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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

Worried about your gender pay gap?

Paul Cook, CEO at human capital consultancy Alderbrooke comments

“Businesses need to know if they are behaving the same way towards men and women. Building awareness around gender equality as part of training programmes is a good place for any business to start. Subsequently, analysing employee behaviours and undertaking unconscious bias workshops to establish where prejudices exist is essential.

“To implement an effective Diversity and Inclusion programme a business must first measure the impact of past initiatives to see where improvements can be made. The most effective D&I plans create a pipeline of talent that enables businesses to promote homegrown employees of different races and genders. This helps existing talent to reach the most senior positions in a company and removes the need for a company to apply quotas.”

 Suzanne Horne, head of the international employment practice at law firm Paul Hastings, comments:

 “UK employees need to be able to show that men and women are being paid equally for doing the same or comparable jobs. If there is a pay gap, an employer must be able to establish factors that legitimately differentiate pay, such as levels of responsibility, nature of work, experience and geographical location.

 “Crucially, firms worried about their gender pay gap need to run the numbers, review their diversity & inclusion initiatives and determine the appropriate voluntary context in which to present their results. Employers of all kinds cannot afford to be complacent on this issue or they too will face the BBC backlash.”