How can organisations help ensure Gender Parity in the workplace?

Here at Macmillan Davies, we are proud to work with many inspirational female HR leaders, and we are passionate about the power of inclusion and diversity and the positive impact they bring to organisations. We asked a few of them to give their views on how organisations can help ensure gender parity in the workplace. The UK is currently ranked 15th out of 146 countries for gender parity, but there is still an incredibly long way to go. We hope that these help your organisation take a step towards greater gender parity in your workplace.

A huge thank you to everyone who has taken part.

How can organisations help ensure Gender Parity in the workplace?

“Employers need to create genuine meaningful part-time roles for those seeking flexible working patterns. Many parents and carers accept part-time roles only to find they have a full-time workload and a portion of the pay. At a time when they may already feel vulnerable, this can leave them feeling overwhelmed at work and home, impacting long-term engagement in the workforce. Women AND men need the flexibility to make life work.”

Melanie Bowes, HR Director & Founder at Budie People Consulting & Coaching

“Harmonising maternity and paternity leave and pay goes a long way to levelling the playing field. At OFX we give 16 weeks of fully paid leave, whatever the gender, from day 1 of employment.”

Emma Bruton, Head of People and Culture, EMEA at OFX

“Implementing a leadership development program specifically aimed at supporting the career advancement of women. This could involve mentorship opportunities, targeted training, and networking events designed to cultivate the skills and confidence needed for women to succeed in leadership roles. Actively investing in the professional growth of women within the organisation, aims to bridge the gender gap in senior leadership positions and create a more balanced workforce.

Another idea is introducing flexible working arrangements that accommodate diverse family responsibilities. This could include offering options for flexible schedules and parental leave policies that support both mothers and fathers. Organisations can empower employees to balance their professional and personal lives more effectively, thereby reducing gender disparities in career progression and promoting a more inclusive and supportive workplace culture.”

Laura Pierce, Senior Director of People at Matillion

“Annual benchmarking is key. Outputs need to be built into ‘business as usual’ and ‘the way it is around here’. The data set assists decisions - revisions, offers, promotions and performance. I recommend having decisions driven by data which are reviewed bi-annually (or more frequently at RemCom), especially if the lead is progressive and offers a healthy challenge.”

Clare Farmer, Interim HR Director at Algreco UK

“My advice would be to ensure that there are actions (and metrics) against all elements of the people lifecycle which will ultimately feed into your people strategy. And in totality, these will turn the dial on gender parity.

For example, this would include removing gender bias language in job adverts, insisting on gender-balanced selection pools, policies in place to promote work-life balance, benefits that are fair and transparent, a gender lens across talent and succession and mentoring/development specifically targeted at providing career paths for women...and more.”

Sarah Perrott, Director of People and Talent at Luceco Group

“Work towards having an inclusive culture where everybody can be their authentic self. There is no silver bullet but continual work of talking about this, education, transparency, and probably getting it wrong along the way but it’s all part of the journey to get to a better place.”

Claire Spencer, Head of HR, Capital Markets at Shore Capital

“Collect data and share/discuss regularly with leadership and team leads. For example gender stats on hiring, promotions, leavers, etc (shared quarterly). This can help see at a glance where you are and if things are improving as you would want or whether you need to adjust any practices to support goals.”

Charmaine Clavier, Head of People at Hutch Games

“Although there are significant medium-term impacts organisations can make through more progressive approaches to talent, leadership and succession, an immediate quick win relating to compensation is to avoid asking job applicants about their current salary. Pay should reflect the role, and the question only serves to bake-in any gender-based pay differentials.”

Jackie Tullett, HR Director, Talent & Employee Experience

“Educate yourself on just how many issues ‘group think’ can cause and how much diversity can contribute to organisations effectively managing those issues and mitigating those risks.”

Senior Director, HR - Financial Services

“We look at the role and the skills required, and we then take global benchmarking provided by external providers (WTW/McLagan etc) and ensure that all team members are within the benchmarks. We then also look at the MvF on these to ensure that we are not discriminating based on gender. We also have to take into account experience and knowledge of the role but we sense check all female salaries v their counterparts.”

Head of Resourcing

“There are so many ways in which firms can be pro-active in tackling this incredibly important issue. Some of these include offering flexible working, facilitating internal support networks for women, running mentoring/coaching programmes and actively training your employees on diversity and inclusion and how everyone can play their part. However, the most important factor is to look at the culture and values of your organisation and review HR processes from recruitment to promotion to compensation to ensure they are free of bias. Focus on building a culture that fosters a sense of collaboration and acceptance, not only will this help to address gender parity, it will also assist with talent attraction and retention which is absolutely key in this market.”

Naomi Baxter, Head of HR at Crispin Speers & Partners Limited

“When looking at vacancies, consider if jobs could be fulfilled through job-sharing arrangements, flexible hours, or casting the net wider than requiring industry-specific experience. This will open up the candidate pool and attract more female applicants.”

Louise Clements, Head of People Business Partnering at HDI Global SE – UK Services Limited