Gender Pay Gap Report 2021

Gender Pay Gap Report

www.animalfriends.co.uk

About Animal Friends Insurance...

Westley Pearson Chief Executive Officer

Tanya Johnson Chief People Officer

It goeswithout saying that the pandemic created enormous fluxand uncertaintynot onlywithin our personal lives but across almost everypoint of living, including how, where andwhenwework.While the ripples of this historic event are still yet to be fully felt, I amproud of howAnimal Friends adapted to overcome the challenges it presented, embracing the uncertainty to find newways ofworking, opportunities to learn and providing colleagues withmore areas forgrowth and development. Through challenging traditional viewpoints andways ofworking, we have been able to furthernurture our existing colleagues, brought incredible newtalent into the business andwelcomed colleagues fromacross theUK at every stage of their careers and life. And it iswith this approach to innovation and desire to avoid complacency thatwe continue to strive for improvement, shaping and reshaping ourbusiness, policies and culture to ensure that everycolleague at Animal Friends can thrive, regardless of gender, sexuality, faith, age, ethnicityor anything else.

We pride ourselves on being different at Animal Friends Insurance. We were founded with a strong purpose to do more, strive for better and to inspire change, and while the cornerstone of our founding principle talks to animal welfare, it is the lens through which we view every challenge. Fairness, respect, inclusivity and equality are all encompassing and not limited to just gender or race. We understand that our strength and growth does not come from having a single view but evolves from continuously reaching for improvement in everything that we do. We are fixed in our pursuit of progress and with dogged determination – from the strategic goals we develop through to howwe encourage one another to bring our true selves to work – we will continue to build a rich culture of diversity and openness at Animal Friends.

Our colleagues: Companies of over 250 employees are required by the government to produce an annual report, and we are pleased to publish our third Gender Pay Gap Report produced from a snapshot of our company in April 2021. Total number of employees captured in the April 2021 report – 461 .

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Progress through uncertainty

Over the last two years, much of the world has stood with bated breath to see what our new future looks like in thewake of a global pandemic. We have all been forced to change, reshape our businesses to ensure that our customers remain supported and adapt our lives to accommodate a “newnormal”. Andwhile some organisations are keen to restorewhat oncewas, at Animal Friends we have used these times of uncertainty to take stock ofwhat we thought we knewand howwe believed we should grow. There is no doubt that COVID-19 has significantly impacted different industries and roles, resulting in the almost meteoric rise of some markets and the fall of others. The job market has fluctuated dramatically with ‘The Great Resignation’ being coined to describe not only the shift in people’s attitudes to their work environment and sense of self-worth, but also the inability or reluctance of some businesses to provide space for adequate childcare and support their employees’ health concerns. While the full effect of the pandemic is yet to be felt, it is clear that the unprecedented scale of change has impacted the outcome of gender pay gap reports across the UK and it should not be disregarded. Within the financial sector, operations teams have experienced high turnover, with many candidates seeking transient roles to see them through the crisis before returning to their previous industries. Technical and IT roles have been highly sought after as ways of working shifted to being remote, and the already large skills gap continuing to widen. The high demand for skilled expertise has seen salary offers reach new heights and candidates set new expectations of their employer.

But, through these challenges Animal Friends has found new opportunities. We have seen how offering our colleagues flexibility yields incredible benefits, for both the individual and our business. By embracing newways of working, building them into our people processes and policies, we have been able to attract candidates from every corner of the UK at every stage of their career and life. We have always believed that by empowering all our colleagues, continuously innovating and finding newways to contribute and thrive, we can become a stronger and more confident community that better serves our customers and takes our business to new levels of success.

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Our Gender Pay & Bonus Gap

What is the Gender Pay Gap? Simplyput, it’s the difference in average earnings betweenmales and females, given as a percentage. However, itmeans that even if all employees are paid fairly for their roles, should a business havemoremen in senior positions, andmorewomen in juniorpositions, a largergenderpaygapwill be reported.

Mean

Median

Mean

Median

Insurance

25.1% 21.9% Financial Services

26.4% 20.9%

Animal Friends

26.9%

19.3%

26.9%

19.3%

Difference

+1.8%

-2.6%

+0.5%

-1.6%

Pay Gap Mean Pay Gap

Mean vs. Median – What’s the difference? The mean is calculated by adding up all the salaries of the male colleagues and dividing this by the number of men we employ. Then the same is done for female colleagues. The mean pay gap is the difference between these two numbers, given as a percentage. The median is simpler – calculated by ordering every male’s salary from the lowest to the highest, and picking the number directly in the middle. This is also done for the females. The median pay gap is the difference between these two numbers, given as a percentage.

26.9 %

Median Pay Gap

19.3 %

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Pay Quartiles

What are pay quartiles? The information above shows the percentage of men and women employed by Animal Friends within four equally sized quartiles based on their hourly pay rate in April 2021. Quartiles are calculated by listing the pay rates for each colleague, from lowest to highest, splitting the list into four equal-sized groups and calculating the percentage of men and women in each.

