Women at Work 2020 Insights, practices and case studies from our 2020 Best Workplaces for Women - Great Place To Work
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Women at Work 2020 Insights, practices and case studies from our 2020 Best Workplaces™ for Women
“There isn’t really anything I can think of that would make this a better place to work. It’s the first company I’ve worked at where I have not been discriminated against for my age, gender or sexuality. I feel empowered and at home here.” Foundation SP employee Authors: Noelle Nurse, Marketing Manager Eduard Berndt, Quantitative Researcher Abigail Animwa, List Manager Great Place to Work® UK July 2020
Building a strong female
talent pipeline – the next step
to creating a more gender-
inclusive workplace.
In the third year of releasing our annual list of UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women
and our 20th year of releasing our main UK Best Workplaces™ list, we’ve witnessed a
lot of progress in organisational practices that encourage diversification within the
workplace. In particular, the number of women who hold senior leadership positions at
UK-based organisations steadily increased from 17% of awarded UK Best Workplaces™
in 2000 to 30% in 2020. This growth demonstrates that we are moving in the right
direction. However, the numbers also reveal that there is still a way to go in terms of
truly achieving fairer gender representation.
We’ve certainly seen, particularly during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, women
across the globe being recognised for their impactful and effective leadership style.
From New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern’s clear, consistent and empathetic direction
to Angela Merkel’s effective ability to steer her country through the pandemic, it’s
obvious that a diverse, inclusive team is essential for the success of any organisation,
government or otherwise.
However, we find that many organisations who acknowledge the need to create a more
inclusive and representative environment don’t always know where to begin. How
do you cultivate a workplace culture that creates the same opportunities to increase
employee potential across gender, race, disability etc.?
In this year’s Women at Work publication, we explore how organisations have been
able to put practices and programmes in place that build their pipeline of female
talent and convert that pipeline into opportunities for growth and development.
This includes women-focused mentorship opportunities, campaigns that centre
around creating a culture of inclusivity and building channels to identify high-
potential female employees.
Our 2020 UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women-awarded organisations have a
strong track record of continuously developing a diversified great workplace
culture for all.
1. Trust Index©: Great Place to Work®’s core employee experience survey
3Top Trends and Key Insights
2% 6%
90%
BEST
86% 77%
WORKPLACES
85%
OTHER
WORKPLACES
Gender Pay Gap
The differences between
Fairness women and men in the Best Parental Leave
In the UK’s Best Workplaces™ Workplaces™ for Women is UK’s Best Workplaces™ offer flexible
for Women, over 90% of female 2% compared to 6% in options for both fathers and mothers
employees feel they are being treated other workplaces. when it comes to parental leave. In
fairly regardless of gender, compared 2020, 86% offered maternity leave
to 85% in other workplaces. and 77% offered paternity leave
above the statutory minimum.
68% BEST
WORKPLACES 74% BEST
WORKPLACES
55% OTHER Low-paid positions 67% OTHER
WORKPLACES WORKPLACES
In 2020, 1 in 5 women is considered to be working in
a low-paid position, compared to only 1 in 7 men.
Recognition Recognition is an integral part of a great Intention to Stay
Best Workplaces™ for Women High growth and development
workplace culture. In Best Workplaces™ for
are outperforming other opportunities tend to lead to an
workplaces when it comes to Women, more women than men think that increased intention to stay in a job.
recognising and rewarding their promotions go to those who most deserve them, 74% of female employees in Best
employees. 68% of women in while the reverse is true for other workplaces. Workplaces™ for Women compared
Best Workplaces™ for Women to 67% in other workplaces would
say that everyone has an like to work at their current employer
opportunity to get special 64% for a long period time.
BEST
recognition, compared to 55% in WORKPLACES
other workplaces. 63%
“Promotions go to those who best deserve them” Development
In Best Workplaces™ for Women,
OTHER
52% 77% of female employees feel they
WORKPLACES have an opportunity to grow and
55% develop, compared to 64% in other
In 2011, the workplaces.
Davies Report
recommended
Women in executive positions 77%
Looking at the trajectory of UK’s Best Workplaces™ over the
that by 2020 at past 20 years, the number of female senior managers and
least one third of
the boards of
executives has been steadily increasing. 2020 Best Workplaces™
for Women in particular have nearly 40% of their senior 64%
the FTSE 350 management and executive positions held by women.
should consist
of women.* 39%
30% 30%
* Source: Davies Report (2011): 25% 25%
Women on Boards 17%
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2020
BEST
WORKPLACES
4Case Studies
Growing and Developing Female Talent Across the Workforce
Anthemis Group’s Innovators Lab focuses on developing female talent
within the fintech industry.
