Pay Gap Report 2024

Gender pay gap and quartile summary

Overall the average pay for women is slightly higher (0.85%) than for men at Great Places. The average salary (when all salaries are added together and divided by the number of women in the organisation) for a female at Great Places was £20.40 per hour compared with an average for men of £20.23 per hour. Women earn on average 17p per hour more than men.

The median calculation (giving the middle value i.e.: if all salaries were placed in a list from the highest to the lowest) was -10%. The median salary for a female was £18.52 per hour and £16.70 per hour for a male. This is driven by the greater number of males in the lower quartile.

If we look in detail at each quartile, the data is as follows:

Overall therefore the data tells us that the payroll is distributed evenly between males and females. There is less than £2 per hour difference between the mean and the median payments across each quartile.

Bonus payments

In terms of bonus payments, 106 payments were made in total. These were made up of:

• Contractual payments to Executive Directors;
• ‘Reward’ payments for colleagues as part of the £5 for a five-star review on Trustpilot scheme and the peer-to-peer YouCount rewards scheme;
• Ten-year work anniversary payments;
• Retirements.

Men earned more bonuses than females, resulting in a mean figure gap of 38% and a median gap of 17%. The majority of bonus payments were the £5 awards given for the five-star reviews, which primarily operates in the Repairs Teams, where there are more males than females in trade roles.

Overall, the average pay for white colleagues is higher (17%) than for ethnically diverse colleagues at Great Places. The average salary for a white colleague at Great Places was £21.06 per hour compared with £17.47 per hour for an ethnically diverse colleague. On average, therefore, white colleagues earn £3.59 per hour more than their ethnically diverse colleagues.

The median salary for a white colleague was £18.52 per hour compared to £15.40 per hour for an ethically diverse colleague; a difference of £3.12 per hour.

The difference is driven by low numbers of ethnically diverse colleagues at senior levels within the organisation, which reflects the sector profile and the reason we are active within the BOOST programme which is aimed at changing the culture so that ethnically diverse talent can emerge and thrive.

We note that in the lower quartile, ethnically diverse colleagues make up 22.5% of the population and earn more than their white colleagues. We will look to identify talent in this quartile and support its development.

Over the last 12 months we recruited 49 ethnically diverse colleagues, which was 20% of our new intake. During this time 25 ethnically diverse colleagues left us, which was 14% of the total leavers.

If we look in detail at each quartile, the data is as follows:

Social housing tenants are disproportionately likely to be from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. 44% of Black African households and 40% of Black Caribbean households are social renters, compared to 16% of White British households.

It is important to have colleagues that reflect local communities, understand some of the issues they face and are empathetic to their needs. This often is the case at frontline levels, but the further up the organisation you go, the less diverse it can become . Leadership in housing is generally white; the Cabe Report in 2018 said that of 330 senior executive positions in housing, only 15 were filled by ethnically diverse leaders, and three-quarters of housing providers had exclusively white leaderships teams. This means that decisions that affect tenants are taken by people from a white background and culture.

Black and minority ethnic tenants are more often located in inner-city properties where stock may be poorer quality and harder to repair and retrofit, and where there are fewer green areas. This can lead to overcrowding which can, in turn, have negative health impacts for tenants . Diversifying leadership and management may help to reduce this inequality.

Great Places is part of BOOST, a Greater Manchester Housing Provider initiative to understand and remove the barriers so that ethnically diverse talent can emerge and thrive in the sector. As part of this programme we have:

• Reviewed and updated our Recruitment and Selection Policy;
• Reviewed our role profiles to make them more inclusive;
• Introduced a new recruitment platform which will allow us to target jobs more specifically around geographical areas/postcodes and update our imagery more easily;
• Anonymised our application process;
• Introduced a guaranteed interview scheme for ethnically diverse applicants who meet our essential job related criteria;
• Introduced Inclusive Services Training;
• Introduced a new exit interview platform which will allow us to assess reasons for leaving.

Over the next 12 months, as part of our Raise the Roof Leadership Development Programme we will be introducing a suite of new workshops including the following:

For aspiring ethnically diverse colleagues:

• Networking for success; how to link up with the people that matter inside and outside your organisation;
• Understanding self: understand your personal barriers to progression and how to overcome them;
• Diversity brings fresh perspectives: how to confidently share the value you bring with effective challenge.

For existing leaders, the following sessions have been identified:

• Diverse Leadership: building cultural curiosity covering history, customs and lived experience of different races in the UK;
• Leading the sector: understanding of the issue of white leadership in housing and why it matters, within this using case studies of Grenfell and Awaab Ishak;
• Allyship: how to be a good ally;
• Networks: how to have diverse networks to challenge and improve decision making;
• Recruitment: how to be truly inclusive in your recruitment decisions
• The 2025 SHe programme will be aimed at 12 aspiring ethnically diverse colleagues, male or female. They will be given the opportunity to work towards an ILM Level 2 Award in Leadership and Team Skills with the support of an in-house mentor, as well as taking part in the learning workshops developed by BOOST. The programme will also invite diverse role models to speak and will link into the She Leads of Legacy Conference in October.

Overall the average pay for non-disabled colleagues is higher (2%) than for disabled colleagues at Great Places. The average salary for a non-disabled colleague at Great Places was £21.01 per hour compared to £18.20 per hour for an disabled colleague; a difference of £2.81 per hour.

The median salary for a non-disabled colleague was £18.52 per hour and £16.06 per hour for a disabled colleague; a difference of £2.46 per hour.

Again, we note that in the lower quartile, disabled colleagues earn more than their white colleagues.

If we look in detail at each quartile, the data is as follows:

A recent Inside Housing survey on diversity found that 18% of social housing tenants in England are disabled but only 4.9% of Board members and 5% of executives identified as disabled. Again, this can impact on levels of understanding and empathy in decision-making.

Over the last 12 months we have updated our knowledge and skills on neurodiversity and in doing so have updated many of our recruitment practices. We have, for example, introduced the practice of giving all candidates the questions prior to the interview and have allowed the use of AI to compose covering letters and CVs, provided the content remains accurate and the candidate informs us that AI has been used.

We have also entered a partnership with Pure Innovations, a Stockport-based charity committed to working with disabled people to enable them to live healthy, independent and valued lives. Specifically, they will be providing management training on working with people with disabilities as well as supporting us to give the best colleague experience for existing colleagues with disabilities, long-term conditions or who develop these during employment. We are also working with them to develop employment pathways into working at Great Places.