We are pleased to report our Gender Pay Gap results for 2022. This is the sixth year of reporting in accordance with UK Government requirements. We have wholly embraced the new reporting regulations and believe firmly in providing equal opportunities regardless of gender age, race, sexual orientation or disability.
We believe the diversity of our people strengthens our judgement, independence and decision making. We also know that attracting a more diverse workforce widens our pool of talent which is key for our succession planning and sustainable growth. Our commitment is backed by our Diversity & Inclusion Policy.
During 2022 we built and began delivery of plan to ‘Build Belonging at Ibstock’ focused on ensuring all employees feel they belong in the business. A fundamental enabler to continuing to build diversity in the organisation.
Our current employee population continues to reflect the traditional nature of our industry across all diversity characteristics. Whilst taking action, we continue to recognise the challenge we face, with 84% of roles being occupied by men and this being most notable within factory based production and engineering roles. Our office based population have a more even split of male and female employees including a higher representation of women in Customer Service and People Team roles.
We continue to run a number of initiatives at improving representation of women across the business details can be found in the table ‘Actions Taken’
Manufacturing and the Building Materials industries continue to face a challenge in attracting more women into the sector. Ibstock Brick Limited is no different in this regard.
Due to the demographics of our workforce, there is an under-representation of women holding managerial and senior roles in production and in central functions, which is the main factor causing our mean and median pay gaps in favour of men.
Bonus pay gaps are impacted by the following factors:
We are committed to continuing to focus on this important agenda. We are pleased to report however that our mean gender pay gap of -6% is lower than the national average of 14.9% (ONS 2022) and reflects our commitment to work to eliminate any gap within our organisation. We are committed to regular analysis, monitoring and continuing work to remedy the gap that does exist, however recognise that our ability to do so is now largely linked to our commitment to bring more women into our industry and organisation.
At Ibstock Brick we are committed to providing equal opportunities and increasing the diversity of our workforce. We have a wide number of initiatives in place that will start to deliver change as we move forward. A summary of those most notable can be found below, and whilst for the purposes of this report they focus on gender diversity, many are also supporting our diversity agenda across other characteristics:
| Policy and Practices | |
| Practical support for those returning from maternity leave | We now operate a programme of coaching for females in key roles returning from maternity leave. The coaching is designed to strengthen the participant’s leadership, presence and personal purpose and help them find a sense of balance in a successful career alongside being a parent |
| Encouraging a more agile and family friendly approach to work | We actively promote a flexible approach to working for office based employees. Whilst we believe there will always be a need to meet in an office environment to collaborate, we are proud to offer hybrid working which allows employees to better integrate work and home life in a way which works for them |
| Communicated target that 40% of our Senior Leaders will be female by 2027 | Our Long Term Incentive plans now include a target to ensure female representation across our Senior Leadership Team. This is underpinned by a plan to address |
| Recruitment and Brand | |
| Revising our attraction methods to remove gender bias | We have taken steps throughout 2022 to reduce/revise any potential for gender biased language and openly invite those who don’t meet 100% of requirements to submit an application of interest for consideration (As a general rule, men will apply for roles where they meet 60% of requirement, women will apply only when they meet 100%) |
| Taking targeted action through recruitment | We are taking action to ensure our recruitment short lists are diverse, and we are taking steps to remove the potential for unconscious bias, including blind CVs |
| Training our leaders | In 2022 we undertook training with our Senior Leadership group to support their understanding of leading for diversity and inclusion. This will continue into 2023. We are also focused on neurodiversity which also supports women in work. 2023 will see an ongoing focus on unconscious bias and helping managers to understand their own and take actions to compensate. This will be compulsory ahead of recruitment |
| Partnering with organisations who promote our roles to an exclusive audience of women | We continue to partner with organisations who can raise the share our vacancies reaching a diverse audience. We are also taking actions to ensure we connect with local communities to encourage applications from groups who wouldn’t have previously considered careers with us. This has included visits to religious establishments which have driven diverse applications from both women and ethnic minorities |
| Commitment that interview panels are appropriately diverse | Ensuring selection panel for all Senior Leadership +2 roles consist of at least 1 male and 1 female assessor. This is now operating as standard |
| Developing Diversity within early careers | |
| Started to build links with schools/colleges to promote our early careers opportunities and raise awareness of careers for females in construction | We continue to build connections with education establishments, to better support the understanding of the early careers available within Ibstock. This is something we will look to progress further on an ongoing basis, and will aim to support a great interest in STEM subjects and the benefits of a career in engineering / ceramics |
| Factory design | |
| Ensuring we optimise our approach to new factory builds to create an environment attractive to diverse employees | The investments in our Atlas and Nostell facilities are being reviewed through the lens of diversity and inclusion, ensuring that all aspects of their development support the attraction and retention of a diverse workforce. We have also taken action to build community connections to support this agenda. |
| Personal Protective Equipment | We now provide a modesty tunic which is more appropriate for Muslim women ensure dress is no a barrier to working in our factories |
| Provided free period products at all our sites | We now ensure that all of facilities provide free period products reinforcing our desire to demonstrate we are an inclusive business that takes the wellbeing needs of all our workforce seriously |
Whilst proud of the progress we are making, we recognise there is still much to do. It will take a long-term commitment to significantly change the make-up of our workforce – and of the manufacturing sector. We will continue to drive these efforts to make Ibstock Brick a diverse employer of choice.
Joanne Hodge
People Director
