Zurich UK has published its ethnicity pay gap data for 2021, which revealed a 10.2% difference in mean average hourly pay.
This year’s pay gap is slightly higher than last year’s at 9.8%, which Zurich attributed to staff turnover. The company also revealed that 87% of its employees share information about their ethnicity, and 7.7% identify as belonging to an ethnic minority.
Furthermore, Zurich’s bonus gap stood at 37%, up from 19.6% in 2020. The increase was driven by the fact that there are fewer Black and ethnic minority employees in senior roles.
This is the second consecutive year the insurer has announced these statistics, which come alongside a series of interventions that seek to make its workforce more representative of today’s British population, Zurich said in a statement.
Last year, the company launched a wide-reaching programme with equality research specialist Behavioural Insights Team, to identify and address issues around career progression, pay gaps and ethnic minority representation across its UK workforce.
Some of the interventions included: switching to head-hunters with a focus on diversity, diverse interview panels and more reliance on technical assessments and standardised scoring to ensure rigorous and fair recruitment.
Zurich announced its goal to have a minimum of 10% ethnic minority representation by the end of 2023. Each of its business areas will have its own target, which contributes towards the overall total.
“This announcement is just part of the journey we’re making to ensure our business accurately reflects the society we live and work in,” said Tim Bailey, Zurich UK CEO. “At no point should ethnicity be a barrier to success.
“The input into this work from our Cultural Awareness Network (CAN) has been critical, as well as listening and having open and honest conversations with our people. These interactions have helped to inform our interventions and other initiatives, such as the launch of our first cohort of ‘Inclusion Allies’. This is in response to feedback from employees from ethnic minorities who have said that they would welcome someone they can speak to on a confidential basis about any issues they are facing.”
“Our data shows that we have more work to do to close pay gaps and appoint more diverse candidates at all levels of the business. We remain committed to doing everything we can to action meaningful change.”
Zurich is also a signatory of the Race at Work Charter, which commits to five principles tackling barriers to the recruitment and progression of ethnic minority employees. These include capturing data and publicising progress, taking action to support career progression and making equality in the workplace the responsibility of all leaders and managers.
