Candour addresses and tries to improve pay inequality within its organisation through the use of salary bandings and performance frameworks.
The Norwich-based agency focuses on organic search and digital PR, and has a design, branding and development arm. Most of its 25 employees work on a hybrid basis, while a few work solely remotely.
Over the past six years, it has implemented informal, flexible salary bandings for different roles, which helps maintain objectivity and consistency in salaries. The differences between the bandings typically range between £3,000 and £5,000, so employees can progress when they hit performance targets.
This system ensures pay equality for its employees performing the same role, with flexibility based on their experience level within the set band. Candour also uses external HR firms and industry standards to establish appropriate pay grades, checking for any disparity to ensure consistency.
Candour prioritises pay transparency by always advertising the salary bracket when recruiting for a new position and by attaching a salary bracket to internal roles and responsibility documents, explains Jessica Bettis, director of strategy.
“Although we do not publish a full index of salaries, all employees have an idea of their salary bracket and what is required to develop and reach the next level,” she says. ”This transparency, combined with objective, evidence-based performance expectations, assessed against the same behavioural matrix, is essential for fairness and addressing pay inequality.”
To create greater transparency regarding performance expectations for roles such as executive, specialist, and senior, the agency introduced a formal personal development plan process and a behavioural matrix connected to its salary band progression. The matrix covers core skills, communication, ability to meet deadlines and quality of work.
It also aims to look at its pay grades to give a temperature check on an annual basis to hold itself accountable.
However, transparency around a pay and benefits package can only go part of the way to addressing pay inequality if people do not feel they meet the criteria of a role, adds Bettis.
“Transparency offers objectivity,” she explains. ”A big part of pay inequality is about assessing performance and within recruitment. If people are overlooked or not encouraged to apply for roles in the same way as counterparts, it can create inequality.”
Implementing clear salary bands and progression pathways successfully addressed any previous pay and gender disparities the agency had, which resulted in a nearly 50/50 gender split.
Additionally, formalising family-friendly policies such as maternity, paternity and adoption leave, and their inclusion in its job adverts, helped attract a wider range of talent and achieve a near 50/50 gender split across the team.
“We view pay transparency as highly important, but it must be coupled with transparent recruitment and promotion processes to fix the root causes of inequality, such as people being overlooked for opportunities. To maintain fairness, everyone in the business is assessed against the same behavioural matrix alongside goals tailored to their growth ambitions,” Bettis says.
