UK gender pay statement

Currie & Brown believes in fair and equitable treatment for all employees and for all applicants for employment. We are committed to make full use of the talents and resources of all employees and to provide an environment which will encourage good and productive working relationships throughout the company.

Equal pay for equal jobs

As a physical assets management and construction consultancy, the majority of our staff are in technical positions, and therefore conduct roles that are similar in nature within each grade. While experience in post, or niche skills, will see small pay deviances, our remuneration strategy recognises the need for a consistent framework around how we pay our staff.

Our pay and benefits are, therefore, reviewed at the most senior level in our organisation, to ensure we reward people fairly and competitively.

At each level we strive to have an equal balance of pay between male and female staff. We analyse this based upon the basic salary staff earn but do recognise other factors, such as the degree of experience or the location a member of staff is in, may mean they are more likely to receive higher remuneration than a colleague in a different location and/or with less experience.

At assistant level the GPG is relatively small at 1.1%, reflecting our corporate strategy to hire all graduates into the business at the same salary. Staff based in London receive a higher salary, which accounts for the slight discrepancy.

There is a GPG of 5.5% at professional level. This represents significant progress because a year ago it was over 13% and we aim to continue reducing this further. The gap at this level is a result of the increased volume of females joining our business in recent years through our graduate scheme. When they are newly promoted, they are in the same band as individuals with two or three years’ more experience. We expect to see this GPG decrease over the next few years as these female staff move up through the business.

At senior professional level the GPG is 1.8% and at associate level we note our females are earning more than our males.

The GPG at associate director and director level is reflective of the small sample size distorting the statistics, because there were fewer females in the industry when these directors started their careers and we are just starting to see females coming through at this level.

We are committed to improving these numbers across the business and especially at our senior levels, through actively driving our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy forward to improve the gender balance at this and all levels.

Gender pay analysis of technical staff

Assistant level	Males earn 1.1% more than females
Professional level	Males earn 5.5% more than females
Senior professional level	Males earn 1.8% more than females
Associate level	Females earn 3.8% more than males
Associate director level	Males earn 9.1% more than females
Director level	Males earn 5.5% more than females

Having a transparent structure is important to our organisation. Currie & Brown operates a competency framework, visible to every member of staff across our global business. This framework explains clearly the skills and behaviours that are expected of staff at all levels and ensures that requests for promotions and pay rises are judged solely against performance against this matrix.

No promotion or pay review can take place without supporting information giving context to the proposal. Our group chief executive officer and group people director review the pay recommendations of every single individual in the organisation and ensure pay and promotional decisions are based purely on performance and do not give rise to any gender pay imbalance. Our focus is designed to remove any subjectivity or unconscious bias that may take place regarding internal recruitment and promotions.

Tackling the under-representation in the industry

Currie & Brown has a commitment, not just to equal pay and a culture of meritocracy, but also to addressing the under-representation of women in our industry.

Within the construction industry, there has been a notable lack of female entrants. RICS current data demonstrates that 16% of all qualified females in the industry are female.

We continue to tackle the longer-term under-representation of women in the industry by continuing our commitment to recruit and train apprentices and graduates to achieve professional accreditation.

Across our global business 27% of our qualified professionals are females and 24% of our UK graduate cohort are also female.

Our recruitment of graduates is now focused around non-cognate hires. Not only does this give us a broader and more diverse pool of applicants, but it also means we are able to select the very best individuals, rather than solely those who had done degrees in the disciplines in which we work, for example building surveying and quantity surveying which still produce more male than female graduates.

As well as this approach to non-cognate graduates, we have also revised how we attract females into our business at all levels. Currie & Brown has relaunched our flexible working policy, designed to ensure that we offer encouragement for part-time and home workers, to help us redress the lack of balance in males/females.

We also operate a mentoring programme, ensuring positive role models and support for our staff. Over 25% of our females are mentors or are being mentored, the same percentage as our male staff.

Gender pay reporting

Our statutory obligation is to report on specific metrics for gender pay. These statistics reflect a notably different picture than those that only focus on technical staff. As with many organisations in our sector, our support functions are predominantly female, in roles that tend, therefore, to carry a lower salary, which distorts our statistics. We continue, therefore, to review jobs on a ‘like-for-like’ basis, committed to ensuring that pay and benefits decisions are based solely upon work undertaken, rather than any form of unconscious bias.

Ordinary/hourly pay

The mean female GPG in hourly pay as a % of men’s pay: 34.0%
The median female GPG in hourly pay as a % of men’s pay is: 44.1%

Bonus pay

The % of females who were paid bonuses: 3.8%
The % of males who were paid bonuses: 12.2%
The mean female bonus is 36.10% lower than men’s
The median female bonus is 16.7% lower than men’s

Those who are eligible for Currie & Brown’s bonus scheme are directors and above, and as noted above, they are predominantly male. Our bonus scheme rules incorporate a discretionary element to employees at all levels in the business, providing KPIs are achieved. This allows the company to reward exceptional performance by females and males at all levels in the organisation.

GPG quartile figures

Upper quartile pay is made up of 94.7% male staff and 5.3% female staff
Upper middle quartile pay is made up of 81.7% male staff and 18.3% of female staff
Lower middle quartile pay is made up of 67.9% of male staff and 32.1% of female staff
Lower quartile pay is made up of 56.5% of male staff and 43.5% of female staff

Our aim is to continue to improve our GPG.

Signed

Euan McEwan