Gender Pay Report as at 5 April 2022

Under new legislation, Commercial Services (Kent Limited) are obliged to publish gender pay information in a manner that is accessible to the public.

Introduction

The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average (mean and median) earnings of men and women. This is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. Nationally, the gender pay gap varies by occupation, age group and even working patterns.

Legislation is effective whereby an employer must comply with the regulations for any year where they have a headcount of 250 or more employees on the snapshot date. The snapshot date for private and voluntary sector organisations is the 5 April. This year of reporting is based on data as at 5 April 2023. For the purposes of gender pay reporting, the definition of who counts as an employee is defined in the Equality Act 2010:

• Employees (those with a contract of employment)
• Workers and agency workers (those with a contract to do work or provide services)
• Some self-employed people (where they have to personally perform the work)

Agency workers will form part of the headcount of the agency that provides them, and not the employer they are on assignment to. It is a requirement to calculate and publish separate reports based on each separate legal entity. The headcount for Commercial Services Kent Limited as at the snapshot date is 672 and the total headcount including agency workers on the weekly payroll for Kent Limited is 780. The headcount for Commercial Services Trading Limited is 217 and therefore the only statutory report submitted is for Commercial Services Kent Limited.

It is noteworthy to highlight that there is limited control and influence over the pay rates of the 108 agency workers that are on the weekly payroll compared to the extent of control and influence Commercial Services has on its own employees. With this in mind, the proceeding narrative does differentiate between the Commercial Services Kent Limited total headcount (including agency workers) gender pay gap and the pay gap within the staff population excluding agency workers).

The gender pay reporting focuses on the following information:

• The mean gender pay gap (shows the difference between the mean hourly rate of pay that male and female full-pay relevant employees receive)
• The median gender pay gap (shows the difference between the median hourly rate of pay that male and female full-pay relevant employees receive)
• The mean bonus gender pay gap (shows the difference between the mean bonus pay that male and
  female relevant employees receive)
• The median bonus gender pay gap (shows the difference between the median bonus pay that male and female relevant employees receive)
• The proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment (shows the proportion of make relevant employees who were paid any amount of bonus pay, and the proportion of female relevant employees who were paid any amount of bonus pay)
• The proportion of males and females in each quartile pay band (shows the proportions of male and female full-pay relevant employees in four quartile pay bands)
• A written statement

Results

Written statement

1. The mean gender pay gap for the whole of Commercial Services Kent Limited is -3.9% (rounded to one decimal place). Male mean hourly rate is £20.28; whereas female mean hourly rate is £20.80. This highlights that woman have a mean hourly rate 3.9% more than men.
   
2. The mean gender pay gap for permanent employees of Commercial Services Kent Limited is 7.7% (rounded to one decimal place). Male mean hourly rate is £19.47; whereas female mean hourly rate is £17.97. This highlights that women have a mean hourly rate 7.7% less than men.
   
3. The median gender pay gap for the whole of Commercial Services Kent Limited is -0.27% (rounded to one decimal place). Male median hourly rate is £13.61; whereas female median hourly rate is £13.64. This highlights that women have a median hourly rate 0.27% more than men.
   
4. The median gender pay gap for permanent employees of Commercial Services Kent Limited is -6.5% (rounded to one decimal place). Male median hourly rate is £13.29; whereas female median hourly rate is £14.16. This highlights that women have a median hourly rate 6.5% higher than men.
   
5. The mean bonus gender pay gap is –10.5%. The mean bonus pay of men in Kent Limited is £3,155.36 and the mean bonus pay for women in Kent Limited is £3,486.71. Women therefore have received a higher mean bonus payment than men by 10.5%.
   
6. The median bonus gender pay gap is 38.3%. The median bonus pay of men in Kent Limited is £1,457.50 and the median bonus pay for women in Kent Limited is £900.00. Women therefore have received a lower median bonus payment than men by 38.3%.
   
7. The proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment indicates how much more likely one gender of employee is more likely to receive a bonus payment. Of 284 male relevant employees, 50 received a bonus, and of 388 female relevant employees, 43 received a bonus. This means 17.6% of men received a bonus and 11.1% of women received a bonus.
   
8. As the agency workers do not receive bonuses, the proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment across the whole of Commercial Services Kent Limited indicates that 15.3% men have received a bonus and 9.5% of women have received a bonus.
   
