use this as an opportunity to explore any pay gaps for other demographics, especially ethnicity. If not possible because of poor disclosure levels then start pushing for higher levels of disclosure.
