Gender Pay Gap report 2023
Introduction from Longhurst Group Chief Executive, Julie Doyle
To help us deliver our vision of being a high-performing organisation that improves the lives of both our customers and colleagues, Longhurst Group employs a team of colleagues with a wide range of skills and expertise in a variety of roles.
Everything we do is underpinned by our strong belief in the values of equality and diversity and I want colleagues to be as proud of their organisation as I am to lead it.
Therefore I’m very pleased to see that our 2022/23 median gender pay gap has reduced on last year and is now at its lowest since we began reporting our gender pay gap.
I’m also pleased to report that both our mean and median pay gaps now sit below the national average for not-for-profit organisations like us. However, unfortunately, our mean pay gap has increased slightly from last year.
While we’re understandably pleased to see our gaps reduce on last year and the progress we’re making, there are still areas on which we need to focus and improve.
I’m very pleased to see that our 2022/23 median gender pay gap has reduced on last year and is now at its lowest since we began reporting our gender pay gap.
Pay gaps for protected characteristics
I’m proud to say that, where possible, we continue to proactively and voluntarily measure pay gaps for all protected characteristics, as defined by the 2010 Equality Act.
Through this work, we discovered our mean ethnicity pay gap was significantly above the national average and something that requires our urgent attention.
While our mean ethnicity pay gap has reduced again this year, we know there’s still considerably more work to do in this area.
We rely on colleagues disclosing their personal information to us and in some areas the levels of previous disclosure means it’s difficult for us to calculate statistically meaningful pay gap results for certain characteristics.
We’re working hard to ensure more colleagues feel comfortable to share more information about themselves and their lives, so that we can better support them at work. It’s pleasing to see this happening in our latest Personal Details Audit.
Understanding our pay gap
As we’ve highlighted in our previous reports, the make-up of our Group, with 73% of female colleagues compared to 27% male colleagues, makes it particularly challenging to tackle our gender pay gap.
We continue to appoint based on someone’s ability to do the job, and we’re satisfied that our gender pay gap is due to the under-representation of a particular gender in certain roles, rather than any other underlying reason.
As a significant provider of care and support services across the Midlands and East of England, we have a considerable number of colleagues working in that sector.
As is seen across society in general, the majority of these roles tend to be lower paid and occupied by women.
However, we remain committed to addressing this imbalance by doing all we can to attract and recruit colleagues of both genders into this fantastic profession and much-valued part of our organisation.
Executive Team
I’m proud to lead an organisation where women can and do progress into senior roles.
Women are well represented across our leadership teams, with two on the Executive Team, nine female Directors and four of the ten seats on our Group Board – including our Chair – currently being occupied by women.
The year ahead
Collecting, analysing and publishing our gender pay gap results is only the beginning as we look to identify the steps we need to take to drive change in this area.
Therefore, as you’d expect, we’ve put a lot of work into understanding our results, what they tell us and what our priorities need to be for the next 12 months.
Reducing our pay gaps remains a key priority for us as an organisation. As evidenced by this year’s report, we’re making good progress in several areas but we know there’s still more work to do.
Julie Doyle
Chief Executive, Longhurst Group
Our Gender Pay Gap results
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Gender Pay and Gender Bonus Gap
The gender pay gap doesn’t reflect equal pay, but measures the difference between the average pay of all male employees compared to the average pay of all female employees in order to identify broader issues across the workplace, for example under-representation of females at senior levels.
The mean average can be significantly affected by outliers while the median is simply the middle point in the range and therefore remains unaffected by outliers.
The median gender pay gap is a more easily comparable figure across differing sectors and organisations than the mean, which can be easily skewed by a handful of highly-paid employees.
Longhurst Group and not-for-profit peers – 2021–2023
The Group-wide mean gender pay gap for 2023 has increased slightly this year to 16.4 percent. However the median figure has decreased to from 16.9 to 13.6 percent, sitting well below the national average of 17.3 percent.
Proportion of colleagues receiving a bonus in 2023
Our mean and median gender bonus gaps have both significantly decreased from last year's figures at 4.6 percent and 12.5 percent respectively. The quantity of bonuses issued has increased from last year, with more women than men receiving a bonus.
Protected Characteristics Pay Gaps 2023
Our mean ethnicity gap has reduced from 21.4 percent in 2022 to 18.7 percent with the median figure increasing to 28.2 percent. Our mean disability pay gap has increased from 9.3 percent to 12.3 percent and our median pay gap has increased from 7.3 percent to 10.2 percent.