Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 ...
Our Ambition We made great progress on our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) agenda in 2023. While we acknowledge that we still have much more to do, and that our road to equality and equity is not without its challenges, with a clear and ambitious sense of direction, we’re proud to be driving real and meaningful change every
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The gender pay gap highlights the difference between the average (mean or median) pay of all men and women in an organisation as a percentage, helping to shine a light on the structural factors in a workplace that may lead to the average pay of men and women differing. Because of this, our gender pay gap can help us to identify any drivers, or barriers, to gender representation and women’s career progression within our organisation.
It’s important to note that the gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay , which focuses on whether an organisation is paying women and men the same amount for the same work, or work of equal value. Companies of over 250 colleagues are required by the government to produce an annual Gender Pay Gap Report, and we’re pleased to publish our fifth Report, produced from a snapshot of our company pay data in April 2023.
ensuring all colleagues have opportunities to realise their full potential at Animal Friends, and beyond. It’s also about continuing to welcome new talent from all across the UK, without barriers, thanks to our flexible ways of working. We’re committed to delivering on our DEIB action plan, not because we have to, but because it’s the right thing to do for all our colleagues, past, present and future. With our team of kind-hearted, courageous, and passionate colleagues alongside us, I truly believe we are on the right path towards an equitable and diverse culture in which we are all ‘Stronger Together’.
day for our colleagues, and our customers. The Gender Pay Gap Report provides us with a snapshot in time which helps to measure our
progress, but our actions go far beyond the numbers. For us, it’s about providing opportunities for progression and growth at all levels, celebrating the incredible skills, talents, and expertise of our colleagues across the business, and of course, it’s about levelling the playing field and
We recognise and celebrate that not all our colleagues, past, present, or future, identify with binary gender definitions, however, the current gender pay gap reporting requirements mean that gender, for the purposes of this report, is defined as either ‘man’ or ‘woman’. At Animal Friends, we believe that all colleagues, regardless of background, lived experience, or characteristics, should be treated with respect and kindness, and be provided equitable opportunities to succeed and thrive.
Richard Mills Animal Friends CEO
The terminology
Mean and Median Gender Pay Gap The differences in hourly rates between men and women. Mean and Median Bonus Gap The difference in average bonuses paid to men and women.
Pay Quartiles The percentage of men and women within four equally sized pay quartiles. Bonus Proportions The proportion of men and women who received a bonus.
April 2023... Gathering the data The total number of colleagues captured in the April 2023 report was 487, of which 298 (61%) were women and 189 (39%) men.
Our 2023 Data Summary Mean and Median Gender Pay Gap Our mean gender pay gap decreased from 29.2% to 26.1%.
-3.1 %
2 .1%
1 0%
Our median gender pay gap remains largely the same as 2022 with a marginal increase of 0.4% from 35.1% to 35.5%.
+0.4 %
3 .5%
1 0%
Our mean gender pay gap at Animal Friends reduced by 3.1% in 2023, due to an increase in women in our ‘upper’ pay quartile. Our gender pay gap is still being driven by growth in areas that are traditionally “male-dominated” and more highly paid due to the demand and premium for technical skills, such as roles within IT, Data, and Pricing. We also see a higher percentage of women within our ‘lower’ pay quartile, comprising roles such as “Agent”, “Assessor”, and “Administrator”, which are typically lower paid.
The data in this Gender Pay Gap
Report is a snapshot of pay data in April 2023. On page 7, we discuss our current gender ratio as of February 2024.
Our bonus gap data includes bonuses paid in the 12 months prior to April 2023, including a cost-of-living payment made in September 2022, and our annual company bonus, paid in December 2022.
Our pay quartiles The information to the right shows the percentage of men and women employed by Animal Friends within four equally sized quartiles, based on their hourly pay rate in April 2023. 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 women and men in each group.
How do we compare? Organisations across the
Mean vs. Median – what’s the difference? The mean pay gap is calculated by adding
Financial Services and Insurance industry face similar challenges to Animal Friends with respect to the number of women in both technical and senior roles. Consequently, our mean pay gap is similar when compared to other Financial Services and Insurance companies within the UK.
