Our approach to pay
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all our colleagues (we prefer to call them colleagues to better reflect their contribution and accountability for our success) and appoint people to roles based on merit regardless of age, race, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment or religion and belief. We strive to ensure our colleagues are paid equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex or any other characteristic set out above by:
- Applying an open and transparent pay band structure based on the outputs from a job evaluation tool for all roles up to senior manager level. The job evaluation tool assesses all roles against the same non-discriminatory criteria and was developed nationally in conjunction with recognised trade unions
- Externally benchmarking senior manager roles with relevant comparator organisations.
In 2021 we reviewed our payment calculations for out of hours rotas, creating a single standby payment regardless of basic pay, and a standard method of calculation for call out payments based on basic pay. This improved pay rates for mostly female colleagues within our Reach & Respond service.
We pay the real living wage as set by the Living Wage Foundation which exceeds the National Living Wage set by Government. This includes our apprentices after their first year. In their first year we pay more than the National Living Wage for apprentices, paying them at least £7.49 per hour (equivalent to the National Living Wage for 18-20 year olds). From 1 April 2024 this will rise to at least £8.60.
We have a range of flexible working options to enable our colleagues to effectively manage their work/life balance e.g. flexible working patterns, accrued hours, part-time, condensed hours, shared parental leave, annual leave above the statutory minimum and Christmas closure. We actively encourage many of our colleagues to work agilely, creating a trust-based environment for them to achieve their objectives without dictating when, where and how they achieve them (as much as possible). This helps them manage their work life alongside their other commitments, and we started a programme of remodelling our colleague premises to support this style of working. Our office in Redcar was remodelled in 2022/23, and we are actively exploring the options for our Scarborough office.
Regular equality, diversity and inclusion training is mandatory for all colleagues.
Through our elected colleague representatives, our recognised trade unions and our colleague satisfaction survey, we encourage colleagues to raise ideas about how to improve their experience at work; this includes any issues they believe contribute to inequality, discrimination or exclusion. Should any such issues be raised we will work with them to break down barriers where they exist.
We are open and transparent with our colleagues about our pay gaps and encourage them to contribute ideas for ensuring pay gaps are closed or eliminated in the future.
As we continue our work to develop our pay and rewards offer we will monitor the impact of our actions on our pay gaps, and take appropriate action where necessary.
CEO Ratio
The CEO ratio is calculated by comparing the CEO hourly rate to the whole company median hourly rate using the same reference data as the pay gap data. In 2023, this give a payment ratio of circa 6:1. This means the CEO is paid 587% of the median colleague (an electrician who is in receipt of a tool allowance and some standby and call out payments). Research conducted by The Guardian in August 2022 suggested the average CEO ratio in the UK was 109:13.
