Since 2017 businesses employing more than 250 people are required to publish their Gender Pay Gap (“GPG”) figures. However, some businesses voluntarily reported their pay gaps before it was mandatory. Why? And if you employ less than 250 people should you publish your data? And what about your ethnicity or your disability pay gaps?
Attracting the best people through transparency
Deloitte, the professional services firm, voluntarily published its gender pay gap before it was required in 2017. In its 2017 gender pay report Deloitte stated that “increasing gender pay gap transparency is a topic we’ve taken a leading and visible position on for some time. We have been voluntarily reporting our gender pay gap since 2015 and worked closely with the Government Equalities Office to produce their report Trailblazing Transparency: Mending the Gap”.
If you are serious about running an inclusive business you don’t need to wait until you start employing more than 250 people to make it public. By increasing transparency and publishing data to the world you are making a clear statement that gender equality and an inclusive workplace is important to you. This in turn will help you attract more top talent, clients, suppliers and other partners who want to do business with an organisation that values inclusivity, equality and diversity. You don’t need to wait until it becomes a compliance thing.
Making society better with data
Measuring and monitoring diversity and inclusion inside your business can be subjective at times. You might not have all the data to calculate any meaningful insights and employees may not be forthcoming in sharing particular characteristics (like whether they are LGBT+ or not for fear of career ramifications). But if we are to increase the visible and invisible diversity of British workplaces and our sense of belonging in them, then we need data to nudge us in the right direction. Without data we might be trying to solve the wrong problems. A common reason for the Gender Pay Gap in businesses is the lack of women holding senior positions and taking home the bigger salaries and bonuses. However, a less discussed reason is that women still take on the lion’s share of caring responsibilities at home. Armed with this insight we can start to create strategies to close the gap – like implementing parental policies encouraging men to take more parental leave, or inclusive flexible working for all employees.
The government has completed its consultation for introducing ethnicity pay gap reporting. With the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the Black Lives Matter movement there is a lot more focus on racial inequalities in the workplace. If you are serious about the inclusivity of black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) employees then you don’t need to wait for this new legislation to kick in. You can make a difference right now. In its 2019 report, Taking the right approach to ethnicity pay gap reporting, PwC stated “We don’t see diversity reporting as a compliance exercise. We believe organisations should be tackling inequality because it is the right thing to do, both for their people and their business”.
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) play a particular role in improving society for the better. According to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy, SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population. 99.3% of these businesses employ up to 49 employees. 0.6% account for businesses employing up to 250 people. However, there seems to be a disproportionate focus on the remaining 0.1% of businesses employing more than 250 people and what they are doing about diversity and inclusion. Therefore, as a SME you can make a real difference to the working lives of millions of people in the UK and their sense of belonging and well-being at work.