Our approach to gender equality
Here at Acorn by Synergie, we are committed to promoting diversity, inclusivity and equality in all areas and have a range of measures in place to support and implement this.
Our principles are:
Our Gender Pay Gap – snapshot date 5 April 2022
What do the numbers say?
Acorn places some 3,500 people into circa 1,200 different client companies each week. Under gender pay gap reporting requirements, we legally obliged to include our temporary workforce in the gender pay gap calculations.
As a recruitment organisation, the pay rates of the workers we place are dictated to us by the clients we engage with. The types of workers we place vary on a huge scale – from industrial and production workers through to senior executives and highly-skilled specialist consultants.
The gender pay gap reporting requirements, and as such, our analysis, means that we need to take into account all roles at all levels – meaning not just within the Acorn Group itself, but also to include those of our clients too.
Because of this, our data is not limited to comparing pay received by men and women performing the same roles.
As a national organisation supplying an expansive variety of workers across the UK, our pay rates are also influenced by a range of external factors including geographical variations and demand against specific skills shortages in specific areas, and as such are subsequently unrelated to gender.
Gender neutral by design
Because of these external variations, the gender pay gap report statistics are not truly indicative of what the Acorn pays our ‘internal’ staff.
Our approach to pay is gender neutral by design, meaning that men and women who do equivalent jobs are paid equally. As a company, we are able to regularly review and analyse our internal employee pay to make sure that men and women are treated equally when performing the same role.
It should be noted that the gender pay gap shows the difference in average pay between women and men, regardless of their role, and is therefore different to ‘equal pay’. As such, we are therefore confident that we do not have equal pay issues.
Committed to equality
Our initial analysis shows that gender pay and bonus gaps are a reflection of our wider organisational structure.
We have strong female representation throughout our internal workforce (60% female v 40% male). Conversely, proportionally more men than women are directly assigned to our clients (70% male v 30% female).
We’re committed to developing a deeper understanding and analysis of the reasons behind the gender pay gap, and where appropriate, defining and implementing appropriate actions such as the ones above to help us continue to promote equality and diversity as an employer.
I confirm that the information and figures in our disclosure are accurate and have been calculated in accordance with gender pay gap reporting requirements as outlined in the legislation and accompanying guidance.
Bernard Ward, Group Managing Director