UK gender pay gap 2022
We are fundamentally a people-based business. We recognise the significant benefits that derive from a more inclusive and diverse organisation. From entry-level roles to senior leadership, we’re committed to driving gender equality across our global business.
Gender equality is just one element of our commitment to create a truly inclusive workplace where all employees can thrive.
Whilst this report only reviews the status of our UK employees our focus on developing a culture underpinned by inclusive policy and practice has global reach.
What is the UK Gender Pay Gap?
- Since April 2017, the UK Government has required all UK companies with a headcount of 250 or more to annually publish figures on their UK gender pay gap to encourage greater focus and prioritisation on closing the gap.
- UK gender pay gap reporting calculates the difference between the hourly pay of men and the hourly pay of women in our UK business. Hourly pay includes base pay, allowances and any bonus and other incentive pay.
- The gender bonus gap is the difference in the bonus pay received by men and women.
- Tracking the evolution of the gap across multiple years is key to assessing progress.
- We have calculated our gender pay gaps using the methodology as required by the regulations for publishing UK gender pay gap information.
- The data in this presentation is based on a snapshot date of the 5th April of each year to match the reporting period required by the Government.
MEAN GENDER PAY GAP
The mean gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly pay for women compared to men, within a company.
MEDIAN GENDER PAY GAP
The median represents the middle point of a population by taking all salaries in the sample and lining them up in order from lowest to highest to identify the middle salary. The median pay gap is the difference between the hourly pay rate for the middle woman compared to the middle man.
Does having a pay gap mean women are not paid the same as men?
It is important to note that a gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay. Equal pay is the concept of paying men and women equally for equivalent work. The gender pay gap report does not report on equal pay as it does not compare pay between men and women for specific roles. We monitor equal pay and are committed to pay equally and fairly across job roles and reward our people based on their performance and contribution.
Our figures
For reference, the ONS reported that the median gender pay gap among all employees in the UK reduced to 14.9% in 2022, from 15.1% in 2021. This was up from 14.9% in 2020 and down from 17.4% in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Our 2022 calculations take into account voluntary salary sacrifice pension, childcare vouchers and Cyclescheme contributions.
We run an identical bonus scheme for men and women which includes a qualifying period from date of joining before bonus payments are made.
During 2022 our profit share bonus was paid out twice during the year. We also paid out three extra payments (holiday and Christmas payments) which were calculated net to gross in order for everyone to receive the same net value. This is different to preceding years.
Employees who choose to pay their bonus into their pension are still included in the calculation.
Pay Quartiles – The gender make-up of our pay quartiles
Understanding our UK Gender Hourly Pay and Bonus Gap
Our pay gap is primarily caused by three main factors;
- There are more men than women working at every career grade in the UK at Cambridge Consultants. In the 2022 data period 73% of our workforce were men and 27% were women.
- More women than men are employed in our administrative support roles.
- We also have fewer women in senior roles in the company than men, which is not uncommon in the technology industry and is something we are actively trying to address. The biggest impact this has is on the bonus pay gap.
As noted above, our reported gap is significantly impacted by the ratio of men to women across the organisation, particularly those at senior leadership level. Within wider diversity aims we are working to increase gender diversity in new hires.
The number of women in the organisation overall increased by 10.4% whilst the number of men increased by 1.8% during 2022. Our success in increasing the number of women in more junior roles will, for this year, impact our Gender Pay Gap figures.
We have been successful in recruiting women into our lower quartile roles, with the number of women in the lower quartile increasing by 9.7%. Whilst the number of women in the lower mid quartile has reduced by 9.2%, numbers of women in the upper mid and upper quartiles have both increased.
We have identified a large increase in our bonus median gap this year, increasing from 23.1% in 2021 to 36.3% in 2022. Despite more women being in senior roles the lower quartile reaching almost equal numbers of each gender has resulted in a separation of the median woman and median man across seniority. Our annual performance bonuses make up the vast majority of the monetary value calculated under ‘bonus’ for the purpose of this report. Annual bonuses are calculated as a percentage of base salary and the target percentage increases stepwise with seniority. Therefore if a man and a woman sit either side of this boundary, whilst the hourly pay gap may not be that large, the bonus gap will be more so.
What is Cambridge Consultants doing to address the gap?
We recognise the importance of addressing the gap and that it will take time to create long-term, sustainable change. At CC we strive to create an inclusive culture that ensures equity of opportunity for all of our people.
