Gender Pay Gap Reporting: How can HR Professionals Drive Change

Gender pay gap reporting has been a legal requirement for many UK employers since 2017, yet it remains a hot topic amongst us HR professionals. With public and organisational scrutiny of pay disparities showing no sign of easing, the responsibility to deliver transparent, accurate, and meaningful reports has never been greater.

In today’s world, the Gender Pay Gap remains a significant barrier to equality. Despite advancements in many areas, discrepancies in pay between genders persist, hindering not just individuals, but organisations and the economy overall. A diverse workforce, where everyone is paid fairly, is a more innovative, creative, and productive one. Hence, addressing the gender pay gap is not just ethically right, it’s a practice we would consider commercially astute too.

As we approach another reporting deadline, are you confident you’re not just meeting the requirements but leveraging the process to make a meaningful impact?

Gender Pay Gap Reporting Requirements for Employers

The process of gathering and submitting gender pay gap data is not a simple task. It requires meticulous data collection, sorting, and analysis. Payroll software can support this, but our experience tells us that often the numbers can be more complex to manage than initially expected and shouldn’t be underestimated.

The Gender Pay Gap data must be accurate and submitted on time:

• Public Sector Employers: Public sector organisations must report by 30 March each year.
• Private Sector and Voluntary Organisations: Private companies and voluntary organisations have until 4 April each year to report their data.

Submitting your data is just the initial, surface-level requirement. The real work lies in interpreting the data and crafting a narrative around what it means for your organisation in practice. This narrative is crucial because it provides context for the numbers and can help explain why the gap exists, what steps are being taken to close it, and how it aligns with the company’s broader diversity and inclusion goals. It’s the most visible part of your submission and is likely to be scrutinised by your employees, investors, competitors, media, and the public. So, getting it right is essential!

What HR Professionals Can Do to Drive Change

Understanding the regulations and publishing your report is just the start. To truly tackle the gender pay gap, HR teams must think strategically. Here are some practical steps to consider:

1. Conduct a Deeper Analysis
   Don’t stop at the mandatory calculations. Dig into the data to understand the root causes of pay disparities in your organisation. Is it a lack of women in senior roles? Are specific departments skewed heavily male or female?
2. Create a Narrative
   When publishing your report, include a clear narrative that explains the numbers and outlines your action plan. This can help contextualise the data and reassure stakeholders that you’re addressing any issues.
3. Prioritise Career Development for Women
   One of the most common causes of pay gaps is the underrepresentation of women in senior roles. Review your talent pipelines and invest in leadership development programmes targeted at women.
4. Review Recruitment Practices
   Biases in recruitment can perpetuate pay gaps. Audit your hiring practices to ensure you’re attracting diverse talent pools and offering equitable starting salaries.
5. Introduce Flexible Working Policies
   Care responsibilities often disproportionately affect women, making it harder for them to progress in their careers. Flexible working arrangements can help create a more level playing field for all.
6. Monitor Progress Regularly
   Gender pay gap reporting isn’t a one-and-done task. Regularly track your progress and adjust your strategies as needed. Consider setting internal benchmarks to measure improvements year-on-year.

The Future of Gender Pay Gap Reporting

While the regulations currently apply to organisations with 250 or more employees, there have been calls to lower the threshold, bringing smaller employers into scope. Similarly, there is growing momentum for ethnicity pay gap reporting, which could soon become mandatory. Staying ahead of these changes will require HR teams to adopt a proactive, data-driven approach to pay equity which, whilst a time-consuming task, can help HR professionals drive change in their organisations, and lead to creating more inclusive and diverse workplaces.

Gender pay gap reporting may feel like a compliance exercise, but it’s so much more than that. It’s an opportunity to reflect on your organisation’s culture, policies, and practices. The numbers are important, but what you do with them and how they are communicated give opportunities to bring real benefits to organisations, their internal teams, and when attracting new talent.

As you prepare your next report, take the time to go beyond the legal requirements. Engage with leadership, communicate transparently with employees, and focus on building a workplace where everyone can thrive. If you have any queries about gender pay gap reporting please do not hesitate to get in contact with James Richardson, or your usual People contact.