Figures
Our figures
On the statutory snapshot date of 5 April 2018, out of the total number of employees 70.17% (71.14% 2017) were males and 29.83% (28.86% 2017) were females.
The six measures on which we must report are:
- the mean (average) pay gap;
- the median (middle) pay gap;
- the mean (average) bonus gap;
- the median (middle) bonus gap;
- the proportion of males and females receiving a bonus;
- the proportion of males and females in each of our pay quartiles.
These are set out below and show an improvement in most areas:
| Gender Pay & Bonus Gaps | Mean | Median |
| Pay Gap | 33.71% (34.6) | 25.41% (25.62) |
| Bonus Gap | 78.49% (86.56) | 21.13% (33.85) |
| Bonus proportions | 5 April 2018 | 5 April 2017 |
| Proportion of males receiving a bonus | 93.07% | 91.74% |
| Proportion of females receiving a bonus | 92.59% | 89.38% |
| Gamma’s Pay Quartiles | % of Males in each pay quartile 2018 v 2017 | % of Females in each pay quartile 2018 v 2017 |
| Upper | 85.97% (85.49) | 14.03% (14.51) |
| Upper middle | 76.02% (77.84) | 23.98% (22.16) |
| Lower middle | 63.18% (64.77) | 36.82% (35.23) |
| Lower | 57.92% (58.55) | 42.08% (41.45) |
Changing the balance
Changing the balance within sales
Historically, sales teams within the telecoms industry have been male dominated. At Gamma, even three years ago, in sales, we had a significant gender imbalance of 9:1 males to females across the overall sales team. It was a real struggle to attract women into technical sales roles. In seeking to change this imbalance, during the latter half of 2016, we planned and expanded the sales team by creating new roles of Internal Account Managers to help us better serve the smaller accounts and build a pipeline of sales people for the future. Given the success of filling roles internally at Gamma it was also imperative we apply a culture of inclusion, mentoring and openness. This appears to have been a great success in helping to nurture the right behaviours and ethos.
We focused on graduate placements. We observed a significant increase in female applicants between 2015 and 2018 and by continuing to concentrate on employing the right people for the job (cultural fit, attitude, skills and abilities) we have seen an increase in female numbers within the team. The ratio of males to females across the overall sales team has reduced to 9:3 in the space of two years. Looking ahead, as we have created a clear route for career development in sales, we expect to see more women gain senior sales roles over time.
Systemic imbalance
Systemic imbalance
Gamma supports the Government’s objective to close the gender pay gap within a generation to create a fairer society and unleash the huge potential of talent in the UK so every person has equal opportunity for future employment prospects. Tackling this needs to start by encouraging children in the early stages of their education to become so excited about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects that they decide to study them throughout their formal education and then go on to choose STEM-related apprenticeships or university education. Research shows that females are less likely than males to pursue STEM subjects as they progress through education or to choose a career where knowledge and skills in these topics can be applied. This adversely impacts on the already shrinking pool of talent from which businesses can draw up thereby creating a greater skills shortage in the UK.
Looking at the imbalance of gender across all sectors of the UK economy, males are more likely than females to be in senior roles in organisations, while females are more likely than males to be in front-line roles at the lower end of the organisation. Technical and IT-related roles in the UK economy are more likely to have a significantly higher proportion of males than females which attract higher rates of pay than other roles at similar levels of seniority. Even in 2018, females are still more likely than males to have had breaks from work that have affected their career progression, for example, to bring up children, although there are signs that this is changing in a minority of cases.
Closing the gap
What is Gamma doing to close the gap?
Our Women in Technology Steering Group, which meets several times a year, has been working to: –
- identify the issues that may hold women back in their careers and how we can help them address these.
- develop ways to support women’s personal growth and career progression at Gamma.
- extend our educational relationships and partnerships by formalising a Gamma outreach programme to encourage students, particularly females, to study STEM subjects at school, at college, at university and early stage careers.
We set out below examples of some of initiatives and outputs from the Group.
Retaining and supporting people
Retaining and supporting people returning from maternity or adoption leave
Gamma has been built on family values of caring for one another and being supportive during the ebbs and flows of life. We recognise the increasing challenges of staff trying to balance personal finances with starting a family. Our employees asked the business to extend our enhanced maternity offering and, from 1 April 2018, we extended paid maternity/adoption leave to 26 weeks on full pay. This was well received by staff and we hope that this will alleviate the financial burden new families face so that they do not have to return to work too soon.
We also recognise that being out of a fast-growing workplace like Gamma for even just a few months, means that a lot will have changed in people’s absence despite the opportunities for Keeping in Touch (KIT) days. A sub-set of our Gamma Women in Technology Group has been set up with representation across the business to explore the challenges returners face and how we can overcome these. Some initial thoughts around this include a mentoring scheme, and a returners induction programme. We are looking forward to hearing their full recommendations later in 2019.
