Need to know:
- Pay transparency encourages the clarifying and codifying of progression structures, and allows for merit and value to be rewarded free from unconscious bias.
- Effective use of data analytics, as well as staff input and open dialogue, can help employers to better understand the priorities of a workforce, rather than making assumptions.
- Some practices are universally beneficial; for example, flexible working can cater to employees with diverse demands on their time, while boosting wellbeing overall.
Diversity and inclusion can be a complex, multi-faceted challenge; it can mean working to close gender, ethnicity, age and disability pay gaps, reviewing recruitment and progression strategies, and addressing fundamental cultural or environmental issues.
Opening the talent pipeline, allowing diverse, healthy progression free from subconscious bias and unfair obstacles, can also necessitate changes to the daily structure of work, such as normalising flexibility, equalising parental leave structures, and, ultimately, helping employees to succeed regardless of background.
Ultimately, an open talent pipeline allows businesses to benefit from increased diversity of thought and experience throughout all levels of the hierarchy.
Open pay structures
In an environment where pay gap reporting, whether mandatory or voluntary, is becoming more commonplace, having a transparent pay strategy that is visibly free from bias is increasingly important.
Tim Kellett, director at Paydata, says: “Employers that have got a pay structure in place, pay evaluation, pay ranges and so on, are much better set to address the legislation that focuses on equality and pay gaps. The reward decisions made tend to be far more consistent and fair."
Increased transparency and scrutiny encourages organisations to clarify and codify progression and salary structures. This not only weeds out unconscious bias, but also allows employees themselves to better understand the expectations placed upon them.
This, ideally, will aid in the move away from a world in which the most confident are rewarded disproportionately, and towards one in which value and merit are equally assessed.
The whole package
Pay, particularly while living costs continue to rise, is unlikely to slip down the priority list. However, when considering how to recruit, retain and engage a diverse workforce, the wider context of employee benefits must be taken into account.
“I’d almost say benefits are no longer the icing on the pay and reward cake, they are the sponge," says Kellett. "They are becoming more and more important. [Employees] are looking far more at the overall package."
David Prosser, head of proposition development at Towergate Health and Protection, adds: “Salary, clearly, is very, very important. But it is also about communicating the value of benefits and getting staff to appreciate them. It is all about promoting what [is on] offer, whether that is salary or flexible working or benefits. And keep at it, keep doing it; it is not something [employers] can just do once every five years.”
Diverse needs
To open up the talent pipeline, a benefits package should work to reduce blockages due to an employee's individual needs or pressures; for example, in a time when age diversity is at a peak, organisations should aim to cater for a variety of life stages.
Considering the vastly different needs across an employee's life cycle, this might sound like an insurmountable challenge; however, flexible, home and remote working practices can universally aid those with caring responsibilities, disabilities, health concerns or mental wellbeing challenges.
Alternative working structures can also have positive effects on work-life balance across the full spectrum of employees, regardless of their home situation. In September 2019, Jellyfish Training found that 44% of UK employees cite flexible working as the most important element of a job.
Normalising these practices by clarifying them in job advertisements and offering them from day one of a contract shows an inherent commitment to creating a working environment and a progression path that works for all.
Measuring the data
For things that are less clearly universal, it is vital to use data and analytics to ensure a benefits programme is effective and relevant.
“It is important to understand what [the] workforce looks like," says Prosser. “It is about understanding the potential range of benefits or services [they] might need to have in place, and the way [they] communicate those across the workforce. And then giving people the option to personalise what is of most importance to them."
In turn, the use of employee forums, networks, reverse mentoring and surveys to open a dialogue and use the lessons learned directly from staff to shape benefits strategy can ensure that no group is overlooked, in addition to providing support systems for the employees themselves to feel welcome and nurtured within an organisation.
Avoiding exclusion
Employees with diverse life experiences may have priorities and preferences of which HR decision-makers are unaware, but that can create pipeline blockages that prevent an individual from feeling they are free to progress further into an organisation without compromising other needs.
In other instances, failing to address specific needs that affect some groups over others can lead to a loss of key talent that could have been avoided.
Martha How, partner at Aon, says: “Take a condition such as sickle cell anaemia. Certain ethnicities suffer from this condition more than others, yet quite often it is excluded from policies. And that does not play well to a diversity and inclusion agenda.
“A benefits strategy is one of the best ways to cater for a diverse workforce, but it does need to be thought through carefully.”
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