Gender Pay Report

Employers with 250 of more employees as at a specified ‘snapshot’ date are required to publish gender pay gap information.
Raven’s total headcount on the snapshot date of 5^th April 2022 was 316.

Everyone at Raven is proud of our purpose “Building Homes, Changing Lives”.

In the face of turbulent times, our purpose remains clear – we don’t just build houses, we build homes; and we provide the services and support that help change lives.

How we deliver our purpose is important to us, and our four values inform everything we do:

Trust – we earn trust by being open and accountable

Understand – we seek to truly understand others’ needs before we act

Collaborate to innovate – we collaborate with colleagues, customers, and partners to develop innovative services

Care – we come to work because we care about providing good quality, affordable homes, and services to those that need them. We believe we can make tomorrow better than today.

As an IIP Gold accredited organisation we recognise our staff as central to achieving our purpose and as outlined within our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion strategy we are committed to a culture built on principles of fairness and trust, where differences are celebrated, and every employee is valued. As part of this, it is important that we recruit, develop, and recognise our employees based on individual merit and regardless of personal characteristics such as race, disability, sex, age, and gender reassignment, as covered within the Equality Act (2010).

This report contains the Gender Pay Gap (as of 5^th April 2022) for Raven Housing Trust, as required by the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. We recognise the implementation of mandatory gender pay gap reporting as an important step towards transparency and greater equality for women in work.

It is important to remember that the gender pay gap relates to the earnings of female employees compared to male employees in all positions across the workforce, and reflects the types of position in which each are employed rather than being an indicator of equal pay for equal work.

Raven has a mean gender pay gap of 1.6% favouring males, which is a change from 2021 when the gap was skewed towards females (-0.3%). This result is primarily due to an increase in female representation within our lower middle pay quartile, alongside a very slight fall in female representation with the upper quartile – though the latter is still higher than male representation.

Our mean gender pay gap is very good compared to the national picture, with the provisional mean gender pay gap for the Not-for-Profit sector as reported by the Office of National Statistics in November 2022 being 15.3% favouring men, and for all sectors being 13.9% favouring men.

The median gender pay gap at Raven is 2% favouring men, which means that when our hourly pay rates are listed from highest to lowest, the middle pay rate for male employees is higher than for female employees. This is due to a larger number of female than male employees in positions within our lowest pay quartile.

However, the gap has reduced from 5.8% in 2020, because of the recruitment of female employees into some of our higher paid positions. The gap also compares favourably to the national median across all sectors of 14.9% as provisionally reported by the Office of National Statistics in November 2022.

Our mean gender bonus gap is 0.9% in favour of male employees; this gap has reduced by 4.1% since 2021. We compare favourably to other organisations, with the mean gender bonus gap for the not-for-profit sector as reported by the Office of National Statistics in 2021 being 17.9% favouring men (at the date of writing, the data for 2022 is yet to be released).

Our median gender bonus gap is 0%, which means that when the bonus amounts are listed from highest to lowest, the middle amount for male and female employees is the same.

There is a slightly higher percentage of female employees than male employees who received a bonus in the year to 5^th April 2022 (91% compared to 90%), this is because a larger number of male employees were ineligible (due to their start date at Raven) for a discretionary bonus that was given to recognise effort and commitment as we emerged from the pandemic and continued to deliver our digital transformation programme.

1. Requirements

Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting regulations require organisations with 250 or more employees to report their pay gap as of 5^th April (snapshot date) with the following information:

1. Mean gender pay gap: the difference between the average hourly rate of pay received by male and female employees.
2. Median gender pay gap: the difference between the middle hourly rate of pay for male and female employees when listed from highest to lowest,
3. Pay quartiles: the percentage of men and women that fall within four equal-sized pay bands, based on hourly rate of pay.
4. Mean gender bonus gap: the difference between the average bonus pay received by male and female employees in the 12 months to the snapshot date.
5. Median gender bonus gap: the difference between the middle bonus amount for male and female employees when listed from highest to lowest.
6. Percentage of men and women who received bonuses

Relevant employees:

All those employed on the snapshot date are regarded within the legislation as ‘relevant’ employees and are included in the metrics, even if they joined or left Raven part-way through the pay period and were paid for only a portion of that pay period.

The first four of the above metrics are based on data relating to ‘full-pay relevant’ employees, which according to the legislation is those who, during the pay period that includes the snapshot date, were paid their normal pay for the hours they worked. For part-time employees, this is their usual pro-rata pay. The data for these metrics therefore excludes employees who, as a result of being on maternity leave, sick leave, or special leave (e.g., sabbatical or other type of unpaid leave), were paid at a reduced rate that is less than their usual pay.

For the bonus calculations, all relevant employees are included, regardless of whether they received full, normal pay during the pay period.

