Collinson Gender Pay Gap 2020
Introduction
Collinson is a company committed to compliance with the word and spirit of the relevant employment
legislation. The requirement of gender pay gap reporting comes at a time when we have significantly
increased our focus on the topic of diversity and inclusion. We see the reporting as a positive
opportunity to ensure we are making a difference where it is most required.
Our obligations to report under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017,
have enhanced our internal analysis of average pay in the business and is helping us to shape plans
for further enhancements.
Equal pay looks at the pay differences between men and woman who carry out the same jobs, similarjobs or work of equal value. We strive to achieve equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender.
The gender pay gap report shows the differences in the average pay between men and women,
regardless of the role they are undertaking, for all full and part-time UK-based employees, excluding
contractors. This snapshot in time was taken on the 5 April 2020. On this day, Collinson employed55.1% male employees and 44.9% female.
We can confirm from the 2020 figures that women’s pay based on the mean is 21% lower than men’s
pay for all UK-based employees of Collinson. This is a 7.01% improvement on the previous year.
The below graph illustrates the evolution of Collinson mean and median gender pay gap, as you cansee both mean and median gender pay gap % have been reducing steadily since 2018. There’s been a
12.36% median improvement from 34.92% to the current 22.56%. Similarly, the mean reflects animprovement of 6.08% from 28.34% to 22.26%
As with many employers, the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a number of costsaving initiatives including pay cuts and use of the government furlough scheme. This may have had
an impact on the 2020 report however a true reflection of the gender pay gap will evolve over comingyears.

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 1

% Pay Gap
0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

Mean 2020
Median 2020
Mean 2019
Median 2019
Mean 2018
Median 2018

Gender Pay Gap Evolution£35.00£30.00£25.00£20.00£15.00£10.00£5.00£0.00
Median 2018

Mean 2018

Median 2019
Males

Mean 2019

Median 2020

Mean 2020

Females

The gender diversity mix at Collinson
Why do we have a gender pay gap at Collinson?
There are two main drivers behind Collinson’s gender pay gap – the number of women occupying
senior roles and a reliance on professions that are typically male dominated.

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 2

Lower Level

49%

51%

FemaleMaleMid Level

41%

FemaleMale

59%

Senior Leadership

18%
FemaleMale82%•••57.69% of our UK workforce operate within the lower two levels (competency level 1 & 2)
within our business structure with 49.04% of these people being female.
38.25% of our workforce operate at the mid-levels (competency level 3 & 4) within ourbusiness structure with 41.48% of these being female.
4.06% of our workforce occupy senior leadership roles (competency level 5 and the Board)
within our business structure, with 18.18% of these being female.

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 3

Gender Diversity Mix at Collinson
020406080100120140160

180200

1FemaleMale2Female
Male3FemaleMale4Female
Male5Female
MaleBoardFemale
MaleIn addition, market conditions dictate that technology roles tend to demand higher salaries whencompared to many other professions within Collinson. Those occupying technology roles represent
23% of our workforce, and of these 72.2% are male. Our main offices in the UK are based in London
and West Sussex and according to Technation only 19% of tech workers are women in London
compared to the 49% of working population as women in the same area. It is clear to us that Collinson
has an opportunity to attract more female talent in this competitive area.
We also observe a greater number of employees in finance roles which represent 14.9% of ourworkforce, and of these 46.3% are male.
Detailed analysis revealed:
••

•

•

Where people are occupying roles that are of a similar nature, there are some instances where
the rate of pay has not been equal and is in need of addressing.
We discovered inconsistencies with some competency levels that had been appliedincorrectly. Not all of these impacted our Gender Pay Gap, but this represented anopportunity to correct. We are currently in the process of revising the competency levels
across the organisation and will be making a before and after analysis post change to ensure
the new competency levels are the best fit possible.
There is an opportunity to understand and overcome challenges that may be preventing
women from securing more senior roles. This has been partially addressed in the last coupleof years with more female representation on the highest quartiles compared to previousyears.
We recognised that there was a potential for bias during the recruitment process and haveworked hard to correct this situation by giving company-wide training on recruitment
processes, gender bias, diversity and inclusion.

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 4

The work that has been driven since the 2019 report
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are extremely important to Collinson and represent a key enabler forour business success. We have used our analysis to drive specific actions centred around making a
positive difference. We have approached this in a number of ways, including:••••••••••••The recruitment a Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing
The extensive involvement of our Chair from the global Women in Collinson network theanalysis and review of our Gender Pay Gap data to ensure full transparency.
The introduction of gender-neutral advertising within our Talent Acquisition function.
The introduction of a framework for recruiting, to include a better gender diverse mix throughthe interviewing process to remove the potential for bias. We rolled out a pilot for bias training
and interview skills for hiring managers and will make this compulsory for all hiring managers
later this year.
A pilot of an approach to help increase our ability to attract more senior level female talent,
based on external research which suggests that job adverts written by women are more likely
to appeal to women by the nature in which they are crafted.
The strengthening of our employer brand to ensure it has broader appeal to a diverse rangeof talent. We increased focus on supporting existing networks such as Women in Collinson,
Link LGBTQ+ and transforming our business through the delivery of a stronger employee value
proposition.
The more influential tole that People & Culture Business Partners are playing before roles goout to hire to ensure we are hiring within range of existing talent doing similar roles acrossthe company. Where market rate increases on specific low supply, high demand roles are
inflating, we are protecting our risk of losing existing talent by applying potential increases inline with this in some areas.
Our continued work to define our talent pool of high performing, high potential people andestablishing succession plans that enable a diverse range of talent to grow into more seniorroles.
The assessment of like-for-like roles during the salary review and bonus pay-out period andappropriate remedial action to address in-balance.
The Review of job families and job titles to make adjustments where appropriate.
The launch of a mentoring programme mid-2019 to support employees’/colleagues’
expedited growth across a diverse range of which talent into more senior roles.
The introduction of a Millennial Committee that maintains a greater mix of female to malerepresentation in order to drive insights and decision making related to our people & culture,along with ensuring a strong diversity mix beyond gender. This encompasses key discussions
relating to the growth of our talent mix at various levels.

