The production and analysis of Gender Pay Gap (GPG) and Ethnicity Pay Gap (EPG) figures supports our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) strategy and our commitment to creating an environment where colleagues feel comfortable being themselves and bringing their whole self to work. We want Ofwat to be a place where everyone is treated equally and empowered to thrive, irrespective of their background, age, gender, location, ethnicity/race, religion/belief, marital status, sexual identity or disability.
We are committed to creating an organisation which values all our people and their contribution, so that together we achieve our vision of improving life through water. For more information, see our EDI strategy and the work we are doing to support this. Our latest Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap reports are available below.
Gender and ethnicity pay gap report 2022
We have continued to take action to improve our pay gaps. These are some of the actions we have taken:
- The introduction of blind sifting, transparent interviews and flexible working options in our recruitment process to improve accessibility, remove bias and any potential barriers to applying for Ofwat roles.
- In all senior recruitment campaigns (Chief Executive and Senior Director roles), we have made diversity for candidate pools a key requirement for the executive search agencies.
- Some of the sectors and specialist professions we recruit from are traditionally male dominated and not ethnically diverse, so we have focused on ‘growing our own’. In 2022 the intake offers for our Graduate Development Programme were made up of 60% Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) and 60% female applicants. Of the 13 Graduates we employed in 2021, all have now been deemed suitable for more senior roles and will be moving into these roles shortly when they finish the graduate training programme.
- Our Pay Remit Group (members of our Senior Leadership Team and Director of People) have continued to be mindful of the EDI impact when moderating and making the final decisions for the Prioritised Pay Adjustments (PPAs) and bonus decisions. For example, in the PPA process for 2022 the Group focused on the EDI impact of decisions and moved 10% of people out of the lowest quartile within pay bands.
- We have commenced our Employer Value Proposition (EVP) project. This project will refresh the way we promote our roles externally. It will ensure our recruitment materials are representative of the communities in which we are located, with a view to attracting a more diverse pool of talent to Ofwat.
Of late we have been active in offering internal only temporary promotions and advertising some permanent roles, in particular with the PR24 programme, on an internal basis only, creating promotional opportunities for our people.