Progress, but still room for improvement. That may be the verdict cast over Zurich’s latest UK gender pay gap figures, for the year of 2019, which showed its mean gender pay gap had improved by 2.1 ppts at 20.7% compared to 22.8% at the end of 2018. Its median pay gap also closed to 20.2%, compared to 22.6% a year earlier.
In analysing the results, Zurich explained much of the progress could be linked to its mean bonus gap – which has reduced by 3.5 ppts. It also explained that a gap remains primarily because there are fewer women working in senior and technical roles.
Going forward, the company is planning to tackle these issues with a series of incentives. Among them was its decision last April to make new roles available on a part-time or job sharing basis in an effort to encourage more women with family responsibilities into its top roles. It noted that since the launch of the part-time job initiative, applications from females had increased by 14%.
In September it also introduced family friendly policies including offering 16 weeks of parental leave to all new parents.
Now, UK CEO Tulsi Naidu believes these activities can help cut the gender pay gap further.
“Our figures show progress and a definite step in the right direction, though we know more work is needed,” she said. “We’re confident that we’ll make greater strides when we publish next year’s data that should reflect the measures put in place to attract more women into senior roles. We’re looking at how we can tackle pay gaps from every angle – and this will include ethnicity, disability and LGBT in the months ahead. This is part of our aim to make Zurich an attractive place to work, presenting opportunities to the widest possible range of people.”
