How transparency about privacy is allowing us to fight pay inequality for protected groups
Transparency is a well-recognised part of undermining systems of inequality in society. It is also recognised as an important factor in generating evolution in business. At Advanced, we are recognise how it promotes confidence in our processes.
Diversity tracking and pay-gap tracking is fundamental to our internal practice. This allows us to support our employees to achieve their potential at every level. When people are confident to be their true selves, they can take the steps needed for their personal and professional development. As a leader in our industry, we have a duty to support them and set a positive example.
When we want to create opportunity for ourselves and our partners, we must provide opportunity to our people. To do that, we need to be open and honest about the challenges we face. We need to be transparent; we can't change what we can't see.
Our Practice
For our Diversity Pay Gap Report, we measure pay gaps across our organisation for a range of protected characteristics. Through this process, we get to understand the way that progress towards equality can be made at Advanced. This relies on regularly updated, accurate data.
To achieve this, we have carried out regular surveys of protected characteristics and applied them to our salary data. This allows us to make real difference in response to the needs of our employees. Insight allows us to act.
That insight needs to be accurate and truly responsive to the reality of our community. When people are not confident to speak up, we lose that accuracy. That is why we are making every effort to increase that confidence and support people to speak their truth.
We have always given the option of ‘prefer not to say’ for protected characteristics, for those concerned about their privacy. This is important to show that our people do not have to be open when they are not comfortable to do so. It still concerns us that some people are worried.
We want to create an environment in which all people are comfortable to be open about themselves. This relies on our employees trusting us to protect their data. To achieve greater equality, we need to take steps to ensure that our employees feel safe to bring their genuine selves to work.
For successive reports, we faced high levels of ‘prefer not to say’ responses, which clouds our data. This was a challenge which we were determined to face head-on. This meant being more transparent about our policies, and showing how we were keeping people’s privacy.
Most of all, this took time. By continuing to publish our reports and showing that we maintained privacy as process continued year by year, we were able to show that employees were safe to be honest. Furthermore, as the pay gaps that we had recognised began to narrow, the positive effect of the reports became clear.
The Outcome
We have seen a rise in self-reporting for protected characteristics in several areas. This was especially notable for characteristics related to ethnicity and disability, where more people were comfortable to come forwards. This saw a significant impact on our data for the pay gaps in question.
While median pay gaps for minority ethnic groups have reduced for a third year, mean pay gaps have increased on last year. This shows the value of accurate reporting; we need to identify the challenges we face. By increasing trust and transparency in the process, we have been better able to understand the challenges we face.
We have also seen a decrease year on year in those who prefer not to declare their sexuality. This has coincided with a significant reduction in pay gaps for non-heterosexuals. It is encouraging to see that we have been able to improve the experience of our people, and the data we have collected has made us able to do that.
One very positive aspect in this year’s report was the turn-around of pay gaps for people with disabilities. Although there was a rise last year, there has been a steep decline in our latest report, leaving the rate at its lowest ever level.
By being transparent, we can increase trust. By increasing trust, we can fight inequality. By fighting inequality, we can work collaboratively to improve ourselves as a whole.
