We work hard across the organisation to create a diverse and inclusive place to work. We encourage all of our people to be themselves at work. We also firmly believe that it is our differences that make us stronger, whether that’s a broad range of individual strengths, different backgrounds or ways of thinking. It’s that huge variety of input which enable us to challenge each other to grow and develop every aspect of our business but most importantly to ensure we have a motivated and engaged team who can achieve their full potential and delight our customers every single day.
As we’ve worked together to prepare the data for this year’s gender pay gap, our 6th submission, we’ve reflected long and hard on the actions we’ve taken to date and our future plans, I feel confident that we’re making good progress. During the last 12 months we have improved the gender balance within our leadership team and women now represent in excess of a third of our senior leaders. We’ve also increased the proportion of women on the UK ExCo to 42%. The pipeline of female candidates across the business is strong and indeed more than 53% of our total workforce are women.
The future does look bright but we remain hugely committed to ensuring the actions we take are meaningful, add value and make a lasting difference.
I’m proud of our whole team, all of whom embrace the topics of diversity and inclusion without question, and am very much looking forward to continuing to address the gender imbalance whilst building a positive culture.
– Rachel Appleton, CEO BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK
Results
| Our Mean Hourly Pay Gap | ||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
| 30.7% | 31.9% | 29.9% | ||
| Our Median Hourly Pay Gap | ||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| 25.8% | 27.6% | 31.8% |
| Our Mean Bonus Gap | ||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| 53.7% | 48% | 43.5% |
| Our Median Bonus Gap | ||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| 33.3% | 44.9% | 26.6% |
WHat do we know about our gap?
A gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between the average earnings of men and women (irrespective of roles or seniority). This differs to ‘Equal Pay’, which is our obligation as an employer to give men and women equal pay for equal work.
Our gender pay gap is not a result of equal pay issues, we have a gender-neutral approach to pay across all levels of the organisation, we regularly benchmark, audit and monitor this to ensure a fair approach.
BNP Paribas Leasing solutions UK Gender pay gap
We understand why we have a gender pay gap. The key drivers both across the financial services industry, and, here at BNP Leasing Solutions is due to low female representation in sales and senior leadership roles, which, relative to other positions, attract higher rates of pay. As we work to address gender balance we are seeing more women enter trainee roles to develop the pipeline for the future, which in the short to medium term can see the gap increase. This is evident in the 2022 figures.
Gender bonus gap
We have seen a significant improvement in our median gender bonus gap, partly due to some hierarchical changes to a handful of male roles but also impacted by an increase in women at board level. We also see a reduction overall in the number of employees who received a bonus during 2022, this was primarily due to a higher than normal % of new joiners who were not eligible for a bonus payment during the period.
All of our people receive an annual bonus based on two key criteria – eligibility on joining and provided they are not working their notice period at the time of bonus payment. Any variation in 100% payment for either men or women is therefore related to new joiners or leavers. Overall, we have a significantly higher mean bonus gap than hourly pay gap. This is because our bonus gap is a function of greater variable pay at more senior levels in stereotypically male roles (e.g. Sales) which attract higher rates of bonus. A key element of our action plan relates to developing women into these roles.
In addition to this circa 12% of our workforce work part-time. 100% of our part time workers are women. The calculations do not take account of pro-rated bonus payments for these part-time workers. Although the part-time working pattern has a negative impact on bonus gap figures, we remain determined to support flexible working and family friendly practices.
| Proportion of Each Gender Receiving A Bonus | |||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||
| M | F | M | F | M | F |
| 93.6% | 97.4% | 95.6% | 96.6% | 93.2% | 92.8% |
| PAY GAP QUARTILES | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||
| M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| LOWER QUARTILE | 32% | 68% | 31% | 69% | 36% | 64% |
| LOWER MIDDLE QUARTILE | 33% | 67% | 33% | 67% | 29% | 71% |
| UPPER MIDDLE QUARTILE | 48% | 52% | 50% | 50% | 44% | 56% |
| UPPER QUARTILE | 72% | 28% | 72% | 28% | 69% | 31% |
Population by quartile
Pay quartiles are calculated by ranking the hourly pay of all staff, then splitting the range into four equal quartiles and calculating the proportion of men and women in each quartile.
The higher proportion of men in the upper quartiles reflects the fact that there are more men than women in senior and sales positions attracting higher rates of pay.
We can see the upper quartile is moving in the right direction but we are aiming for a 50/50 position of male and females within this population so we still have a way to go.
WHAT WE ARE DOING TO ADDRESS THE GENDER PAY GAP
Representation of women in leadership and senior roles has been a challenge for our industry and although it will take time, the collective and sustained efforts from our Senior Leadership Team to address this gives me confidence the barriers to women’s progression can be overcome.”
– Andrea Rix (UK Head of HR)
At Leasing Solutions UK we truly believe that a diverse team is a vital part of our future success. We are really proud of the diverse and inclusive working environment we have already but we are committed to pushing ourselves to developing this further.
Representation of women in sales and certain senior roles remains a challenge for our industry and although it will take time, the collective and sustained efforts from our Senior Leadership Team to address this gives me confidence that female representation across all areas of our organisation will continue to improve.
As we make good progress with gender diversity within our leadership team, we are looking further into how we can attract, retain and develop talented females into traditionally male dominated roles. We aim to have at least one female candidate on every shortlist and we continue to build our talent pool which is more than 60% women.
We know that change can not be delivered overnight but we will remain focused and strong in our action plans to ensure our workforce is balanced, representative of the communities we work within and progress on our gender pay gap continues to be made.
BNP paribas Leasing solutions UK ACTION PLAN
Recruitment
- Drive on internal mobility with emphasis of identifying and supporting growth of women into more senior and sales roles.
- In partnership with our Diversity & Inclusion employee networks, we have embedded more inclusive hiring practices such as: unconscious bias training for hiring managers, identifying internal talent for promotion, and spotlight campaigns to promote internal mobility.
- We work with external recruitment partners to submit gender-balanced shortlists for all roles.
- We strive to interview at least one woman for each role, or provide a valid reason why not.
- Succession planning which includes identifying at least one woman for each senior and sales role.
Career
- Our Early Careers Employee Network with Exco level sponsorship, utilising male and female career stories and role models to attract females into traditionally male dominated roles.
- Launch of Local and Corporate mentoring programs to support internal career progression ensuring balanced representation of men and women.
- Our ‘Leaders for Tomorrow’ talent program qualification criteria has been adapted to ensure a balanced talent pool of men and women.
- The ‘RISE’ Programme, a mid-career curriculum for women to address retention and career development.
- Including at least one woman on each succession plan, and supporting the implementation of meaningful development.
- Launch of a Sales Academy with an aim on ensuring balanced representation of men and women
Culture
- Awareness training for all managers on supporting teams with managing work and home life balance, recognising stress signals, changing mind set to build confidence in our own abilities.
- Our Parents & Carers network making a difference by sharing advice, support and encouraging feedback.
- 50/50 Remote Working approach to support greater flexibility with work / life balance.
- Spotlight campaigns including females within our organisation in typically traditional male denominated roles.
- Supporting flexible working requests for women returning from maternity leave wherever possible.
To view the BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK gender pay gap report click here.
*BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK gender pay gap data as of April 2023.
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