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Diversity in Leadership
Equality Scheme 2018-2022 OBJECTIVE 1: Promote Diversity in Leadership
Continue to ensure that we create an environment that is transparent and strives to deliver against external best practice.
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During 2019/20 we:
Published our gender pay gap data in line with legislative requirements and continued our Gender Balance work; Contacted all employees for whom ethnic origin is not currently held and encouraged them to provide it as the first step towards calculating our race pay gap; Continued to act in accordance with the pledges we have made under the Future of London Speaker Diversity Pledge; Completed work to meet the CIH Leading Diversity by 2020 challenges; and Developed and delivered a training programme for the Board, Committees and Executive Team to support the promotion of Diversity in Leadership.
Gender Balance
We published our Gender Pay Supporting Statement (including our April 2019 gender pay gap data), along with a Gender Pay Action Plan ahead of the April deadline. The analysis of our gender pay gap figures reveals that our gender pay gap as at April 2019 (median gender pay gap of 12% and mean gender pay gap of 33%) arises because women hold fewer senior roles than men. Similarly, our bonus gap is driven by fewer women in senior roles as bonuses are a percentage of salary. We also have a higher proportion of women working in part-time roles, which generally fall within the lower quartile of pay. We shall continue to focus our attention on increasing the number of women in senior roles within our organisation and managing better our talent pipeline. Our aim is to provide an inclusive and diverse culture in which everyone is able to thrive and succeed in their career goals. Women are represented at our highest levels, both as members of the Board, including the Chair of the Board, and the Executive Team. We also have a number of women within our Senior Management Team, Development Management Team and Heads of Service.
Two of the women on our Senior Management Team founded and co-lead our Inspiring Swans network that helps women shine within the workplace. We do however acknowledge that we can always do more to encourage more women in senior roles. We recognise that meaningful and lasting change will only happen over time and only with the involvement of the whole organisation. During 2019/20 we completed a number of actions including launching our second ‘Inspirational You’ workshop for women, held a working parents / carers focus group with the Chief Executive to discuss how we can support working parents at various stages in life and carers within the workplace, and arranged a Menopause lunch and learn. For further information please see: www.swan.org.uk/home/publications/gender-pay-reporting
We support the five recommendations of the Altair Review, which encourage organisations to create more ethnically diverse leadership across the sector and during 2019/20 we added three actions to our Equality Scheme Action Plan to address gaps in our staff data and (from April 2021) draft a race pay gap report. For further information about the Altair Review recommendations, please see: www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/housing-and-land/leadership-2025
Future of London Speaker Diversity Pledge
We remain signatories to the Future of London Speaker Diversity Pledge and as such we continue to avoid participating in sessions which feature only one demographic group, and to put forward speakers from under-represented groups to represent our organisation, including at senior levels and across disciplines.
The CIH Leading Diversity by 2020 Challenges
During 2019/20 we completed the work required to meet the ten Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Leading Diversity by 2020 challenges1 . Diversity-related data on the composition of our Board, Executive Team and total workforce is considered by the Executive Team annually and included in the annual report. We have met the challenges through the diversity of our Board and Committees, delivery of mandatory diversity training for staff, using our corporate communications and culture strategies to ensure diversity is embedded within the organisational values, providing appropriate mentoring and coaching opportunities for staff and Board members, championing the case for a diverse workforce and leadership and encouraging colleagues, peers and partners to sign up to the challenges. As at March 2020:
38% of our Board and Executive Team and 57% of our total workforce are women. 15% of our Board and Executive Team and at least 20% of our total workforce are BAME (Black / Asian / Minority Ethnic, including White minority ethnic staff) . The age profile of our total workforce shows 54% were aged 25 to 44, with 38% aged 45 and over and 8% under 25. The age profile of the Board and Executive team showed 77% aged 45 to 64, 15% over 65 and 8% aged 25 to 44.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Training for Board, Committees and Executive Team
A refresher Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training session was delivered for the Board and Executive Team in September 2019.
We believe that Equality and Diversity should be embedded within all aspects of the business, and this belief is a continuous thread that runs all the way from our Board to our customer facing employees delivering on the ground.
As at March 2020:
38% of our Board and Executive Team are women 15% of our Board and Executive Team are BAME (Black / Asian / Minority Ethnic, including White Minority Ethnic) Age profile of our Board and Executive Team: 8% 25-44, 77% 45-64, 15% over 65
Age profile of our Board and Executive Team:
8% 77% 15%
25 - 44 45 - 64 over 65
38%
of our Board and Executive Team are women
15%
of our Board and Executive Team are BAME (Black / Asian / Minority Ethnic, including White Minority Ethnic)
