Gender Pay Gap Report 2022-23

Introduction

The University of Gloucestershire is committed to advancing equality, valuing and celebrating diversity and fostering an inclusive culture which is articulated in the Vision set out in our first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, 2022-2027:

This Strategy encapsulates our focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion with ambitious objectives for change. It signals a deliberate move towards a fully integrated approach to equality, diversity, and inclusion where structures and systems are aligned, and inclusive behaviours are recognised and rewarded. It articulates a clear direction and vision for the university.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion is a key theme within our refreshed Strategic Plan, 2022-2027 and integral to all other university strategies.

This is our sixth gender pay gap report, enabling a comparison with data collected since 2017. We have seen a positive impact as a result of the actions we have been taking, with a reduction in both our Mean and Median gaps since reporting started.

Our Mean gap is 15.02% and our Median gap is 11.29%.

Given the positive effect of our action plan, the decision has been made to consolidate our existing actions, tailoring implementation relevant to the local context and challenges.

Contextual Information

The university welcomes the opportunity to report on its gender pay gap; we are keen to play our role in achieving real gender equality.

From 2018 we took the decision to incorporate our gender pay gap action plan within our equality and diversity objectives for 2018-2022. We also continue to undertake biennial equal pay reviews, with a review undertaken this year, 2022.

One important point to note is that gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay refers to the differences in pay between men and women who carry out ‘like work’ – work that is broadly similar; work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme, or work found to be of equal value in terms of effort, skill or decision making. A gender pay gap shows the difference in average pay between men and women, regardless of grade.

Our data *

For the purpose of this calculation, the university’s workforce was 1,337 with a gender profile which was 61.1% female and 38.9% male.

£18.57

£21.85

£17.77

£20.03

*The workforce profile is based on a snapshot of relevant, full pay employees as at March 2022. The prescriptive nature of the Regulations means that the hourly rates of pay are approximate to our own pay scales.

Pay Band Quartiles

Each quartile is calculated by dividing the workforce into four equal parts.

For the university this equates to 334 employees per quartile.

Percentage of women and men in each quartile

Our Action PLan

We are starting to see a positive impact as a result of the actions we have taken.

We recognise that sustained and purposeful change will take time and the impact of our short-term measures will only be effective in the longer term. The decision has been made to consolidate our actions, tailoring implementation relevant to the local context and challenges.

We will continue to:

• Take steps to ensure that our recruitment and selection processes are without bias. This includes using gender neutral language in our job descriptions; using positive action statements in our job adverts; placing our adverts in a wide range of communication channels; using skills-based test where tests are to be used; include multiple women in shortlist and promotions; introduce transparency to promotion, pay and reward processes and communicate our family friendly and flexible working policies. Executive have already agreed to implement the positive action provision, Section 159 of the Equality Act 2010.
  
• Undertake an equal pay review every two years with the findings reported to University’s Executive Committee.
  
• Actively encourage and support women to apply for Associate Professor and Professor vacancies.
• Identify and implement actions that will impact positively on roles where horizontal occupational segregation appears to exist.
  
• Monitor starting salaries to ensure fairness and consistency, and challenge inappropriate decisions. The monitoring information will be included in our regular reporting to senior management teams and Remuneration and HR Committee.
  
• Rationalise our suite of pay and benefit policies to provide clear, consistent and easy to understand advice and guidance.
  
• Update related HR policies in collaboration with the trade unions.
  
• Promote Aurora, the Advance HE’s women-only leadership development programme. Since 2013, 45 female members of staff have been supported to participate.
  
• Develop our existing mentoring practice into a more formal intervention available for all staff and support the establishment and development of our staff networks.