FairPlay Employer
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer, but we are also conscious that we must continue to improve equality, diversity and inclusion across our organisation. Below, we discuss the assessment of our performance on gender equality undertaken by Chwarae Teg in February 2020.
Background
Women among our job applicants consistently outnumber men by a significant margin – in 2019/20, 75% of our workforce was female. We also have in place a range of policies and training opportunities to remove barriers to employment or career progression by female staff.
However, at March 2019 our median Gender Pay Gap stood at 21% and our mean Gender Pay Gap was 23%. In comparison, the median Gender Pay Gap in the public sector in Wales in 2019 was 14.2%.
We are aware that, in a relatively small organisation, individual recruitment outcomes can make apparently large differences. However, the extent of our Gender Pay Gap prompted us to seek an external specialist opinion on our performance on gender equality. As a result, we decided to engage with Chwarae Teg and seek accreditation as a FairPlay Employer.
Chwarae Teg is a Welsh charity leading on gender equality, including in the workplace. Its FairPlay Employer scheme benchmarks organisations in terms of gender equality across four levels: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.
Findings
Chwarae Teg conducted their assessment in February 2020. The assessment involved consideration of our policies and procedures, as well as a survey of views of our staff.
The response rate to the survey was 83%, described by Chwarae Teg as an “extremely positive level of engagement”. We are very grateful to all who participated for their insights.
The assessment covered 10 areas of our work. The survey results are presented below:
| Assessment area | Our score | Public sector average score | FairPlay employer level |
| Employment Policies | – | – | |
| Business Diversity | 82% | 74% | Silver |
| Flexible Working Practices | 79% | 77% | Silver |
| Internal Communication | 81% | 74% | Silver |
| Working Relationships | 86% | 78% | Gold |
| Learning and Development | 86% | 78% | Gold |
| Recruitment and Selection | 80% | 72% | Silver |
| Performance Management | 81% | 71% | Gold |
| Organizational Culture | 83% | 75% | Gold |
| Reward and Recognition | 76% | 72% | Silver |
Based on the results, we were delighted to achieve the FairPlay Employer Award at silver level. This level has been to date awarded only to a handful of organizations in Wales and we can be rightly proud of it.
In awarding us this level, Chwarae Teg said:
“This is a significant achievement and demonstrates the business commitment to making a difference to the recruitment, retention and progression of women working and contribution to broader efforts to close the gender pay gap and ensure the Welsh economy reaps the benefits of gender equality.”
What happens next?
Based on the assessment results, Chwarae Teg prepared an Equality and Diversity Strategy and a suggested action plan. It was decided that the Strategy would focus on making improvements to the following key areas:
- Flexible Working
- Recruitment and Selection in conjunction with Business Diversity
- Reward and Recognition
We will now be working with Chwarae Teg on the implementation of the action plan during 2020/21.
We were also glad to see that our median Gender Pay Gap at March 2020 decreased to 11%, while our mean Gender Pay Gap decreased to 19% within the same period. Although these changes predated the Chwarae Teg action plan, we are confident that more attention to the areas identified in the plan will help us maintain these positive trends moving forward.