What you need to know about gender pay gap reporting and how your HR system can help in summary:
- The deadline for gender pay gap reporting for private and voluntary-sector employers with a headcount of 250 or more is April 4th 2024, with a snapshot date of 5th April 2024.
- When creating an effective gender pay gap report, HR needs to tackle the report on three fronts: gathering the necessary data, supporting it with an accurate and honest narrative, and outlining what the business intends to do to narrow the gap in future.
- Using an HR software solution can make gender pay gap reporting a more collaborative and efficient process. This is because it can provide accurate workforce data, and shared workspaces that facilitate online discussions.
The start of the year is often one of the busiest for HR departments. With changes to minimum wages, sick pay and maternity pay often coming into force, many busy HR teams will also have contend with mandatory gender pay gap reporting.
This year, the deadline for private and voluntary-sector employers with a headcount of 250 or more is April 4th 2024, with a snapshot date of 5th April 2024. For public sector employers, they will need to report their data no later than the 30th March 2024, with a snapshot date of the 31st March 2024.
To meet your legal obligations, you must publish your pay gap report both on your website and via the dedicated reporting portal via GOV.co.uk.
Ideally, HR needs to tackle the report on three fronts: gathering the necessary data, supporting it with an accurate and honest narrative, and outlining what the business intends to do to narrow the gap in future. All these elements are made easier with a documented process and excellent HR systems.
So, what are the steps HR should be taking when it comes to effective gender pay gap reporting?
Determining headcount
The first step for HR in completing a gender pay gap report is to determine a headcount of what’s termed ‘relevant employees’ on what the Government has nominated as a snapshot date:
‘Your gender pay gap calculations will be based on payroll data drawn from a specific date each year. This specific date is called the ‘snapshot date’…Your snapshot date and reporting deadline is determined by which regulations your employer comes under.’
Cezanne HR allows HR users to determine all employees on a specific date as an initial step to ascertaining a headcount. For smaller organisations with a headcount of less than 250, knowing their headcount may be as far as they wish to go as they do not have to complete a gender pay gap report, however the Government advice states:
‘If you have a headcount of fewer than 250 on your snapshot date, you are not required to comply with the regulations but should give serious consideration to the business benefits of doing so.’
The gender pay gap is a concern for many organisations, regardless of size, so completing the report shows a commitment to gender equality. It is also useful for an organisation to be able to compare year on year as it grows how it’s improving in this area.
Further data points
After calculating headcount, HR will also need to work out who their ‘full-pay relevant employees’ are. Advice on who is included in this group can be found here.
HR will want to use a good software system to create a list of their full-pay relevant employees, and to identify the genders of their employees, normal pay, hourly rates and bonuses.
To make compiling this data easier, you might want to explore creating and maintaining tailored data fields in your HR system. An organisation’s workforce can be very nuanced; so, working out ahead of time how your staff match up with gender pay gap reporting requirements and making sure this is clearly reflected in your HR software is time well spent.
Creating a clear process
If there isn’t already a step-by-step process in place in your organisation for gender pay gap reporting, now is a great time to create one.
Given how hectic the past two years have been, it’s a good idea to re-familiarise yourself with all the requirements and to break them down into a process that works for your team and organisation. There are references at the end of this article that you may find helpful.
With Cezanne HR’s task management capabilities, you can create a detailed process for completing your gender pay gap reporting. You can notify different people when it’s their turn to fulfil a step, helping you to keep everything on track. Once you’ve created the process, you can keep reusing it year on year, just tweaking it as needed.
Don’t forget to include in the process who is responsible for submitting and then displaying your report:
‘You must publish your gender pay gap report (and written statement if applicable) in a prominent place on your employer’s public-facing website… You must keep the information available online for at least 3 years from the date of publication. If you do not have a website, you should publish your figures on any intranet and/or parent company website and ensure that this information is brought to the attention of employees.’
It’s about more than just data
Gender pay gap reporting has been created to work towards a more even balance between what men and women are paid. To that end, it shouldn’t be seen as a purely numbers-based exercise that can be completed and forgotten – it’s a tool that can make a real difference in the workplace.
Some organisations are required to add a written statement to their pay gap report – this is another element that will need to be considered when creating your reporting process. But it’s the option of adding a narrative and action plan that will likely have the most positive impact on improving your gender pay gap (if you have one).
‘Adding a supporting narrative helps anyone reading your gender pay gap report understand your employer’s view of why a gender pay gap is present and what your employer has already done to analyse and close it. Your supporting narrative can signal your commitment to closing your gender pay gap to your employees and anyone else accessing your report.’
Using your HR system for insights
Don’t forget to also use your HR system for insights into any pay gap findings. With a wealth of knowledge on your workforce, your HR software will be able to provide far more information than the data points the Government requires for the report.
Cezanne HR empowers you to create a wide variety of reports. For example, our Insights module allows you to slice and dice your data to take an evidenced-led approach to understanding and solving any areas of concern. Having a more nuanced view of a gender pay gap, and what areas of the business need the most focus, is the first step in creating an action plan.
Collaborating on a narrative and action plan
To create a comprehensive narrative and action plan, you will want to work together with your relevant stakeholders to get their insights and buy in. Once you’ve determined what your pay gap is/if you have one, compiled relevant insights, and thought about the questions that are raised for your organisation, you’ll likely be looking for a digital solution to aid collaboration.
Cezanne HR workspaces are a great way for HR to facilitate online discussions. You can create a workspace that’s only available to the stakeholders you nominate according to their ‘security role’, and then you can start threads in this secure environment asking for feedback to help inform the narrative and action plan. You can share drafts of these pieces in a workspace, too, so stakeholders can feed back in one place.
Using an HR system to help with your gender pay gap report makes it much easier for you to gather the data, insights and feedback you need to meet your compliance obligations, and to ensure the exercise has a real benefit for your workforce and future gender equality.
Resources used for this article and further reading
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/who-needs-to-report-their-gender-pay-gap
https://www.acas.org.uk/gender-pay-gap-reporting
https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/gender-pay-gap-guide-march21_tcm18-91629.pdf
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/gender-pay-gap-reporting
Author bio
Kim Holdroyd has an MSc in HRM and is passionate about all things HR and people operations, specialising in the employee life cycle, company culture, and employee empowerment. Her career background has been spent with various industries, including technology start-ups, gaming software, and recruitment.
