Inclusive Recruitment
Working to increase representation of under-represented groups at all levels.
In 2021, we developed a Resourcing ED&I Action Plan, this underpins our ED&I Strategy and focuses on our equality objective: Increasing representation of under-represented groups at all levels.
Over the last year, we have focussed our actions in the areas of ethnic origin, gender and disability and continuously monitor our progress to ensure diverse, under-represented groups are attracted to apply for our jobs and for greater diversity of hires.
We are using a new job wording de-coder which is backed by research, ensuring our advert language is gender-neutral, helping to attract more female applicants.
In an effort to remove barriers for job applicants, we are undertaking a trial to provide interview questions in advance on some recruitment campaigns. This is helping to provide clarity on what candidates are being assessed on, thus helping them perform their best at interview.
We have also been working collaboratively with the Centre for Better Ageing, attending workshops with other companies pan-industry, to help improve recruitment experiences for older workers with the aim of minimising age bias in the recruitment process. This will inform improvement recommendations to the companies involved in the pilot, which we will be able to implement to help diversify the age profile of our hires and to attract retirement returners.
Applicant Data
In 2021, diversity data for all recruitment processes started to be captured, this allowed us to set a baseline and also create plans to improve under-representation specifically in relation to gender, disability and ethnic origin. The table below details the recruitment data for each of the under-represented areas from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
| Underrepresented area | Applicants | Invited to interview | Hired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | 36.06% | 41.13% | 42.12% |
| Disability | 13.98% | 15.5% | 14.29% |
| Ethnic Origin | 27.03%^ | 14.41% | 7.94% |
[^We are currently unable to exclude applicants who would not meet the ability to work and reside in the UK from this data, nor meet our security vetting criteria. This unfortunately skews how well we are doing].
Applicant figures will alter within month for hires and interviews as applicants accept/reject offers and interviews. Applicants hired may have been “reserves” and applied within 1 March 2022 - 31 March 2023 period.
Gender Pay Gap Reporting
The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. This is different to equal pay, which deals with the pay difference between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs of work value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.
Our gender pay gap for the period ending 31 March 2022 was 5.6%, a decrease of 0.9% from 6.5% in 2021. The table details our gender pay gaps over the last four years.
| Gender Pay and Bonus Gap | 31 March 2019 | 31 March 2020 | 31 March 2021 | 31 March 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean Gender Pay Gap | 8.1% | 7.3% | 6.5% | 5.6% |
| Median Gender Pay Gap | 4.4% | 5.7% | 4.0% | 4.1% |
| Mean Bonus Pay Gap | 6.0% | 6.9% | 4.8% | 2.5% |
| Median Bonus Pay Gap | 1.1% | 1.3% | 1.1% | -0.5% |
[Note: Approach changed in 2020 to align to Civil Service method using ACSES Data]
Comparsion with the Civil Service
The table below compares our gender pay gap with the Civil Service (as a whole) gender pay gap.
| Gender Pay Gap | Met Office 31 March 2022 | Civil Service 31 March 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Mean Gender Pay Gap | 4.1% | 8.5% |
| Median Gender Pay Gap | 5.6% | 11.3% |
ONS report that among full-time employees the gender pay gap for the UK in April 2022 was 8.3%.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report 2022 provides more detailed analysis of our pay gap and the factors affecting the reduction in our pay gap.
Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting
We plan to start voluntarily reporting on our ethnicity pay gap. Like gender pay gap, ethnicity pay gap reporting should not be confused with equal pay, it shows the difference in the average hourly rate of pay between Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic and White employees. This will be calculated using the same methodology as for gender pay gap reporting.
As part of being able to undertake this report, we need to amend some of our ethnicity reporting fields in our HR information system.
