As a leading social investor and champion of social investment we recognise the importance of transparency and gender equality. We have therefore decided to voluntarily disclose our gender pay gap data, even though our employee numbers do not reach the legal reporting threshold of 250 employees.
Gender pay data
Our results show that while women and men are paid at the same levels for equivalent roles, the average hourly pay for all female employees is 20% lower than for male employees. This is based on pay data as at 1st January 2018.
There is no gender pay gap in respect of bonus payments as our policy is not to pay bonuses to employees.
Proportions of staff in each pay quartile bracket
We recognise that a gender pay gap exists among our employees – this is an unsatisfactory situation. The figures reflect a smaller proportion of women in the top quarter of our pay distribution which is mainly due to the higher proportion of men in senior management positions. This is something we are very much aware of and are trying to address through constantly reviewing and updating our approach to recruitment and development of staff. The pay gap results are also influenced by a greater proportion of women in the lower quarter, partly as a result of women making up the majority of our administrative support staff.
At 20% the gender pay gap at BSC is close to the UK national median average for all industries of 18.4%, this is above the 11% average for the top 100 UK charities but significantly below the 35% average for the UK financial services industry. Source: ONS gender pay gap data 2017 and Charity Finance analysis, May 2018.
We are confident that our gender pay gap does not result from differences in pay levels for equivalent roles. We have a formalised pay and grading structure which is gender neutral and we are committed to ensuring compliance with equal pay legislation.
What are we doing?
We are proud that women make up 55% of our overall workforce, 60% of our Investment Team Managers/Directors, 50% of our Board and 38% of our Investment Committee and we continue to work hard to ensure that BSC is a good place for both women and men to work.
When hiring for investment roles we seek a diversity of backgrounds across business, government, the social and financial sectors. We have developed a structured training and support programme for these roles which has allowed us to build a more diverse workforce than would often be possible if hiring from the financial services sector alone, with 75% of our entry level Investment Managers being women. Over and above this to help all our teams work more effectively we encourage alternative ways of working – many of our team members work part-time and we support agile working.
In support of our core values we firmly believe that diverse perspectives and backgrounds will make us more effective as an organisation and contribute to better investment decisions. We have already taken a number of proactive steps in this area including:-
- Running several programmes on best practice in recruitment. These programmes have been attended by all BSC staff involved in hiring and we have opened the programmes up to our partners and intermediaries.
- Launching a pilot of an online recruitment portal developed by a social enterprise, which removes unconscious bias from the recruitment process to secure the right person for the job regardless of gender or other background.
- Completing a job grading exercise using specialist external support to provide a clear framework for progression.
But we know we could do more and do even better. We will ensure that there are no boundaries or restrictions preventing people from reaching their full potential. We also want to put more measures in place which actively support the development of all our workforce. Initiatives planned include diversity training in the Induction programme we run for BSC joiners and intermediaries twice a year, and obtaining employee views on aspects of BSC’s culture that may enhance or undermine inclusion.
Finally, as part of our social investment championing role we are leading and supporting a number of diversity and inclusion initiatives across the wider social investment sector to encourage a broader and more diverse workforce.