At PICA Group, our mission is to ‘enhance communities’. We strive to deliver high-quality services that help to create positive, vibrant, and flourishing communities where everyone has an opportunity to thrive. Our vision for our internal workforce aligns with our core purpose. It makes sense that our workforce should reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and that our workplace be fair and inclusive, where every employee feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work in a culture and environment where they can thrive.
Happy employees lead to happy customers, it’s as simple as that. A commitment to gender equality is an essential component of our overall commitment to a diverse and, importantly, inclusive workplace, where all employees thrive.
PICA Group’s 2023 Workplace Gender Equality study and report shows a reduction in our overall gender pay gap (GPG), which is pleasing to see. We undertook an in-depth analysis of pay differentials in preparation for our 2023 annual salary review in April. Where a male and female performing the same role were being paid differently, we confirmed whether or not the differences were justified by a legitimate reason such as performance or scale of responsibilities. Several salary adjustments were made where no such justification could be found. We appreciate that this is an area requiring ongoing diligence, so the same analysis will be undertaken in preparation for the 2024 annual salary review and each year following.
However, it’s important to note that the main driver of PICA Group’s GPG is not equal pay for the same or comparable job or a lack of women in leadership positions. Our GPG is primarily driven by the disproportionate number of females performing administrative and support roles within the Company – a recruitment rather than remuneration issue. This actually presents a more challenging problem to overcome – how can we attract more male candidates to these positions? We face this challenge against the backdrop of the current tight labour market, in an industry that is dominated by women. Further consideration will be given to this issue in developing our recruitment strategy and approach during 2024.
In the meantime, we continue to shape our workplace culture and experience through the provision of flexible working practices, industry-leading benefits, policies that integrate consideration of gender equality, and company-wide training across topics from unconscious bias to gender-based harassment and by-stander training.
During 2024, we intend to both educate and consult broadly with our employees to help us further understand the employee experience and how we might address any barriers to achieving greater gender equality in our workplace.