The median pay gap is simpler, calculated by ordering every man’s salary from the lowest to the highest and picking the number directly in the middle. This is also done for women. The median pay gap is the difference between these two numbers, given as a percentage.
up the salaries of our male colleagues and dividing this by the number of men we employ. The same is then done for female colleagues. The mean pay gap is the difference between these two numbers, given as a percentage.
Mean and Median Bonus Gap Our mean bonus gap increased from 46.9% to 51.1%.
Our bonus gap An increase in the number of part-time colleagues who are women has also contributed to our bonus gap. Bonus pay gaps are not adjusted for hours worked, so a greater proportion of women working part-time will increase the mean bonus gap, as bonuses are pro-rated for this group. While it’s important to note this effect on the bonus gap, at Animal Friends, we firmly believe in our flexible working patterns and the positive impact this has on our colleagues’ work-life balance. Since our agile working policy was fully embedded, we have seen an increase
in part-time working for both men and women which is reflected in the bonus gap figure year on year. We remain passionate about supporting our colleagues’ requests for flexible working and will continue to carefully consider every request alongside the needs of the business.
+4.2 %
5 .1%
1 0%
Our median bonus gap increased from 0% to 17.24%.
+17.24 %
.24 %
1 0%
In 2023, Animal Friends made two bonus payments; the first was a one-off cost-of-living payment to support our colleagues through the cost-of-living crisis, and the second was an annual bonus related to company performance. Typically, bonus is paid as a percentage of salary, which means higher earners receive a higher bonus as a result. Because there are more men in higher paid roles, this contributes to the bonus gap. Following changes to our internal team and processes in 2023, we took the decision to realign our bonus gender pay gap calculation with a more commonly held approach within the reporting community, providing us with a greater level of confidence and insight. This shift in calculation has been partly responsible for the change year on year to our mean and median percentage figures.
The same proportion of women and men received a bonus (84%)
The drivers of our gender pay gap
Women in senior roles The quartile analysis shows us that another key driver of the pay gap is the difference in numbers of senior women and men. People in senior roles earn more as a reflection of their skills, experience and responsibilities, and this influences both the pay gap and bonus gap, as higher bonuses tend to be paid to more senior colleagues.
• Most part-time workers fall within the lower and upper middle quartiles.
ability to source talent in key roles and was aligned with roles the government has designated as experiencing a skills shortage in the UK. While we have made improvements in representation in these areas, the lower number of women in senior and technical/specialist roles continues to drive our gender pay gap. However, to support our digital customer service strategy, we grew our IT and Data team by 39% between 2022 and 2023, and with
• The percentage of women in the upper quartile bracket has increased slightly, from 38% in 2022 to 42% in 2023, demonstrating a positive shift towards more women in higher paid roles. Of the 147 new starters between April 2022 and April 2023, 64% were women (an increase of 5% from the previous year). While we are starting to see a re-balancing of salaries across genders, in 2023 the number of men who joined us in senior roles still exceeded women, and the number of women who joined us in more junior roles exceeded men, both factors that influence the pay gap. Women in technical roles The drivers for our pay gap remain the same as in previous years; that is, a higher level of recruitment in areas such as IT, Data, and Pricing that are traditionally “male-dominated” and attract higher salaries due to the in-demand skillset. In our 2023 salary review, which came into effect on 1st January 2023, and consistent with our practice from previous years, we paid a higher premium on certain roles in IT, Data, and Pricing that are particularly hard to recruit, further increasing average salaries in these departments. This was a strategic decision to increase our
this growth, the number of women recruited into this department, either externally or from within, increased. In the 2023 reporting period, the ratio of women to men new starters in our IT and Data teams increased from 30% in 2022, to 42% in 2023, demonstrating that our actions to attract and retain more women in technical roles are having a positive effect in shifting the dial at Animal Friends.
Women represent 73% of the lower two quartiles at Animal Friends, and men 55% of the top two – both these factors together have an impact on the pay gap. Our pay quartiles explained… • 93% of lower quartile roles are in our Operations areas. • Women colleagues are well-represented in both the lower and lower middle quartiles. This includes most part-time workers and frontline customer roles in Operations.
