workplace gender equality agency (WGEA)

At Randstad, we have the ambition to be the world’s most equitable and specialised talent company. It is important to us that our ambition translates into action and we strive for continuous improvement to achieve equitable outcomes. Our hope is that we create a diverse and inclusive workplace which in turn reflects the clients, talents and communities we serve. 

As part of this ambition, over the past few years, we have worked to understand and close our Gender Pay Gap, engaging our senior leadership and management team to raise awareness of where gaps exist and taking proactive measures to address them. Addressing the gender pay gap is a multifaceted challenge that involves implementing various strategies.

We know this because we measure the gender pay gap across our corporate employee group and compare the median full-time female base salary with the median full-time male base salary. Using the Korn-Ferry Hay Grade method, we also compare like-for-like roles so that we can ensure that we are paying our people equally based on the type of work that they perform. When we look at our own like for like and median comparisons of FTE equivalents, our gender pay gap is less than 2%. We have investigated each instance of potential inequity and found that the most common reasons for the gap are related to talent scarcity and talent related exceptions (high performance / high potential).

The higher proportion of women in our workforce (over 60%), more women working part-time and fewer women in leadership positions have all contributed to the overall pay gap as per the WGEA methodology. 

We recognise that as a Recruitment business, performance based pay also has an impact on overall earnings that contributes to the gender pay gap. Approximately 65% (Sales roles only) / 82% (Sales & Managers) of Randstad’s workforce hold sales roles which involve commission or bonus structures that reward our people based on their performance. Employees who generate higher sales will earn more commission regardless of their gender. Where there is a gender pay gap in sales roles, it can be attributed to variations in performance and not discrimination based on gender.

Whilst at Randstad we know for certain that we don't make pay decisions based on gender, this doesn't undermine the value of understanding our overall gender pay gap as it does demonstrate the existence of broader societal issues with regards to gender equality. This is why we are committed to doing our part addressing these issues. 

The current WGEA reporting period represents a snapshot in time, which for us is 30 June 2022. Since this time, we have taken the below action to ensure equity:

• improving our parental leave offering for partners, 
• implementing our Family Friendly Workplaces action plan, 
• proactively working to develop a gender diverse leadership succession pipeline,
• increasing the amount of women on our Senior Leadership Team, currently 45% women.