9. There are 780 full-pay relevant employees in Kent Limited including staff on both the permanent and agency payrolls. These have been arranged by lowest hourly rate of pay to the highest hourly rate of pay; and then the full list has been divided into four quartiles and ensured employees on the same hourly pay rate have been distributed evenly by gender where they cross the quartile boundaries:
   
   • Of the 195 employees in the lower quartile, 89 are male and 106 are female. This means 46.6% are male and 54.4% are female.
   • Of the 195 employees in the lower middle quartile, 79 are male and 116 are female. This means 40.5% are male and 59.5% are female.
   • Of the 195 employees in the upper middle quartile, 68 are male and 127 are female. This means 34.9% are male and 65.1% are female.
   • Of the 195 employees in the upper quartile 90 are men and 105 are female. This means 46.2% are male and 53.8% are female.
     
10. There are 449 full-pay relevant permanent employees in Kent Limited. These have been arranged by lowest hourly rate of pay to the highest hourly rate of pay; and then the full list has been divided into four quartiles and ensured employees on the same hourly pay rate have been distributed evenly by gender where they cross the quartile boundaries:
    
    • Of the 168 employees in the lower quartile, 88 are male and 80 are female. This means 52.4% are male and 47.6% are female.
    • Of the 168 employees in the lower middle quartile, 66 are male and 102 are female. This means 39.3% are male and 60.7% are female.
    • Of the 168 employees in the upper middle quartile, 56 are male and 112 are female. This means 33.3% are male and 66.7% are female.
    • Of the 168 employees in the upper quartile 74 are men and 94 are female. This means 44.0% are male and 56.0% are female.

This gender pay report highlights that whilst fewer women are employed by Commercial Services Kent Limited on the non-agency payroll, they are not disadvantaged in terms of their hourly pay. A reasonable proportion of the staff on national minimum wage are both male and female. Attendance at the Executive is made up of an equal number of males and females.

The differential of pay between men and women across the agency payroll indicates that where mean average hourly rates are concerned female staff are paid 15% less than male staff. This remains the case for the median average hourly rate, with the median at 29%. Considering the gender demographic across the quartiles for the whole of Commercial Services Kent Limited, the lower, lower middle and upper middle quartiles have more women.

Our focus will continue to look at how to diversify the gender demographic across all quartiles to improve the representation further still of male and female staff, especially in Lower, Lower Middle and Upper quartiles. This is demonstrated in our HR strategies and policies.

Improving our gender pay balance

Commercial Services Kent Limited is part of the Commercial Services Group, which is made up of different legal entities. The gender pay gap figures for these businesses can be found below. Commercial Services continues to ensure there are suitable practices for increasing the sophistication of recruitment and selection. This includes an increasingly robust shortlisting processes and the review of talent acquisition practices including talent management and succession planning. Wherever possible we ensure selection panels are gender balanced.

We will ensure that all People Managers as part of their continuous development complete the core management training programme which include modules covering Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. This will also ensure that those making recruitment and selection decision have been made aware of bias.

Commercial Services Kent Limited is an employer where gender diversity and inclusion is positive. This information is shared with the Executive and Remuneration Committee to ensure continued parity is maintained. Whilst there is no formal recognition of Trade Unions, the information will also be communicated to UNISON and Unite; and directly to all staff.

Commercial Services have recruited a Group Chief People, Culture and Communications Officer who will continue to drive forward our focus on achieving equity and inclusive practices. One of the key areas in this role will be to ensure that, we are a Company, committed to providing equal opportunities for advancement and fair compensation regardless of gender. To this end we will continue to develop targeted policies and initiatives.

One such initiative is the creation of a Learning Academy giving access across the Group to every employee, a range of courses for career development. We believe that this focus on growth and training of our existing teams will continue to enhance opportunities for career development with a good balance of both male and female employees having the opportunity to both acquire new skills and improve existing skills.

In 2024 we are continuing our Executive Development and Future Leaders programs plus adding a new cohort to our recently introduced development program in Operational Excellence, all of these programs have a good balance of male and female attendees and are designed to support and encourage career development. Notably both last year and this year the cohort has had a higher percentage of female to male colleagues. These developmental programmes are directed at middle level managers who may not yet have people management responsibilities.

Our commitment to meaningful change we believe is reflected in this report and the figures within.

Cantium Business Solutions

The Education People