Toolkit highlights benefits of gender pay gap reporting

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have issued guidance on tackling the gender pay gap as the extended date for mandatory reporting looms next month.

While it is mandatory for organisations with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap every year, enforcement had been suspended due to the pandemic.

Mandatory reporting is due to resume next month, but there is concern that action around the gender pay gap could be de-prioritised by businesses. The CMI and EHRC have urged firms to anonymise CVs and promote shared parental leave and have also called on firms to advertise jobs at all levels as open to flexible working.

The report focuses on the business benefits of tackling the gender pay gap, including accelerating diversity at all levels making access to opportunities fairer and creating a culture that promotes and values difference.

The guide says: “We want to ensure access to opportunities is fair so that everyone can reach their full potential. We’re therefore strengthening succession planning and recruitment processes with diverse shortlists, interview panels and anonymised applications, alongside empowering under-represented groups to develop their talent via mentoring and the Black Leadership Academy.”

On culture, it adds: “It’s essential that we build an inclusive environment where colleagues can feel valued, motivated and welcome through a range of initiatives – from mandating unconscious bias training for all and running straight talking sessions to understand people’s stories behind our engagement data, to setting up a ‘Shadow Board’ of diverse colleagues to meet with leaders and provide feedback for continuous improvement.”

Not enough workers

Meanwhile, the latest job statistics for May to July 2021 show the UK employment rate is estimated at 75.2%, 0.5% higher than the previous quarter.  The unemployment rate was estimated at 4.6%, 0.3% lower than the previous quarter.   The redundancy rate decreased on the quarter and returned to pre-pandemic levels.

IES Director Tony Wilson said: “Today’s figures confirm that the jobs recovery is continuing to gain speed. However, they also show that we’ve seen the biggest fall in the size of the labour market since the early 90s recession.  Officially, there are still more than half a million fewer people either in work or looking for work than before the pandemic began, although furlough will be pushing the actual figure closer to a million. With vacancies setting new records, the biggest risk that we’re now facing is not enough workers rather than not enough jobs.  At the same time, there are more than six million people outside the labour market because of ill health, caring or studies.  So we need to be doing far more – government and employers – to help more of these people to get into work.”

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