Building a diverse and inclusive culture is important to us and a vital element of this is our commitment to reducing the gender pay gap and being a workplace where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Since April 2018 all UK organisations with more than 250 employees have been required to publish their Gender Pay Gap figures annually. We publish a joint report for Sopra Steria, NHS SBS and SSCL each year.
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The gender pay gap is an equality measure that shows the difference in total average earnings between women and men working in the same organisation. It’s different to equal pay, which is about ensuring that women and men are paid the same for carrying out work of equal value.
Why does it matter?
Examining our gender pay gap is a crucial part of becoming a more diverse business, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it gives us another lens through which we can evaluate the steps we are taking to improve the diversity of our workforce.
The size of our gender pay gap varies in different parts of the business and we have seen fluctuations, both up and down, since we started reporting five years ago. While it remains slow, we are seeing some progress towards improved gender balance and the Sopra Steria gender pay gap is at its lowest level since we started reporting. But, we know we still have a long way to go to reach true gender equity and, like many companies in the technology sector, we still don’t have enough women in middle and senior management roles.
What we're doing in 2022
In the report below you see many examples of what we’ve done so far and what we have planned for 2022 but some important highlights are:
- Continuing to build an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued, fairly treated and respected through our Zero Tolerance Pledge, In My Shoes campaign and training on inclusive behaviour and bias for all employees
- Creating a workplace where more women want to work, by advertising all roles with flexible working options and promoting hybrid and remote working to support better work/life balance
- Supporting and developing our female talent via initiatives like the female mentoring programme and the SSCL women’s coaching cafes
- Celebrating and recognising our talented women through our Women’s Inclusive Network’s ‘Inspiring Women’ awards and events