Statement from our CEO
In laying out his vision for CC our new CEO, Monty Barlow, has clearly demonstrated his passion for the opportunity we have as a business and in our culture of seizing opportunity:
“I’m very passionate about DEI. We’ve made good strides but also acknowledge that there is still much more to do. I 100% believe we’re only going to reach our potential with a more diverse leadership and more diverse workforce. We can only build teams to take on the world’s toughest challenges by creating an environment that allows each of us to reach our potential. We want to be an evermore compelling employer and our focus on developing a diverse and inclusive culture will continue to be a key focus for us.”
Increasing our understanding and setting strategy:
We have carried out a specific Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) survey this year which had the following aims:
- To better understand our workforce profile
- To demonstrate to our employees that we are serious about our diversity and inclusion strategy
- To improve our understanding of different demographic groups
- To listen to our employees and gather information and opinions
We are working hard to improve our understanding of where to focus our efforts and the survey data will help us to set direction for our future DEI strategy.
Early age/Outreach:
It is well recognised that there is a skills shortage for STEM employers. The latest government workforce data, as of the end of June 2022, shows the percentage of women making up the Core-STEM workforce in the UK is 26.9%* with women engineers accounting for 13.6% of the engineering workforce.
We recognise the importance of early years intervention in encouraging greater diversity in STEM. That’s why we actively focus on initiatives to encourage more young people to enjoy STEM in early life through our STEM Outreach programme. By partnering with outreach organisations, community schemes, and schools – providing financial support and volunteer time – we aim to provide opportunities to children who would otherwise be likely to miss out (for example due to socio-economic deprivation, disabilities or learning differences, or young carer responsibilities). We ensure that our teams of volunteers represent an inspiring and diverse group so that every young person can see a future route and role model for themselves, rather than prematurely ruling themselves out of STEM due to feeling that it is not for them.
* Source: WISE Campaign: https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/updated-workforce-statistics-june-2022/
Attracting diverse talent:
In the context of previous efforts to attract a more diverse candidate pool, of the new joiners within the 2022 reporting period, 31.9% were women.
We have since invested in an applicant tracking system which will enable us to have a more data-driven approach to the hiring process. It will enhance our ability to collect and analyse recruitment data and aims to reduce potential bias from the hiring process.
We have focused activities on exploring different recruitment channels to access more diverse talent pools and have developed job descriptions and advertising campaigns to ensure that we include language that appeals equally to men and women. We continue to be mindful of the composition of our interview panels and aim to achieve greater gender equality in our interview line-ups wherever possible.
Early Careers
We continue to focus on widening our Internship and Graduate recruitment activities. By expanding the number of academic institutions and University Societies that we work with we are trying to improve the diversity, in background and experience, of our new recruits. We encourage our women to represent CC at careers events to try to inspire and also encourage potential new recruits.
We regularly attend Women in STEM events and have established a partnership with Gradcracker, a company who focus on supporting and developing careers in STEM.
Commitment to increase number of women in senior roles
We are committed to driving diversity at every level of the organisation, including greater representation of women in senior leadership roles.
We are introducing Succession Planning conversations to focus us on becoming more pro-active in identifying and progressing talent through the company, with an emphasis on under-represented groups.
We are also piloting a reverse mentoring scheme for senior leaders in the business to bring about greater understanding, transparency and diversity of thought to leadership decision making.
Work/life balance
Our aim is to create gender parity in the workplace and encouraging more equity across all parents is one way we’re achieving this. We demonstrate a progressive approach to New Parent Leave, and in January 2022 we launched our global New Parent Leave policy to provide strong support, assisting new parents with building family relationships and balancing work and career opportunities. This policy is gender neutral giving all new parents, whether by birth, as a result of adoption or by surrogacy arrangement, 13 weeks paid parental leave, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
We have introduced the right to request flexible working from the day that someone joins our business.
We continue to adopt and promote agile and flexible working practices to help all employees balance their personal commitments.
Cultural alignment
Our Women’s+Network that was launched in 2021 has become established and aims to create an empowered community of women and allies working together to promote equity and inclusion in the workplace. Additionally we have a Women’s Health Special Interest Group to raise awareness and consider ways in which we as a business can contribute to creating a more equitable future in the outside world through our strategy consulting, product development and service design.
Richard Hall, Chief Operations Officer, Cambridge Consultants