The lack of female founders in the financial technology industry was especially disappointing to the team at fintech company
Anthemis Group. To help alleviate this issue they have focused on an innovative approach to attract and seed more female
entrepreneurs in fintech through their Female Innovators Lab.
The Female Innovators Lab is dedicated to cultivating entrepreneurial talent in women from all sides of the financial services
ecosystem. The Lab’s mission is to identify female founders at the idea stage of their journey and match them with the resources and
mentorship required to develop a company and bring it to its first round of fundraising. The Lab welcomes solo entrepreneurs before
they have built a business plan or assembled a team. In doing so, the Lab has leveraged a partnership between venture capital and an
incumbent, to help close the entrepreneurship gender gap in fintech. This is to ensure that women’s ideas get the encouragement,
mentorship and, ultimately, funding they deserve.
EY have set an ambitious public target to double the proportion of female talent
in their UK partnership to 40% and BAME talent to 20% by July 2025.
A central pillar to their strategy is to accelerate progress by having a differential focus on race and gender by creating an inclusive culture of
belonging. EY launched an internal ‘Belonging’ campaign, which included internal communications, posters, interactive digital experiences,
and a toolkit which equips all employees with practical ways of putting inclusive leadership behaviours into action.
They also hosted workplace experience programmes (Leading Women, Discover EY - Women in Business and Discover EY - Black
Heritage in Business) and created an external recruitment campaign themed around belonging. Progress for initiatives are tracked,
leveraging D&I dashboards to enable a sustainable culture change.
As a result, leaders are now making more conscious decisions about who they select for projects, based on being equitable and
ensuring all colleagues feel included within the organisation.
Gowling WLG have sought to develop female employees through their
‘Breakthrough Sponsorship Programme’.
Only 18% of senior level partners at the top ten UK law firms are women (PwC Law Firms Survey 2018). Gowling recognised that
men tend to get more access to informal sponsorship from senior leaders than women. ‘Breakthrough’ was introduced to readdress
the balance and offer high-potential women support in their career development. Some of the objectives of the Breakthrough
programme include:
Creating opportunities for females and BAME colleagues Encouraging senior leaders to share their professional
to have visibility with senior leadership to promote further networks with female and BAME colleagues.
coaching and sponsorship.
Creating a platform for female and BAME colleagues to
Supporting the success and growth of high-potential female recognise and capitalise on the unique strengths and
and BAME candidates. attributes they can bring to the table.
Gowling has had good uptake and continues to track the success of the sponsorship relationships.
5Employees Have Their Say!
“McCarthy Recruitment is a ‘great place to work’ as
they always consider your personal and individual
circumstances. Within the last six years of working at
McCarthy Recruitment, I have had two children and
McCarthy Recruitment have allowed me to change
my hours and job role on numerous occasions to fit “My company really gets that for diversity to work,
in with my personal circumstances, which has made you need high inclusion and a sense of belonging -
such a big difference for my work-life balance. I will my favourite value is #bringyourweird. Very focused
be forever grateful. The support I have received from on financial inclusion and especially a big focus on
the management team during this time has been gender equality and female entrepreneurship. Salary,
really understanding and helpful.” promotion and growth structure are very transparent,
and this is self-initiated, so quite progressive. Under
McCarthy Recruitment employee the pressure of COVID-19, all of these things have
held up and I have been particularly impressed by
the ‘people first’ approach taken.”
Anthemis Group employee
“What I love about Salesforce is the fact that we
champion diversity and equal opportunities for all,
not just in the office, but in our local communities as
well. We have transparent annual reviews on equal
pay (gender/minority groups etc...). We regularly
champion the rights of minority groups in our “It is a truly friendly, welcoming and inclusive
communities e.g. LGBTQ rights in Georgia… and we workplace that I have no hesitation in saying I am
constantly innovate, whether that’s leading the field proud to be connected with, and I think it is unique to
in human rights or building innovative technologies. be able to maintain an excellent outward reputation
Salesforce is a company that embodies the motto and a high quality of work.”
