Gender pay gap

For 2023/24 we have a gender pay gap of 25%. Over the last 3 years we have reported a 4% decrease overall.

Guided by our Value of trust and respect, we are committed to maintaining a working environment which people hope to join, feel welcomed and valued, and want to stay with us for the long term. We know that talent is not dictated by race, ethnicity, gender, sex, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, social class or background.

Therefore, we are pleased that we have a strong ratio of women to men at the highest levels of our organisation, with 43% of the Executive Board and 40% of the most senior people being female.

Our pay gaps for 2023/2024 reporting year are based on a data snapshot taken in April 2023.

Difference in hourly pay:

30% Median 25% Mean

On average across the company, women are paid 25% less than men, which is no different from last year. Over the last three years the percentage has dropped by 4% difference overall.

Difference in bonus pay:

9% Median 2% Mean

On average across the company, men received 2% more bonus than women. This is a decrease of 7% difference on last year.

The reason for our bonus pay gap decreasing during this period is additional senior roles filled by females during 2022.

Gender split by quartile

2022/2023 initiatives

Throughout this period we have launched various initiatives that support the attraction and continued employment of women, including:

• Introducing a Menopause Support Programme, including people manager training, business wide awareness, mental health awareness and an internal support group dedicated to enriching the lives of those employees affected by the menopause
• Further increasing our enhanced maternity and adoption pay and lowering the length of service requirement to receive it
• Lowering the length of service requirement for enhanced Paternity leave, to improve the disparity when parents have a child
• Introducing paid compassionate leave for all
• Improving our maternity process to ensure pregnant mothers are fully supported throughout their maternity and returning to work
• Improving our inclusivity and diversity awareness including:
  • Becoming a disability confident employer
  • Raising awareness surrounding autism, international women’s day, menopause, mental health & celebrating Pride
• Partnering with Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital as our Charity of the year in 2023

What we’re doing to further reduce the Gender Pay Gap

We are dedicated to creating an environment in which all our employees can thrive and their experience with AFH is positive and welcoming from the point they apply and throughout their time with us.

We are continuing to focus on reducing the Gender Pay Gap through the broad range of initiatives listed below:

• Taking a hybrid approach and promoting flexible working opportunities to support the varying needs of our employees
• Introducing a levelling framework, which we can build on to create clear career progression paths, fair benefits and comparison of remuneration for similar roles
• Introducing a behaviour framework to sit with our existing Values to ensure this is a business where people care for each other, feel accepted and want to stay for the long term
• Ensuring our resourcing and talent management processes are designed to reduce the risk of bias
• Continuing to develop our leadership programmes to support all our managers in creating an environment where we respect and trust each other
• Continuing to provide development opportunities and supporting all employees to drive their careers forward and reach their potential
• Developing talent conversations to better understand our talented people, across the business