4. Pay Gap Reporting
Half have calculated their gender pay gap and intend to publish it, whilst 23 per cent do not need to calculate their data as they have less than 250 employees. This is encouraging as it demonstrates employer’s awareness of their responsibility to drive forwards a positive story to tell when it comes to their role in closing the gender pay gap. 41 per cent will publish their gender pay gap data by the April deadline and a further 25 per cent will publish by the extended deadline of October. 48 per cent will conduct further analysis into the drivers behind their figures to ensure they are taking concrete steps year on year.
There is also an increase in the number of employers looking at their wider equality, diversity and inclusion record when it comes to the demographic analysis of their workforce. Organisations are increasingly measuring the pay differences between groups of employees. 49 per cent have started to look at their ethnicity pay gap; 32 per cent scrutinising any pay gaps based on age; and 29 per cent analysing their pay data based on disability. We’ll explore the range of initiatives that organisations are implementing to further their diversity and inclusion agendas in the final results.
5. The return to the office
In our autumn 2020 UK reward Management Survey, our results showed that by August 2021, more than 40 per cent expect to have all staff back in the office. However, 86 per cent are still predominantly working from home and the timescales have been pushed back to the end of the year – but even then, only one in five anticipate a full-time return. Most people anticipate that there will be flexibility built in – with around two to three days being spent in the office. This is backed up by the BBC who surveyed 50 of the UK’s biggest employers who predominantly said that they do not plan to bring back staff to the office full time.
Employers are flagging the challenges posed by the idea of a fully remote workforce. Many point to the fact that they had established teams of employees that relied on existing office cultures when working remotely. The Chief Executive of Washington Media Cathy Merrill says her team’s “established practices, unspoken rules and shared values established over years” informed their remote working arrangements. Similarly, concerns are raised when it comes to trainees and the impact on the learning experience for more junior employees. Whilst employees have been able to request flexible working for years, 85 per cent of respondents so far expect that flexible working arrangements will be more readily available because of the pandemic. Refusing requests if productivity has been maintained may be objectively harder. It will be up to employers to define the level of flexibility they are happy to offer.
Have your say
Take 15 minutes to contribute your views and in return, receive a free comprehensive report of the survey findings. Subject to participation levels in your sector, we will also send you a tailored report, reflecting our sector findings.
Commitment to confidentiality
We understand that some of the information we capture may be commercially sensitive. Therefore we will:
- Never share confidential information with anyone else.
- Only produce an aggregated summary report of the results making it impossible to identify individual answers.
