Stride Treglown welcomes the new gender gap reporting regulations. We believe they are a useful starting point to address this national issue. We are already actively working towards increasing diversity and representation in our own business and supporting initiatives to reduce gender inequality the wider architectural and construction industry.
Commenting on the figures, which show a mean difference of 23.4% and a median difference of 28.7%, Chairman David Hunter said:
We are disappointed in these figures which we genuinely feel don’t reflect the culture of our business; we have high levels of employee engagement and relatively low levels of staff turnover, aspects of our business we have monitored for a number of years.
In common with the other architectural firms that have published figures, our gender pay gap reflects the fewer number of women currently in senior positions and this is something we are actively working to address. We have a policy of promoting from within whenever possible and are striving to create a gender neutral working environment which gives all employees equal access to flexible working, career breaks and so on, breaking down barriers to progression.
What makes us different to other practices reporting is that Stride Treglown is both multi-disciplinary and multi-regional, something that inevitably impacts on our figures.
Prior to publishing our figures, we undertook a thorough employee engagement exercise in line with our commitment to openness and transparency. The figures were initially discussed with the employee ownership forum before being presented to each office around the UK.
Expanding on the importance of employee engagement, David Hunter continued:
The response from the staff of Stride Treglown has been very positive, supporting our faith in the culture of the practice. The most common response has been a request for ongoing feedback and we are committed to continuing to consult at all levels of the company.
We welcome the publication of the figures as a benchmark from which we, and other practices, can aim to improve and we are confident that we will see the gap closing.
In keeping with our policy of openness and transparency, I would be delighted if journalists reporting on the gender pay gap would contact us and arrange to visit one or more of our offices and talk to staff about how they feel about the figures, working at Stride Treglown and the efforts we are making to create an equitable and diverse workplace.
View our Gender Pay Gap 2017 report.