“the business of business, is doing good” and it
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons employee
makes me very proud to work here and be apart of
such a great organisation.”
Salesforce employee
As someone who has worked at Impact for many
years, but the last 13 as a mum, I have always felt
supported, challenged and empowered. Always
learning and seeking out development opportunities.
Impact is like no other organisation I know!
Impact employee
62020 Winners
Small Medium Large Super Large
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4
No. 1 No. 1 No. 1 No. 1
McCarthy Recruitment Foundation SP The Sovini Group Salesforce
No. 2 | ISL Recruitment No. 2 | Found No. 2 | Office Angels No. 2 | Hilton
No. 3 | Anthemis Group No. 3 | Impact No. 3 | Baringa Partners No. 3 | Mars UK
No. 4 | Intelex Europe Limited No. 4 | Yext No. 4 | REL Field Marketing No. 4 | SAP
No. 5 | TopLine Comms No. 5 | R
oyal College of No. 5 | WaterAid UK No. 5 | Admiral Group
No. 6 | Opinium Veterinary Surgeons No. 6 | Adobe No. 6 | Home Group Limited
No. 6 | AXON No. 7 | SAS No. 7 | Abbott Laboratories Ltd
No. 7 | Goodman Masson No. 8 | Adecco No. 8 | Gap
No. 8 | Kronos Systems Ltd No. 9 | Version 1 No. 9 | Flight Centre Travel
No. 9 | A
lphaSights No. 10 | Stryker UK Ltd Group
No. 10 | justteachers No. 11 | AbbVie No. 10 | Gowling WLG (UK) LLP
No. 11 | Fleet Alliance No. 12 | Derivco UK No. 11 | Coleg Cambria
No. 12 | Goodlord No. 13 | MarketMakers No. 12 | Bright Horizons Family
No. 13 | C
vent Europe Solutions
No. 14 | Insight Direct UK Ltd
No. 14 | Badenoch & Clark No. 13 | Irwin Mitchell LLP
No. 15 | RCI Financial Services Ltd
No. 15 | E
drington-Beam No. 14 | Accenture
No. 16 | Secure Trust Bank Group
Suntory UK No. 15 | L&Q
No. 17 | L’Occitane en Provence
No. 16 | W
ebbs Garden Centres No. 16 | EY
No. 18 | Robert Walters
Limited No. 17 | Places for People
No. 19 | SC Johnson
No. 17 | Gorilla Glue Europe Ltd No. 18 | HomeServe
No. 20 | Chiesi Ltd
No. 18 | Oakbrook Finance Membership Limited
No. 19 | L
ondon Marathon No. 19 | Deloitte
Events
No. 20 | Lansons
No. 21 | M
ental Health First Aid
England
No. 22 | TJC
No. 23 | Groupe SEB UK
1 2 3 4
20 – 50 employees 51 – 250 employees 251 – 1000 employees +1000 employeesCreating a great employee
experience for all
Organisations are increasingly aware of the negative impact of gender
inequality, but don’t always know which practices to implement to
close gender gaps and increase representation. When confronting
these challenges, employers need to focus on three key areas: Trust,
Fairness and Wellbeing.
With over 30 years of global research, we know that trust, fairness and wellbeing are
fundamental to creating a great workplace culture for all; they are also areas endorsed by
the World Economic Forum.
In cultivating an impactful and inclusive workplace culture, there are a number of ways
Great Place to Work® UK can help:
1. Understand the gaps and discrepancies across
demographics within the employee experience
Our Trust Index© survey looks at how employees respond to 60 statements that span the
employee experience. You are then able to break down that data based on demographics.
This provides you with a truer reflection of the experience of specific groups across your
workforce.
2. Create an action plan to address discrepancies
Once you identify your key focus areas, the next step is to work with your Great Place to
Work® UK consultant to help you address the root of the issue through workshops, focus
groups and action planning.
3. Promote your inclusive culture to candidates and build a
diverse talent pipeline
It’s important to communicate your workplace culture through your employer brand.
Great Place to Work® UK provides you with external recognition opportunities that
you can promote on your website, career pages and social media channels. External
recognition, such as our Great Place to Work-Certified™ and Best Workplaces™ for
Women recognition badges can help you stand out from competitors, attract strong
candidates and strengthen your employer brand.
Get in touch
Call: 0203 883 1240
Email: uk_info@greatplacetowork.com
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