Global recruitment specialist PageGroup has published its gender pay gap data under government regulations, which state that organisations with 250 or more workers must publish information about their gender pay and bonus gaps by April 2018.PageGroup’s* median pay gap is 17% and its mean pay gap is 21%. The firm’s median bonus gap is 44% and its mean bonus gap is 43%.The pay gap at PageGroup exists for a number of reasons. As the organisation is headquartered in the UK, several Executive Board members are on the UK payroll and therefore included in the UK figures. There is also a lower proportion of women holding the firm’s most senior roles, an issue the group has been working hard to address for a number of years.Kieron Rathe, Group HR Director at PageGroup says, “The results are broadly in line with our expectations and we do recognise that, despite our equal pay policy, there is a pay gap. As a result we have implemented a number of measures over the years to ensure we are combatting the gap and developing our female talent across the business.“In 2012 we launched our Women@Page network, which allows women from all over the world to network, meet virtually and offer peer support. We also have a successful maternity coaching programme in partnership with My Family Care, and as a result have seen our maternity return rates increase from 76-87%. Our established Mentoring Programme for women has also been a key driver in retention within the female Manager and Director population.”“More recently, we launched Dynamic Working across the UK business. With commitment from our senior leadership team, this approach allows employees to embrace a more flexible and dynamic way of working, promoting balance, choices, openness and trust.“The business has taken a considerable strategic focus with Diversity & Inclusion, with a particular emphasis on gender diversity. We have won a number of awards as a result, including the HR Excellence 2017 – Diversity & Inclusion award, along with three awards from enei – Private Sector, Inclusive Culture, and Team of the Year.“Whilst we are pleased with the progress we have made with Gender Diversity in the UK over recent years, we recognise that we still have more work to do on eliminating the pay gap for good. The organic nature of our business, with senior employees almost always being promoted from within, means addressing our gender pay gap will take time. We have however been actively working on this, as shown by an increase in our female Director population in the UK from 29% at the end of 2013, to 41% by the end of 2017. We will continue to build upon this and place a strong emphasis on our Gender Diversity strategy.”
