Gender Pay Gap Reports

REPORTING FROM 2018 & PUBLISHED 2019

We are only in year 2 of Gender Pay Reporting but are proud that our overall gender pay gap has improved. The number of females now receiving a bonus has  also increased, and we feel confident that over time, the mean gender bonus gap will improve also.

We are continually evaluating our policies to ensure we are an increasingly inclusive business. We are proud of the practices we already have in place to encourage and facilitate career development and we have and will continue to see talent progressing within Les Ambassadeurs. More recently, we have initiated an enhanced succession strategy for several of our female team members, that will fulfil more senior roles within Les Ambassadeurs over time.

We took steps to remove any perceived gender bias from our recruitment process and we have seen the benefit of this as a good number of females have joined Les Ambassadeurs recently, entering middle level roles. We aim to continuously grow and develop meaningful careers at Les Ambassadeurs and advancing the best talent, regardless of gender.

We have had lots to celebrate recently and I am proud that Les Ambassadeurs has been formally recognized as the 2018 winner of ‘The Women in Gaming Diversity Best Place to Work’ Awards. In addition, one of our female team members recently won the 2019 UK Dealer Championships Crown; something that we are all extremely proud of.  Well done, Catalina Huzum!

KEVIN McGOWEN –  CEO, LES AMBASSADEURS

Gender pay reporting is a legal requirement introduced by the UK government in 2017. All organisations with 250 employees or more in England, Scotland or Wales are required to publish their pay gap between men and women. Gender pay reporting aims to create greater transparency around overall gender pay gaps and encourages a more balanced representation of men and women at all levels within organisations.

The Gender Pay Reporting Regulation should not be confused with the Equal Pay legislation. Gender Pay summarises the pay gap of a combined workforce, no matter the role, to highlight the average difference in pay between men and women. Equal Pay looks to identify pay differentials where employees are carrying out the same or similar role, or work which is different but of equal value to the company.

The year on year comparison between April 2017 and April 2018 shows a significant narrowing of our mean gender pay gap from 13.4% to 11.7% (both in favour of males) which is well below the national average of 14.1%. This difference can be explained by the fact that in April 2018 the highest paid employee was a female whereas in 2017 it was a male and this has played a significant role in closing the gender pay gap for our organisation. In monetary terms, the difference between mean male and female pay was around £2.30 in 2018 compared to £2.50 in 2017. The mean pay gap is calculated by adding together all salaries and then dividing by the number of salaries (i.e. people) to produce an average. Our median pay gap (another way of measuring the average) has also narrowed; in 2018 this is 0.1% in favour of females compared to 4.2% in favour of males in 2017 meaning that median male and median female pay is almost identical in 2018, with only a £0.01 difference (in favour of females) compared to roughly £0.60 in favour of males in 2017.

Additionally, we have had 50 new hires since 2017 and of those new employees the majority fall into the Upper Quartile, of which 12 are female. In terms of the Lower Quartile the percentage of females has slightly decreased by 3% since 2017 and increased for males by 3%. These changes in the gender ratio in the Upper and Lower Quartiles have directly contributed to the narrowing of the mean gender pay gap.

However, despite the increased representation of females in the upper levels of the organisation, males continue to be in the majority, which is the overarching contributing factor to the mean gender pay gap, albeit decreased, being in favour of males.

Looking at it through the Median Calculation. Our bonus gender pay gap for 2018 is 0.2% in favour of males based on median values, a difference of £4 between the median male and median female bonus. This is a significant decrease compared to the 2017 bonus gender pay gap of 26.8% in favour of males.

Looking at it through the Mean Calculation. When we base the calculation on mean values the bonus pay gap is 37.3% in 2018 and has temporarily widened since 2017, where it was 25.5%. The mean bonus payments for men have stayed relatively the same when comparing between 2017 and 2018, however for women there has been a decrease, due primarily to a larger frequency of unpaid time off by female employees for various reasons (bonuses are calculated on hours worked).

Despite the progressive increase in the proportion of females at the upper levels of the organisation compared to 2017, the current majority are males therefore causing the mean gap to be in favour of males (due primarily to legacy employment practices by a former parent company, that encouraged men to pursue higher paid management positions in the 1990s and early 2000s). The overall quantity of females receiving a bonus in 2018 has increased whereas the male quantity has not, which should be more pronounced in future statistics.

Important Note: We have a number of flexible work hour female employees who also received a bonus payment. However, a flaw of the reporting requirements means that we can’t pro-rate the bonus amount for these employees to reflect proportionately what they earn. These employees are not represented in the above figures and their omission seriously impacts the results in a misleading way.

We are pleased with where we are and some of the excellent work already taking place, but recognise that we have further to go. We want to champion diversity and inclusion and be a driver for change.

Improving our diversity and inclusion: We actively promote fair treatment, respect and integrity in our work practices through our Handbook, Equal Pay Policy and Code of Ethics and Conduct.

Providing Support: We provide maternity/paternity pay and shared parental leave that exceeds the legal requirement to support employees financially. But we find the biggest challenge for employees is apprehension around returning to work. We provide parents and their managers with guidance around ensuring a smooth transition back into the workplace including advice on using ‘keeping in touch’ days.

Career Development and Succession Planning: In recent years we have made progress in how we recognise and nurture talent of all genders. We are proud of the policies we already have in place to encourage and facilitate ongoing learning, career development and talent management. However, our aim is to take a fresh view of existing practice and put in place an action plan which will ensure Les Ambassadeurs can attract, develop and progress the best talent regardless of gender. In addition, over the next 6-9 months we will supply more awareness training around unconscious bias, particularly for hiring and line managers.

Approach to Pay and Governance: We have a grading structure that was put in place 3 years ago which ensures that all employees have the same opportunities to progress their pay, and that pay is managed in a fair and equitable manner. But we will ensure that we track fairness, by looking at salary decisions by diversity profiles, which will provide the insight we need to manage this in a logical and balanced manner.

*Quartile – A quartile in the case of gender pay reporting means all employees and salaries in the company in a long list from the highest salary to the lowest, and then split equally into quarters. The upper quartile is the top 25% highest earners, upper middle is the next25% etc.

**Mean – the mean and median are both types of average. For the purposes of gender pay reporting, the mean is all the male salaries added up and then divided by the number of men working in the organisation. You then do the same for female employees. An example would be: £22,000 + £28,000 + £35,000 + £40,000 + £59,000÷ 5 = £36,800. The mean value is £36,800.

***Median – the mean and median are both types of average. The median is the middle salary value when you have put them in value order from highest to lowest. For the purposes of gender pay reporting, the median is the middle salary when you lineup all the male salaries in value order. You then do the same for female employees.An example would be: £22,000 + £28,000 + £35,000 + £40,000 + £59,000 ÷ 5 = £36,800. The Median value is £35,000.

Sources: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2017; gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk.