Overview
Ombudsman Services are committed to having a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organisation. To do this we aim to create an environment that brings out our colleagues’ full potential, which, in turn, contributes directly to our business success. We can’t afford to let anyone’s talents go to waste, or for anyone to feel as though they can’t bring their whole self to work.
We’re an equal and positive action employer, who’s committed to providing a workplace that’s free of discrimination, treating our colleagues, consumers, and suppliers fairly, with dignity and respect.
It’s key to note that Gender Pay Gap reporting is not equal pay. Equal pay is where men and women receive the same pay for completing the same job.
Our focus is on creating an engaging and inclusive colleague experience that builds strong communities. We’ve already taken several steps to do this by recruiting more women and operating a hybrid working model. We’re now working more flexibly, with 47 women working various patterns less than 37.5 hour per week.
Our progress has been positive, but we still have a lot to accomplish.
Latest Report
The Gender Pay Gap reporting requirements apply to private and voluntary-sector organisations with a headcount of 250 or more employees at the ‘snapshot date’ of 5 April 2022.
There has been great progress made reducing the mean pay gap from 14.9% to 11.5%. In addition, the proportion of the total budget for bonuses awarded to men was 22.7% lower than to women.
Table 1: Mean, median pay and bonuses
Our Gender Proportions
Women sit relatively evenly across most pay quartiles, only being higher than men in the lower pay quartile (women 69.4% / men 30.6%) as a result of a recruitment drive. However, work is to be done to promote women into the Senior Leadership Team - the ratio being 6(men):3(women) on our Senior Leadership Team. Our board, however, is weighted in favour of women with 4(men):5(women) ratio.
Table 2 Pay Quartiles
Overall, we recruited 51 women and 55 men over this period. There was an even split between men and women appointed to senior leader positions over the course of last year.
Our Commitment
- We’re committed to having all roles calibrated in the Group and benchmarked externally
- We’ll continue to work on clear pay bandings and competencies for each grade of role - by doing this we’ll enable colleagues to clearly see how they can develop in the business
- We’ll continue to improve our recruitment process to ensure it remains inclusive