8 | GENDER PAY GAP 2020
OUR COMMITMENT TO REDUCE THE GAP
We remain committed to reducing the gap further . We are proud that we are a founding member of the Athena SWAN Charter and of our Bronze Athena SWAN Institutional award .
Our institutional Athena SWAN action plan , published in November 2017 , sets out our priorities for improving female representation and progression . Progress against key actions from this plan to reduce our gender pay gap is noted below .
• Encourage women to put themselves forward , successfully , for academic promotion , through :
• Early identification and mentoring of promotion candidates ;
Promotions mentoring for women has been in place from 2017 / 18 academic year . A system for early identification and mentoring of female promotion candidates has been implemented . In this period promotion and progression of academic staff favoured females and reduced the academic gender pay gap by 1 % in this period .
• Greater clarity on the academic standards required ;
Academic job families are now underpinned by published Academic Role Expectations , which provide a set of indicators that constitute good performance at each level . New promotions guidance and criteria were formally approved and introduced in June 2020 .
• Provision of early-career and promotion workshops ;
Our promotions workshops continue to receive positive feedback and were provided remotely in 2020 . We ran a separate session dedicated to developing a career in the newly created education and scholarship family .
• Provision of case studies of women promoted through different academic pathways
These will be developed in consultation with EDI leads now that the new education and scholarship job family has been established .
• Ensure our recruitment process actively encourages women to apply for posts where they are under-represented and that obstacles to recruitment that unfairly disadvantage women are minimised . Men will , likewise , be encouraged to apply for roles where they are under-represented such as administrative and cleaning roles .
Revisions to recruitment documentation , including guidance on positive action statements , equality briefings and revised training for members of recruitment panels have been implemented .