What are we doing to shift the balance?
The distribution of women across our organisation As of February 2024, 63% of our current colleagues are women, who are well represented across every department and level of our business, including our Senior Leadership Team (44%). Although we have increased the number of women in our IT team from 27% at the time of the report (April 2023) to 38% in early 2024, there is still more that should, and will, be done. Women at AFI by Department
Taking proactive steps to address
under-representation Our goal is to reflect the society we serve. For gender inclusion, this means increasing the number of women in more senior and technical roles, which will in turn reduce our gender pay gap. Embracing flexible working For Animal Friends, flexible working wasn’t just something we did in response to the pandemic; we’ve continued to embrace flexible working patterns, offering our colleagues the choice of remote, hybrid, or office-based contracts, because we believe that an individual’s postcode should never be a barrier to working with us. This has helped us widen the net and attract more diverse talent from across the UK, including into senior and technical roles. This flexible approach to working has proved hugely popular with all our colleagues, regardless of gender. We know from our 2023 Inclusion Survey, which asked our colleagues what inclusion truly means to them both in and outside of the workplace, that 20% of our colleagues have caring responsibilities, and being able to work remotely or with a hybrid pattern makes a big difference to balancing work life with personal life.
Our flexible approach has also resulted in an increase in part-time working during the last reporting period, with a total of 85 colleagues (17%) across our business working part-time. Of these colleagues, 75 were women (up from 41 in 2022) and 10 were men (up from 5 in 2022). Amongst full-time workers in our IT and Data teams, 38% of men and 44% of women have a flexible working pattern. We understand that balancing a career and family life can be challenging, which is why in 2023 we made improvements to our maternity and parental leave policies to better support our colleagues in finding that balance.
Education and awareness
Transparent career opportunities
Of course, education and awareness are critical to making progress with inclusion and ensuring our colleagues understand and embrace their key role in creating an inclusive culture in the workplace. In 2023, we started a programme of regular webinars, online conversations, and external speaker sessions focussing on inclusion, which have proved incredibly popular with our colleagues. Our most recent webinar in March 2024 celebrated International Women’s Day by highlighting the careers of four key women at Animal Friends, including three women in technology. By focusing on the fantastic opportunities available for women in tech and sharing inspiring stories, we hope to encourage more of our colleagues to consider whether this could be a career for them.
Our colleagues told us that having the opportunity to progress their careers at Animal Friends is really important to them, and naturally, it’s important for us, too. After all, retaining talent and nurturing progression not only allows our colleagues to flourish, but our business as a whole, too. That’s why, in 2023, to continue strengthening the internal career pathways we offer, we put bigger building blocks in place to provide exciting opportunities for our colleagues to learn, grow, and develop their careers at Animal Friends, including… • Driving a stronger focus on home-grown talent by encouraging our colleagues to apply for roles internally and supporting those who demonstrate potential but may have development gaps, which might include using Apprenticeships to support them, where appropriate. • Introducing focused career conversations, enabling us to better understand, consistently capture, encourage, and support our colleagues’ career aspirations.
This work will continue in 2024 as we introduce a Talent Assessment Framework, which will support our goal of ‘internal first’ recruitment, drive evidence-based decision-making, and help our colleagues shape their career and development priorities.
We are ‘Stronger Together’
At Animal Friends, we take inclusion seriously and our aspiration is to create an equitable and diverse culture in which all our colleagues, whatever their gender or characteristics, can thrive. We know that we still have a long way to go, and we are pleased to see that the changes we have made over recent years to the way our colleagues work, the rewards and benefits we offer and how we attract and retain our talented colleagues, are beginning to make a difference. In 2023, we started a programmatic dialogue with our colleagues about Inclusion, Diversity, Equity
and Belonging and they have embraced this work and demonstrated their passion for challenging stereotypes, embracing the unique, and learning from alternative perspectives. Inclusion creates the environment and opportunities for all our colleagues to thrive, propels our business towards greater success, and empowers us to exceed our customer expectations. Tanya Johnson HR Director PPG UK
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