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Editor’s Note: Making Pay Equality Stack Up

By Debbie Bolla

Pay transparency has been making headlines in recent months -and is a good reason our Editor-at-Large Simon Kent reports on the impact of the UK’s gender pay gap reporting regulations in this issue’s cover story Decreasing the Gap.

Pay transparency was also named one of 2019’s top four trends by this year’s LinkedIn Global Talent Trends survey. In fact, the survey found that 53 per cent of talent professionals rate it as very important trend to the future of HR and recruiting. Breaking down the feedback from more than 5,000 professionals in 35 countries, the survey shows the importance of pay transparency by geography, including Spain (64 per cent); France (50 per cent); UK (50 per cent); and northern Europe (44 per cent).

“There can be no doubt that in combination with other developments, most notably increasingly severe skills shortages, higher minimum wage levels, and #MeToo, gender pay reporting has helped to push gender and wider equality and diversity issues up the employer agenda to the board level,” says Duncan Brown, head of HR consultancy at the Institute of Employment Studies. “The research evidence is that it takes multiple initiatives across HR policies sustained over a number of years to seriously reduce gender pay gaps.”

The Global Talent Trends survey recommends these seven best practices:

  1. Conduct an internal audit to use as a benchmark and to identify pay disparities across gender, race, and those in similar roles.
  2. Determine the best pay transparency policy for the organisation and culture.
  3. Gather employee feedback through surveys, individual interviews, and town halls.
  4. Outline the factors that determine an employee’s pay rate.
  5. Train managers about pay practices and ways to communicate them.
  6. Determine a timeframe that is manageable to roll-out the programme.
  7. Communicate the policy and align it to company core values if appropriate.

Armed with these strategies, organisations can continue to move in the right direction of pay equality.

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