BHF’s gender pay gap closed further in 2020, shows new report

Our gender pay gap is continuing to close, according to our annual pay report published today.

The report shows our gender pay gap is now just six per cent in favour of men, compared to a national average of 15.9 percent (October 2020, Office for National Statistics data). Last year it was 8.7 per cent and we are striving to close it altogether. However, we are acutely aware there is more to be done. 

The report also shows that in the last 12 months, 67 per cent of senior management hires were female, which is up from 58 per cent the previous year. 

This year, as part of our commitment to being a more diverse and inclusive organisation, we are also reporting on our ethnicity pay gap for the first time. Our mean ethnicity pay gap is 14 per cent in favour of our colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds, although we recognise this number is influenced by the relatively small number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds who work at the BHF. Creating a more diverse workforce, including at Director level, remains a priority in our diversity and inclusion action plan. 

There isn’t a legal requirement to publish ethnicity pay gap figures, but we are committed to being transparent and holding ourselves accountable as we seek to do better. Our gender and ethnicity pay gap figures for 2020 are calculated based on pay on our snapshot date of 5 April 2020. 

Our response to the figures

Speaking on the publication of our report, our Chief Executive, Dr Charmaine Griffiths said: “We are pleased to see progress in closing our gender pay gap while recognising that there is still more to do. It is also important for us to publish our ethnicity pay gap and use the data to inform how we improve the diversity of our workforce.  

“These reports are key to helping us monitor progress and support how we develop plans to address issues. It is a priority for us to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion across the BHF and in 2021 we look forward to making great strides to ensure that all colleagues have a space to grow and flourish.”

More to be done

We recognise that there is more to be done, and we are committed to improving diversity and inclusion across our organisation. The steps we are taking, which are overseen by our diversity and inclusion working group Kaleidoscope, will help make progress towards closing both our ethnicity and gender pay gaps, particularly by removing potential recruitment barriers. Some of the key changes we have made and are continuing to implement are: 

• To prevent any potential barriers to appointing females to senior roles we ensure all senior roles have a gender balanced interview process.

• All our BHF job adverts have been screened to ensure there is no bias in the language used as certain key words are found to attract either more male or female candidates.

• We provide recruitment skills training for hiring managers to minimise the impact of unconscious bias.

• We encourage hiring managers to seek out diversity by demonstrating how it aids team innovation, productivity and creativity.

• Our career site has been refreshed with an inclusivity page detailing our commitments.

• Our recruitment system is being enhanced to facilitate anonymous CVs.

What is the gender pay gap?

Under legislation that came into force in April 2017, UK employers with more than 250 employees are required to publish their gender pay gap. This year, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Government Equalities Office (GEO) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) took the decision to suspend enforcement of the gender pay gap deadlines for this reporting year (2019/20), meaning there will be no expectation on employers to report their data. However, the BHF decided to publish in the spirit of transparency and remaining accountable as we strive to improve diversity and inclusion in our organisation. 

Read the full Gender Pay Report or visit the Government website for more information.