2. Raven’s Gender Profile

Data collected on employees as of 5 April 2022 (the snapshot date) shows the following workforce gender breakdown in relation to those who received their normal pay for the hours they worked:

• Male – 138
• Female – 149
• Total no. of full-pay relevant staff – 287

Of the total 287 full-pay relevant employees that were employed on the snapshot date, 48% were male and 52% female.

3. Gender Pay Results

• The mean gender pay gap in hourly pay for Raven is 1.6% and is more favourable to men.
• The median gender pay gap in hourly pay for Raven is 2.0% and is more favourable to men.
• Pay quartiles by gender (these quartiles are set out in the reporting requirements):

• The mean gender bonus gap for Raven is 0.9% and is more favourable to men.
• The median gender bonus gap for Raven is 0% with no difference between male and female employees.
• The percentage of male employees who received a bonus is 90% and the percentage of female employee who received a bonus is 91%.

4. Commentary

Mean gender pay gap:

Raven’s mean gender pay gap for 2022 compares favourably to national averages as reported by the Office of National Statistics in November 2022.

The actual difference between the mean hourly rate for male employees and female employees in all positions across Raven is 33p. This is reflective of male employees tending to be in positions that are more highly paid and is not indicative of the hourly rate for male and female employees in the same position being different.

The reason for the mean gender pay gap being favourable to male employees is a higher female than male representation within the lowest pay quartile and a slightly reduced female representation in the highest pay quartile compared to last year (though it is still higher than male representation).

There is also higher male representation within our lower middle pay quartile, which includes several of our Trades roles. These positions are male-dominated at a national level and attract a market premium compared to other positions in the lower middle pay quartile, due to recruitment pressures. It is the mean pay gap between male and female employees in this pay quartile that is having the greatest impact on the overall mean pay gap.

Median gender pay gap:

Our median gender pay gap is also skewed towards male employees but has reduced by 3.8% since 2020 and is below the national average of 14.9% as reported by the Office of National Statistics in November 2022.

The reason for the median pay gap being favourable to men is due to the higher representation of women in our lowest paid roles, with 57% of employees in Band A being female. However, the increase in female representation within Bands B and C has reduced the median pay gap overall so that it is less favourable to males than it was before.

Pay quartiles:

The composition of our lowest pay band compares favourably to benchmark data provided by XpertHR for the Not-for-Profit sector, which shows that on average, Band A consisted of 71.2% female and 28.9% male employees in 2021. The latter is supported by figures held in the government database which show that on average, Band A consisted of 72.1% female and 27.9% male employees in 2021. At Raven, the proportion of male to female employees in Band A is much more balanced.

Mean gender bonus gap:

Raven’s mean gender bonus gap is very slightly skewed towards men, this is because our contractual and executive bonuses are calculated as a percentage of base salary and two of our highest male earners received a bonus in the 12 months to April 2022. However, this gap has reduced by 4.1% since 2021 and our executive bonus is being phased out, so we should see this gap reduce even further.

Median gender bonus gap:

Our median bonus gap is 0%, meaning there is no difference between the middle bonus amount for male and female employees when listed from highest to lowest. This is because a discretionary bonus of the same amount was awarded to all eligible staff in April 2022.

Conclusion:

We are proud of having a gender pay gap that compares favourably to the whole economy because it is reflective of Raven being an equal opportunities employer with a good representation of women within senior positions. However, the broader results remind us that we cannot be complacent, and that to maintain a balanced gender pay gap we must continue putting steps in place to ensure an inclusive approach to recruitment, encouraging applications from males and females for all positions and removing barriers to employment and development where they may exit.

5. Chief Executive’s Statement

We are committed to maintaining a fair and transparent approach to pay and to providing all employees with equal opportunities to progress in their careers and to contribute to Raven’s success. The key actions we have taken in support of this are:

1. The Introduction of a new pay framework from May 2021 with salary linked to position and not to individual performance. This ensures greater transparency of approach and removes the possibility of unwarranted pay differentials.
2. Pay for every position is benchmarked by an external specialist and we also benchmark internally to ensure parity amongst positions with similar responsibilities.
3. Managers are encouraged to consider all working arrangements that could be made to work whether the role is junior or senior and regardless of gender, to support our employees in balancing their work and personal commitments. Our Hub, Home, Roam policy and Lifestyle Contract were introduced in 2022 in support of this flexible approach.
4. Improving our employee diversity data to better identify any barriers to employment and development that may exist, and to identify appropriate activities and initiatives. For example, we are currently working towards Level 2 of the Disability Confident scheme, which is an indication of our commitment to recruiting and developing disabled colleagues so that we can better understand our customers.

These actions are aimed at reducing any significant gap and achieving gender-balanced pay as well as broader equality in our organisation, but we welcome the opportunity to annually review the progress that we make in achieving a diverse and inclusive workforce.

I, Jonathan Higgs, confirm that the information in this statement is accurate.

4th April 2023