Gender Pay Report - 5th April 2024

What is gender pay gap reporting?

Every year organisations with 250 or more employees must publish data on their gender pay gap. The gender pay gap is a comparison of the average earnings for men and women regardless of the work they do.

Why does it matter?

Gender pay reporting can highlight where there are differences in representation in organisations. For instance, if an organisation has more men than women in well-paid senior roles and more women than men in less well-paid junior roles, then the average pay for men will be higher than for women and there will be a gender pay gap in favour of men. William Hare Limited take a simple approach by respecting each other and champion inclusion which is why the gender balance across our business is an important area of focus for us. Improving our gender balance is an important part of our ongoing commitment to give everyone the chance to make a difference.

About William Hare Limited

The William Hare Group is one of the largest privately owned Steel Engineering and Fabrication businesses in Europe, with a Global footprint.

A family-owned business with a sustainable approach to growth and operations, has allowed us to become a Carbon Net Zero business in 2021, the first in our sector to do so. Investment in technology and software combined with extensive training and development of our people has meant that we are at the frontier of digital design technologies, working on some of the most complex and iconic steel framed buildings in the UK and beyond.

William Hare is an ambitious business with the room for staff to grow throughout their career, supported all the way from apprenticeships to advanced programmes for experienced leaders in the business held collaboratively with some of our key clients and industry recognised bodies. At the heart of William Hare is the sense of family, respect, creativity and innovation.

At William Hare, we are proud of what we do and care about our people and the communities we operate in. Each of our employees brings a unique value to our family and we must utilise our diversity of skills and experience to act as a catalyst for positive change and drive our passion for success.

Our Results

We are pleased to report that based on the snapshot date of 5th April 2023, William Hare’s mean (average) pay gap has reduced from last year from 4.96% to 4.12%, and well below the national average of 7.7% (based on ONS data for April 2023).

William Hare Limited is committed to attracting, and retaining, skilled employees that best represent our diverse client base and the communities we serve. We understand that, in order to do this, we must continue to strive for a much more diverse and inclusive workforce, in every way.

Despite there being traditionally fewer women within the construction and engineering industry, with the majority of
senior roles being filled by men; we are seeing a marked change in this trend, and we want William Hare to be leading this change.

Progress so far

This is such a broad ranging area that we know there is still a lot we can do at William Hare Limited to drive change and reduce our gap over time so we will continue to:

We will continue to:

• Encourage more diversity into the industry by enhancing our STEM Ambassador network.
• Commit to rewarding all colleagues equally based on their performance, regardless of gender.
• Regularly reviewing our pay policies and employee benefits, taking measures to reduce this gap further.
• Delivering a comprehensive Learning and Development programme to ensure we attract the very best colleagues, and allow for progression within the organisation via a robust talent pipeline.
• Supporting colleagues to achieve their potential and development aspirations through a performance management and development programme.
• Provide our employees the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether this is working in our facilities 4 days a week or a balance of working from home and in the office for our salaried support teams.

Next steps for 2024

We will:

• Build psychologically safe cultures where people can remain in work and thrive is important to us. We will continue to deliver Line Manager Mental Health training, host Wellbeing workshops to our employees across the UK and run Suicide First Aid training sessions.
• We will introduce a Carer’s Policy as well as update the Flexible Working Policy, Maternity and Redundancy Policies in advance of the proposed government changes for 2024.
• Continue to utilise bespoke, definitive Schools Outreach data and insight to encourage more women, girls and people from under-privileged backgrounds into engineering / construction apprenticeship roles and promoting rewarding career paths within the business.
• In 2023 this allowed us to development of our Early Careers Program to the point where William Hare Limited has 12-13% of its workforce in Early Career activities. William Hare placed 88th in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers in the UK and won the Apprentice Employer of the Year with the 5% Club. The Company also received a Platinum Award from the 5% Club for achieving Gold Standard for the last 3 consecutive years. In 2024 we hope to continue to deliver on this success.
• We have a full programme of Open-Door Events, sponsored by Build UK, giving students from all backgrounds, the opportunity actually visit our facilities so they can see what we do in order for them to make a considered career choice. Our STEM Ambassadors attend career fairs, school assemblies and College events where they share their experiences of ‘earning whilst learning’, inspiring people to consider the engineering, manufacturing and construction as their industry choice for their careers.
• Deliver Social Impact activities for communities where our projects are being delivered, whilst working with our clients to make a difference. Activities of this nature provide opportunities for our employees to volunteer and give back, providing avenues for developing a wider set of transferable skills. We can even deliver this remotely through programmes like Chapter One. We have a team of volunteers that have regularly weekly remote reading sessions with children aged 5-7 years old aimed at building the essential skills for our next generations.

Accuracy Statement

I confirm the gender pay gap data contained in this report is accurate and has been produced in accordance with regulations.

Kirsty Brennan

Head of HR & Training

20th March 2024