PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) UK aims to narrow its gender pay gap by regularly monitoring how it attracts and retains employees.
The professional services firm employs 23,000 UK members of staff.
One of its priorities is to increase the representation of women in the organisation, particularly at senior levels, by attracting, retaining and progressing individuals. It has invested in specific benefits to attract and retain women. These are largely focused on women’s health and on caring responsibilities, addressing the fact that women are typically the primary caregivers in most families.
PWC’s flexible hybrid-working policy requires employees to be in the office 60% of the time, and they can decide and control when that is. Exemptions to this are carers who have a dependent with a medical condition or disability that requires them to work from home. It finds this is valuable to women.
It enables staff to work virtually for eight weeks before the birth of their child, their partner’s child or adoption, as well as post-birth. As well as free period products in its offices, PWC offers employer-paid private medical insurance, menopause support through the Peppy app , and support for paid fertility leave.
The firm also provides full pay for shared parental leave and 20 days of back-up childcare a year, explains Sarah Minor-Massy, head of culture, inclusion and engagement.
“This is not only a financial benefit, but also peace of mind for people who are managing childcare at home, because it can be booked in advance,” she says. ”We also have mental health support and neurodiversity assessments for children. It’s becoming apparent that these issues are keeping women out of work, deciding to be at home or part-time to manage this, so we wanted to help. We also have networks and employee resource groups dedicated to parenting care and women’s health issues, among others.”
As part of its private medical insurance scheme, it offers a neurodivergent pathway, enabling staff to receive a diagnosis if needed. This allows the firm to offer reasonable adjustment support post-diagnosis, says Tracey Lenthall, HR director for reward, performance, benefits, and health and wellbeing.
“It’s been very well utilised,” she adds. ”The more we support those with a disability, the more they will be on an equal ground to others. This helps them to progress through the organisation at an equal rate.”
PWC regularly conducts an analysis on pay and promotion to ensure it is fair and consistent, adds Lemthall.
“The more women progress through the firm, the better our pay gaps will be,” she says.
PWC also changed its bonus structure from percentage of base pay to a pound amount against an employee’s performance rating. This helps to support staff across the board, as well as diverse groups, to drive fairness and lower the pay gap.
The firm has a bi-annual engagement survey to understand employee sentiment and ensure it understands where there are differences to assess current initiatives and develop new ones. It also believes that from a moral, ethical and fairness perspective, pay and benefits should be equal for all.
PWC recognises that women continue to face challenges that their male counterparts do not and at every step seeks to identify differences or barriers so it can take immediate action.
“We need every single voice and perspective,” says Minor-Massey. ”The idea of excluding people is not only irresponsible and unacceptable, but it makes no business sense. That’s why we’re trying to level the playing field through our benefits, performance management process and culture.”
