Gender and ethnicity pay gap: recommended actions for practices

Addressing the gender and ethnicity pay gap begins with understanding the underlying causes that exist in practice before taking the most effective action to address them.

Our recommendations, which apply as much to architectural practices as any other organisation, are set out to follow the stages within an employee’s life cycle where gender and racial barriers exist that can impede or slow career progression, such as:

• when recruitment decisions are made
• during career development
• in the ongoing experience of employment leading to the decision to continue in, or leave, a practice or the profession

Examples of good practice are characterised by some overarching themes:

1. Greater transparency, objectivity, and accountability (in recruitment, promotion, and pay/reward decisions)
2. Raising awareness of the issues underlying the gender and ethnicity pay gap
3. Promoting and role modelling good practice
4. Monitoring and evaluating good practice
5. Taking targeted evidence-based action

Recruitment

The employee life cycle starts with the decision to appoint a new colleague, and the processes put in place to attract a diverse pool of applicants and recruit to the role have a significant impact on the gender and ethnicity balance at different levels.

Things to consider:

1. Advertise roles transparently and use language that does not deter or exclude women/those from underrepresented backgrounds
2. Advertise flexible working and accommodation options by default
3. Ensure your recruitment panel is made up of diverse colleagues and consider anonymising applications
4. Ensure the interview and selection processes are unbiased, structured (using a scored rubric), and skill-based
5. Operate transparent and fair processes for setting salaries and encourage negotiations by sharing salary ranges
6. Make senior colleagues accountable for, and aware of, unbiased recruitment practices

Progressions

There are a range of factors preventing women and those from underrepresented backgrounds from progressing to senior levels in practice. This can include a range of factors including disproportionate caring responsibilities and inflexible working arrangements for architects in senior roles.

The ‘glass ceiling’ in architecture seems to occur at associate or associate director level when architects take on responsibility for leading a project or studio. These roles may be considered incompatible with part-time working or family-friendly hours at times of high pressure approaching project deadlines – and the actual or perceived inability to substitute senior roles in practice to maintain project oversight or key client, design team, or contractor relationships. (Claudia Goldin, (2014), A Grand Gender Convergence)

This requires a creative and problem-solving approach for practices to move past these barriers and enable the best talent, regardless of gender or ethnicity, to rise to the top.

Things to consider:

1. Operate transparent, fair, and objective promotion procedures
2. Recognise the value of different career paths and skills gained outside practise
3. Introduce sponsorship or support mentoring schemes and networking during working hours
4. Consider providing equitable training and development opportunities, including leadership training
5. Appoint a diversity champion with a senior role and/or a diversity task force

Retention

Recruitment and colleague development are costs to the business both financially and in management time, so from a business perspective alone it is important that practices strive to retain talent.

Women specifically are not leaving the profession because they are incompetent professionals or no longer want to be architects, but because of a combination of factors: low and unequal pay; long, inflexible, and stressful working conditions incompatible with a healthy work-life balance; sexist culture; and limited ability to progress or return to practice after maternity leave or career breaks. (Manley, S., de Graft-Johnson, A. and Greed, C., (2003), Why do women leave architecture)

Things to consider:

1. Improve workplace flexibility by offering part-time, remote working, job sharing, or compressed hours to all colleagues
2. Encourage the uptake of shared parental leave
3. Take steps to understand and improve your practice culture to ensure women and those from underrepresented groups are equally valued, engaged, and supported
4. Operate transparent, balanced, and objective appraisal and performance review systems using measurable targets
5. Develop an action plan and set internal targets, with input from colleagues and buy-in from practice leaders

This content has been adapted from the Government Equalities Office (GEO) guidance published in 2018. Full the full GEO resource.