Gender Pay Gap Report 2021

Contents

  1. Forward
  2. What is the Gender Pay Gap?
  3. Acora’s Gender Pay Gap (Statutory Requirements)
  4. Gender Bonus Gap
  5. Closing the Gender Pay Gap

1. Forward

I am pleased to publish our gender pay gap report for 2021. Acora has always been a company enriched by a diverse and talented team, and one of our aims is to pay all employees equitably regardless of an individual’s gender, ability, age, race, religion or belief.

We are committed to ensuring there are equal opportunities within the workplace and through the recent introduction of our Career Framework, we believe we are making significant progress in promoting our employees organically, and through this structure, are striving to offer them fair pay too.

We welcome the transparency of publishing our gender pay gap figures as it gives us the chance to learn from the data and also allows us to set up and commit to an improvement plan. We are determined to focus on key areas which are realised not just by the data but also by the internal engagement with staff to understand the enablers and barriers to development and promotion.

Like every business, Acora has experienced considerable disruption from Covid-19 over the last 2 years, but this has not wavered our focus and we will continue with our initiatives such as Management Training, continued progress via our Career Framework along with Learning and Development workshops for all employees.

With 86% of our employees being male, we appreciate that our gender pay gap of 25.98% (mean) / 42.44% (median) is considerably higher than the national average (15.5% in 2020), this makes us more determined and committed to improve the figures for next year. We are taking positive steps to narrow our gender pay gap and I am committed to do everything possible to ensure a more positive outcome.

Our strategy is centred around continuous improvement and development, characteristics which underpin what Acora stands for, particularly when it comes to our employees, so committing to an improvement plan will ensure that we continue to enjoy a diverse and inclusive workforce which is vital in driving our long-term business success and delivery of sustainable growth.

Gary Page
Chief Financial Officer


2. What is the Gender Pay Gap?

The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 requires all companies by law with more than 250 employees to carry out gender pay gap reporting on a snapshot date each year (5th April). On the snapshot date, 5th April 2021, Acora met the requirement to publicly report our gender pay gap analysis by April 2022.

The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of men and women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings (excluding overtime). It is measured across all jobs and does not compare the difference in pay between men and women doing the same or equivalent job, known as equal pay.

Acora is committed to tackling and eliminating all forms of inequality.


3. Acora’s Gender Pay Gap

STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS

The Mean Pay Gap
The mean pay gap is the difference in the average hourly pay for women compared to men within an organisation.

Acora’s overall gender pay gap by mean average is 25.98% in favour of men. This means that across our total workforce, on average, men at Acora are paid 25.98% more than women, or for every £1 that a man earns, a women will earn £0.74p.

The Median Pay Gap
The median pay gap represents the middle point of the hourly pay rates. The median figure is calculated by lining up all of the women’s hourly pay and all of the men’s hourly pay – the median pay gap is the difference between the hourly rate for the middle woman as compared to that of the middle man. The median figure is considered to be a better indicator of ‘average’ earnings or typical pay because the mean pay gap can sometimes be skewed by fewer individuals earning more in the upper ranges.

Acora’s median gender pay gap using hourly rates is 42.44% in favour of men. This means that men at Acora are paid 42.44% more than women, or for every £1 that a man earns, a woman will earn £0.58p.

Gender Representation
Our Gender Pay Gap figures are calculated on a workforce that is 84% male and 16% female.

Pay Quartiles
The pay quartiles below show the percentage of male and female employees in each hourly pay quarter – lower (Q1), lower middle (Q2), upper middle (Q3), and upper (Q4).

Acora’s workforce is predominantly male and is the main reason for our gender pay gap. It is therefore one of the areas that we are concentrating our attention on, to recruit more females into the business, however, being a Managed Service Provider within the IT industry, it has always proven difficult to recruit women, across the board. Women within our organisation are more likely to work in support and administration roles, many of them on a part time basis, this is representative in the Lower Quartile Pay Band.


4. Gender Bonus Gap

70.80% of men were awarded a bonus

74.42% of women were awarded a bonus

The mean bonus pay gap is 31.13% in favour of men, or in value terms, on average, for every £1 that a man receives in bonus pay, a woman receives £0.69p

The median bonus pay gap is 10.31% in favour of men, or in value terms, on average, for every £1 that a man receives in bonus pay, a woman receives £0.90p

As the median bonus pay gap gives a better indication of the ‘average’ bonus pay, it shows significantly less than the mean bonus pay gap. This is due to the fact that a bonus was paid to every eligible employee in December 2020. This was an exceptional event as bonuses are very rarely paid at Acora.


5. Closing the Gender Pay Gap

Engagement & Transparency

  • Continue to regularly review and monitor pay across Acora and address any inequalities
  • Ensure pay decisions on recruitment are evidence based, fair and equitable
  • Continue to focus on our Wellness and Work programmes and family friendly approaches including our hybrid working model to provide greater flexibility to all employees

Recruitment

  • Continue to develop our brand and ensure that all job vacancies are advertised to as wide an audience as possible
  • Continue to operate skills based assessments and structured recruitment methodologies
  • Full transparency of all vacancies across Acora for employees to apply for internally
  • Continue to partner with schools, colleges and universities to actively promote Early Careers at Acora to drive engagement with students and advocate careers in IT

Career Development & Learning

  • Offer learning and development to ensure all employees have access to learning and development opportunities regardless of their gender, background or other characteristics
  • Continue to embed our Career Framework where roles have been evaluated and assigned a level according to the skills required in the role
  • Continue to communicate and promote the Career Framework to provide full transparency of the opportunities available for employees and support development planning through effective 121’s and use of LinkedIn Learning
  • Regularly conduct succession workshops at all levels with Senior Managers and Leaders to identify top talent and to identify development pathways to support career progression