Brendan Musgrove, Managing Director at Cordant Security, writes for Infologue.com about the gender pay gap. From 6 April this year, new regulations came into force that require large companies, with at least 250 staff, to report on the gender pay gap within their organisation. It is designed to highlight the differences in the average salary for men and women in their workplaces. If used properly I believe that gender pay gap reporting will be a valuable tool for assessing levels of equality in the workplace and how effectively talent is being maximised.
Although the gender pay gap has narrowed according to the Office of National Statistics, women still earn on average 9.4% less than men, although this varies greatly depending on region. However, it remains a key driver for new recruits with two-thirds (65%) of women and 27% of men stating they would not apply for a job at a company where “men and women are not equally paid for equal work”, according to a recent poll by recruitment agency, Glassdoor.
At Cordant Security we are an equal opportunities employer in every way, so we welcome this approach – however some organisations may not! We have recently launched our career development pathway, and aim to publish a pay and incentives framework for every role in our business within the next 12 months, which will provide clear guidelines to our staff about their earnings potential based solely on the role they fulfil.
I also hope it will be another tool that will help us to continue to attract and retain people from a variety of ethnic, racial, religious, and gender backgrounds. Our industry still suffers from an image problem and the perception that we mainly employ security personnel that are male, muscular and macho, with a background in the military or police force. The reality is that the modern security sector is very different and the diverse requirements of our industry require a diverse workforce. Luckily we are seeing more women joining the industry and our customers can see the benefits of a more gender-balanced workforce as having a diverse security team that reflects your visitor profile is more welcoming. In addition, there is a practical need as men are not allowed to search women and so this means female security guards are needed to search female patrons when necessary.
In simple terms our industry needs to continue to evolve in line with changing customer requirements and address public perception. I believe that this kind of transparent reporting will drive up standards and make our sector more appealing to all.