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 5

Mean gender pay gap by pay quartiles
MEAN GENDER LOWERPAY GAPQUARTILE

LOWER MIDDLE UPPER MIDDLE UPPERQUARTILE
QUARTILE
QUARTILE

MIN

£9.35

£16.43£25.49£32.43MAX£16.25£25.33£32.22£163.53% MALES

38.59

55.43

64.13

69.95

% FEMALES

61.41

44.57

35.87

30.05

This is the percentage of male and female employees in four quartile pay gaps bands (dividing ourworkforce into four equal parts).
Illustration of the differences
The below graph illustrate Collinson quartiles gender pay gap, as you can see there is still significantly
more male employees in the upper quartile compared to female, significantly more than the gap
between female and male on the lower quartile.

Employees in each Quartile
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
Lower Quartile 2020

Lower Middle Quartile2020% MalesUpper Middle Quartile
2020

Upper Quartile 2020

% Females

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 6Mean and median gender pay gap

Mean Hourly Pay
GenderMales
FemalesRate£29.68£23.47Gap£6.22

Median Hourly Pay
GenderRate
Males£28.21Females£21.85Gap£6.36

Mean Pay Gap
100%90%

£6.22

80%
70%
60%
50%

£29.6840%£23.4730%
20%10%0%
Males

Females
Rate

Gap

Median Pay Gap
100%90%

£6.36

80%

70%60%
50%£28.2140%£21.85

30%
20%
10%0%
Males

Females
Rate

Gap

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 7

The mean gender pay gap is the difference in average pay that male and female employees receive.
The median gender pay gap shows the difference in the midpoints of the ranges of pay received bymen and women.
Evolution
The below graph illustrates the evolution of Collinson mean and median gender pay gap with bothmean and median gender pay gap % reducing steadily since 2018. And the differences between female
and male hourly pay have been reducing over the last three years.

Hourly Pay Evolution£35.00£30.00£25.00£20.00£15.00£10.00£5.00£0.00
Females 2018

Males 2018

Females 2019
MeanMales 2019

Females 2020

Males 2020

MedianAt first glance the results appear to be positive as the hourly pay gaps have narrowed since theprevious submission. However, we believe the Covid pandemic may have had an impact on thenumbers when compared to 2019/20… for the following reasons:••

Furlough:
When determining the pay gap certain circumstances result in the exclusion of somecolleagues from what is known as ‘relevant pay’… generally these are individuals on unpaid orreduced paid leave (e.g. statutory leave such as maternity and paternity). The introduction ofFurlough has added to the category of non-relevant pay, resulting in 154 (16%) employees
being excluded from the analysis. Of these Furloughed colleagues, 56% were female.
Pay Cut:
The implementation of the 25% pay cut for selected staff began during the analysis period(April 2020) and, following consultation, it was confirmed that this reduced pay was to beclassified as ‘relevant pay’ and therefore required inclusion in our analysis. This affected 204(28%) of colleagues analysed, of which 75% were male. Understandably this reduced incomewill affect the results of the report when compared to previous years.

A clearer understanding of our ‘true’ pay gap will gained once the 2021 data is available later thisyear, as that will give a better like-for-like comparison with 2019. We are keen to get this comparison

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 8

as soon as possible to help us explore the next best action to take in order to tackle gender pay gap
effectively.

Bonus pay
This is the percentage of men and women who received bonus pay in the 12 months leading up thesnapshot date of 5 April 2020, this is 49% of men 51% of women.

Bonus Recipients by Gender

49%
51%

Males

Females

Unlike the pay gap analysis, the bonus data is unaffected by the pandemic, at least in terms of included
or excluded employees. However, the glaring anomaly is the fact that Collinson processed a one-off‘profit share’ bonus in July 2019 so the comparable numbers are not like-for-like when looking at theprevious year/s. Of the relevant employees, there were almost 700 bonus recipients in 2019/20 (336female v 361 male) which is more than double that of the 324 in 2018/19 (increase of 116%), hencethe reason for the dip in mean and median values. We expect to encounter another anomaly whenthe 2021 data is gathered, as the annual bonus last year was reduced.

Declaration
We have published the results on our own website and GOV.UK
Bertie Tonks, Chief People Officer

Collinson Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 9