Our quartiles explained Our median pay gap is smallest in the lower two quartiles, which typically include structured salary levels for roles which are not negotiated on joining the company. The Lower quartile for 2021 is higher than expected due to a significant number of female starters in April 2021. Due to their mid-month start dates, these individuals did not receive a full month’s pay and for the purposes of this reporting, it is not permissible to pro-rate their pay for the proportion of the month worked. The pay gap is largest in the upper two quartiles which is not uncommon – this in turn impacts our pay gap by bringing both the mean and median female salary down. Although the pay gap is skewed due to employing more women than men, more men are employed in senior positions than in lower positions, which brings both the mean and median male salary up.

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Bonus Gap Mean Bonus Gap

Median Bonus Gap

0 %

81.4 %

10.1 % more men than women received a bonus

bonus pay gaps are not adjusted for the number of hours worked. Therefore, a larger number of women working part-time will lead to a larger bonus gap, as bonuses were pro-rated for part-time working. For the second year at Animal Friends, the median gap – which accounts for extremes at either end – was 0, which is significantly lower than the average gap in Financial Services (18%).

A higher proportion of men than women received bonus pay in the 12 months prior to April 2021 at Animal Friends, with 71.6% of women and 79.6% of men receiving bonuses. This difference can be attributed to more women than men joining Animal Friends outside of the qualifying calendar period for bonuses (December 2020) and as such becoming ineligible to receive a bonus. At the time of this report, there were more men than women in the Senior Leadership Team, and a larger amount of bonus was paid at the top level, which explains the large mean bonus gap. Additionally, the

At the time of this report, 29women and 5men were part-timeworkers.

The mean bonus gap has widened and the median bonus gap has remained steady with our 2020 report at 0%. It is encouraging to see that our median bonus gap has remained at zero for the second year in a row. Both our pay gap metrics, however, have widened which is largely due to an increase in recruitment for areas that traditionally attract male applicants and are higher paid. On the following pages you can read more about the work we have been doing, and continue to do, to tackle this.

Year on Year Comparison

2020 Mean Bonus Gap

46.9 %

2020 Median Bonus Gap

0 %

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Our work so far...

“One of our key focus points this year is on inclusivity and how we can make everyone feel truly welcome, at all levels across Animal Friends. We know this is a long-term project and there are no quick or easy answers, but we are passionate about removing every barrier we possibly can to drive positive change.” Tanya Johnson | Chief People Officer

4 Continuing to embed our AgileWorking policy, which this year is becoming ourWays ofWorking policy as we move away from the disruption caused by COVID-19 to a more settled state. We have had a lot of success recruiting new colleagues into fully remoteworkingwhichwe believe has offered more opportunities forwomenwho are more likely to have childcare responsibilities. 5 The ongoing roll out of unconscious bias training and refreshers to all managers, helping them to recognise where it may play a role in decisionmaking and how to take appropriate actions to remain inclusive. 6 Completing a series of successful voluntary leadership programmes, with 78% of the delegates being women. We have already seen evidence of them helping to empowerwomen to progress their career, with 25% of the women in these programmes already successfully moving into new roles since starting the course. With monitoring and analysis, we can feed data into our efforts and ensure we treat everyone fairly and consistently. 7 Continuing to encourage female talent across the business to explore roles and careers within IT. While this area is still largelymale dominated, a number of women have been supported in their personal development and transferred across to the team.

Since last year, we have implemented a number of key initiatives, each designed to address some of the inherent challenges still found within the UKworkforce and specificallywithin the financial services sector. We are passionate about listening to our colleagues, taking onboard their feedback andworking together to ensure our culture is one of fairness, tolerance and equality. Some of these key initiatives include: 1 Introducing enhanced pay for colleagues going on maternity, paternity and adoption leave. We believe this will encourage more women to see Animal Friends as a place they can build their career at any stage in their life. We will be reviewing this policy on an annual basis. 2 Supporting parents who experience a pregnancy loss with additional paid time-off. Wewant to be a truly family-friendly employer and support our colleagues when going through this difficult experience. 3 Investing in intelligent data, providing our talent acquisition teamwith access to demographic insights that enable a better understand our challenges and how to make improvements to our recruitment process.

Continued on the next page...

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Our work so far... Continued

3 Continue to explore howwe successfully and authentically attract women to Animal Friends, with particular focus on howwe increase the number of female candidates for traditionally male-dominated roles. At Animal Friends, we are committed to creating an inclusive, diverse and healthy work environment and continue to evolve our offering, in all its facets. We believe that by providing an open, nourishing and supportive culture in which each individual can bring their true and authentic selves to work, we can thrive as people, as a team and as a business.

As we look to improve our gender pay gap and mean gender bonus gap we will: 1 Launch a dedicated programme to further explore inclusivity at Animal Friends, assessing our current state in line with our ambition to create a truly diverse and open place of work. This is part of one of our key strategic pillars this year and will be central to everything we do and howwe do it. 2 Evolve our Ways of Working policy to ensure Animal Friends is a place for everyone to feel welcome whatever their preferred way of working. A key focus for this area will be to look at howwe can increase the number of roles offered on a part-time basis across all levels of the business.

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Our Senior Leadership Team

Westley Pearson Chief Executive Officer

Tanya Johnson Chief People Officer

Patricia Gardiner Chief Marketing Officer

Somita Yogi Chief Data Officer

Richard Mills Chief Operating Officer

Bogdan Szostek Chief Strategy Officer

Andrew Hyde Chief Information Officer

Margaret Traynor Chief Risk and Compliance Officer

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Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 – Animal Friends Insurance

Protecting animals - I in ur NA

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