The CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, has today published its gender pay gap data in line with new government regulations. Based on the UK Government’s methodology, which came into force in April 2017, the CIPD is reporting a mean gender pay gap of 14.9 percent and a median gender pay gap of 10.8 percent. Contributor Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the CIPD

The CIPD’s analysis of its gender pay gap found it is being driven by the following factors: The CIPD has a predominantly female workforce, made up of 332 individuals: 69 percent female and 31 percent male. There are more women than men at every level of the business, yet over half of female employees, 53 percent, are in the lower and lower middle pay quartiles compared to 55 percent of male employees holding roles in the upper middle and upper pay quartiles.

As a smaller organisation, small fluctuations in the workforce can have a significant impact on the CIPD’s gender pay gap. For instance, if the CIPD were to have a female instead of a male chief executive, the overall mean gender pay gap would drop from 14.9 percent to 9 percent. Also because of the higher proportion of women in the workforce, if the CIPD were to employ more men in the lower pay quartiles, while keeping the overall number of staff constant, this would reduce the gender pay gap.

In order to reduce the gap, the CIPD is focusing on three priority areas for action:

Introduce gender pay gap analysis into management processes – We will build gender pay gap analysis into the tools that our department heads use when they complete their annual pay reviews. These tools will also be applied to address any possible bias at the point of recruitment right through to conversations about salary and progression opportunities within the CIPD.

Tackle the gender imbalance – As an equal opportunities employer, we firmly believe in appointing the best candidate for the role, regardless of their gender or other factors. However, we will explore how we can attract more men into our organisation in order to create a more even gender balance at every level of the CIPD.

Champion flexibility for all – Flexible working is an important part of our culture at the CIPD. We will continue to actively encourage and advocate flexible working across our organisation, to enable our people to achieve their full potential while balancing the demands of their role with commitments outside of work.

Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the CIPD, said: “Real progress on workplace fairness and inclusion will come when organisations more consistently gather and act on their workforce data and insights. We welcome the opportunity to explore and publish our gender pay gap in line with the new reporting requirements as part of our journey as an employer, and in support of our wider work on workplace inclusion.

“The analysis of our data confirms that the CIPD pays men and women equally for doing equivalent work. Our gender pay gap exists largely because we have a greater number of women in the workforce with a higher proportion in our lower level roles.

“Flexible working is a huge part of the CIPD culture and we are pleased that so many of our people are able to work in a way that supports their commitments outside of work while enabling them to progress in their careers. However, there are steps we can take to ensure all women and men can work flexibly and still have every chance to develop in their roles.

“We already have a good balance of men and women in the more senior roles, but we will continue to support and encourage women into higher levels of responsibility whilst also looking at how we can continue to monitor the gender balance across our organisation. We are committed to reducing our own gender pay gap while continuing to advocate fairer, more inclusive workplaces in the wider world of work.”