Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Latest News

Leading companies to audit pay as part of gender gap probe

by Personnel Today 4 Sep 2001
by Personnel Today 4 Sep 2001

Nine large companies are to carry out equal pay audits of their staff to
provide best practice examples for the Government’s review into the gender pay
gap.

The companies will scrutinise career paths, the effect of flexible working
practices on retention, promotional rates, pay and bonuses.

Unilever is launching a pilot scheme later this year that will search for
gender discrepancies among 3,000 managers, before it is rolled out to its
12,000 UK staff.

Geoff Williams, head of UK personnel at Unilever, said, "We will look
at the average pay for management grades and compare that with the average male
and female salary, as well as look at the length of time women spend in a role
compared with men."

Williams is also to examine the success of women on the company’s management
high potential list. He said he is committed to rectifying any gender anomalies
that are found in salary or career opportunities.

The other companies carrying out similar audits are British Airways,
Citigroup, Littlewoods, Sainsbury’s, HSBC Bank, Compass, Granada and Centrica.

They are among the 50 large employers interviewed for the Kingsmill Review
of Women’s Employment and Pay, which aims to cut the 18 per cent gender pay gap
through spreading best practice.

Nearly half of the respondents to our News Barometer online survey last week
admitted that their organisation would not pass an equal pay audit.

Equal pay case studies

Littlewoods to use findings for development plans

Littlewoods will investigate its managers’ total pay and reward packages for
gender inequalities next year.

It will also examine the number of women in senior management and in which
business areas they work. The results will be incorporated into personnel
development plans and recruitment practices. Jim Donovan, HR director of
Littlewoods, said, "We know that the number of female senior managers has
increased by 5 per cent.

"We have to ask ourselves whether this rate of change is fast enough
and what areas is it in. Is it in traditional female areas such as HR or is it
in tougher areas with financial responsibilities."

Centrica calls in outsider to run rule over practice

Energy company Centrica is to bring in external consultants to review gender
practices at its call centres. They will examine pay, performance management,
recruitment policies and promotion. Call centre staff represent 40 per cent of
the company’s 30,000 employees.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Jill Shedden, HR director group operations at Centrica, said external
consultants are the best way to discover problems.

She said, "We have looked so many times [at the systems] that we may
not be able to see any discrimination."

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Firms lack policies on flexible working
next post
Dawn start for work permit applicants

You may also like

Jobs on the line across NHS trusts in...

9 May 2025

Why fighting the DEI backlash is about PR...

9 May 2025

So what does the election of a new...

9 May 2025

Construction workers win compensation claim against defunct employer

9 May 2025

Rumours during recruitment: how should HR respond?

9 May 2025

UK-US deal saves ‘thousands’ of jobs in car...

9 May 2025

Teacher apprenticeship route to be tied to school...

9 May 2025

Zero-hours workers’ rights to be extended from beyond...

8 May 2025

NHS worker awarded £29k after Darth Vader comparison

8 May 2025

Senior execs at BlackRock to work in office...

8 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+