Leadership Presence for Women
Leadership Presence for Women Coaching Programme
We had our first cohort of female staff go through a six-month coaching and development programme which involved a forum theatre approach using professional actors in role plays.
The objective of the programme was to help our female talent grow their leadership presence, enhance their self-confidence and self-belief in their skills and abilities.
All participants successfully completed the programme and felt changed as a result and ready for the next step in their careers.
Software Development Mentoring
Software Development Mentoring and Buddying Programme
A programme of mentoring and buddying has been developed in house by women in our Software Development teams with a view to supporting not just women but extending to everyone. All mentors have volunteered and been trained by the team so that everyone, no matter what their gender, circumstances or background can benefit.
Diversity and Inclusion Training
Diversity and Inclusion Training
We want Gamma to continue to be a thriving, enjoyable workplace where everyone feels they belong and are treated with respect and dignity. To underpin this, we have been delivering a new programme of diversity and inclusion training to educate and inform everyone of the importance of treating each other with the upmost respect, irrespective of our own uniqueness as individuals.
Recruitment
Recruitment
We have produced and delivered recruitment training for hiring managers focusing on diversity, inclusion and unconscious bias which could occur during recruitment. Some areas of the business have been looking to create more diverse interview panels. We have therefore endeavoured to have more women included in our shortlists for vacancies, and ensured that we send a weekly vacancies email to all employees to give everyone equal visibility on the roles available.
Since April 2018, over 40% of externally recruited management positions were filled by highly qualified women, and 40% of senior positions (Heads of Department / Directors) have been filled internally by women since April 2018, to meet our aim of having greater female representation at a senior level.
Customer support roadshows
Customer support roadshows: Spreading the word that we are committed to improving gender parity
In October 2018, we took the opportunity to use the Customer Support Roadshows to explore how the telecoms industry can work collaboratively to address the gender imbalance within the sector. These roadshows were held across the UK and at each location we had a Gamma Women in Technology Group stand where we invited our customers to talk with our female employees so that they could share their experiences and what measures they were taking to address the gender pay gap and to improve gender diversity within the telecoms industry. There was considerable interest from our customers who wanted to know what we were doing and where to start.
Such was the trust that our customers have with Gamma, people confided in our representatives on the stand how comfortable they felt to be able to speak openly with others on the same journey.
The future
Looking to the future
If the UK needs to encourage more pupils to study STEM subjects during their education and then follow a career in STEM, then we at Gamma want to play our part – in fact it is something our staff are passionate about. We have no shortage of ideas and volunteers to engage with education and a small sample of our outreach experiences are set out below.
TeenTech
In October 2018 we took part in the TeenTech event at Manchester Metropolitan University. TeenTech is a charity founded by Maggie Philbin in 2008 to encourage young people, especially young women, to want to get in to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) careers. At the event Gamma created an ‘Insight Zone’ where Year 9 children took part in a 15-minute activity based around technology. The students then had the opportunity to question our Gamma staff about what it was like to work for us and what GCSEs should they study if they wanted to become an Engineer.
Our Head of Support Services and Apprenticeship Trainer led another interactive session with students to bring to life for the Year 9s the world of engineering and the concept of porting. (We had successfully used this activity at our Apprentice Assessment Days).
TeenTech is intended to be a powerful intervention to help students make GCSE subject choices, to dispel gender stereotypes and shift perceptions of careers teenagers may have considered “difficult”, “geeky” or “boring”. We hope that Gamma has played a part in inspiring a future generation of engineers and we are already planning further programmes for 2019
Equal Engineers
Gamma staff also attended the Equal Engineers Careers Fair for Graduates and Apprentices, which was targeted at under-represented groups across engineering, including women. The purpose of this careers fair was to promote engineering and technology roles to 400 students from various diverse groups, including those with disabilities. We had the opportunity to showcase our apprenticeship and graduate opportunities and demonstrate that engineering can be for everyone.
Continuing our work with Salford University
Over the past 12 months we have worked closely with Professor Haifa Takruri, MBE, of Salford University, on attracting, retaining and developing women within our business and helping those still in education. As part of our outreach work, we participated in a residential summer school for year 12 girls from across the UK at Salford University, which encourages girls to study science and engineering for a future career in this area. Students took a tour of our Network Operations Centre, where we gave them a demonstration of the work they could expect to do there, as well as providing information about the telecoms industry. Two of our recent female graduate engineers shared their journey so far as well as giving unique insights into their day to day roles as Gamma engineers. We were also delighted that our Voice and Data Services Delivery Manager was invited to speak at a dinner in honour of the event, to discuss her experiences within the telecoms industry.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We still have much to do within Gamma, but we also want to give back to society by inspiring future generations of talent to prepare themselves for an exciting STEM career. There is no quick fix or silver bullet but, as it is said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step: we hope that during 2018 we have made some very strong strides towards creating a more diverse future for everyone.
I confirm that this statement is accurate.
Andrew Belshaw
Chief Financial Officer
29 March 2019
