Gender Pay Report 2020

Synectics Solutions was founded almost 30 years ago on the ideals of working closely
with employees and clients to exploit technology to enable better decisions to be made from the intelligent use of data.

We’re very proud of our company culture and have worked hard over the years to create an environment in which all of our staff can truly flourish regardless of their gender. An environment where they are supported to grow as professionals as well as evolving and innovating the products and services that we provide to our customers.

This is the fourth Gender Pay Report for Synectics that has been produced in response to the UK Government’s requirement to analyse and report on any gaps in pay or reward between genders.

Our report illustrates the position for Synectics Solutions as at March 2020 for our entire company. The results of our analysis show that there was a small gender pay gap within the company of 20.16%.

While no gap can be considered positive, in comparison with our industry sector, this compares favourably.

The reason for the gender pay gap at Synectics was mainly due to some structural/historical issues in regard to the UK economy and recruitment market for the business sector in which we operate, namely:

• We are essentially a software and data management engineering company. With so few females entering this sphere of education the talent pool in which we can find the necessary skills has a natural male imbalance.
• As a result of the above we have fewer women in more established/senior roles than men and so as a result this creates an imbalance in the teams across Synectics.

The results of our analysis show that there is a small gender pay gap within the company which is overall 18.51%.

Our Gender Pay Gap

1. Mean gender pay Mean gap –
   Ordinary Pay.......................................20.16%
   
2. Median gender pay gap –
   Ordinary Pay.......................................20.10%
   
3. Mean gender pay gap –
   Bonus pay 12 months ending..........76.09%
   
4. Median gender pay gap –
   Bonus pay 12 months ending..........63.64%
   
5. Proportion of male and female employees paid a bonus in 12 months:
   Female......5.84%    Male..........8.44%
   
6. Proportion of female and male employees in each quartile:

Synectics Leadership Team

Synectics Board of Directors are highly aware of the importance of empowering women in the workplace and are actively involved in a number of initiatives with both the Chamber of Commerce and educational establishments such as City College in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire University, to encourage women to consider technology careers.

Synectics Board of Directors is 50% female with the Chair (Carol Shanahan), Vice-Chair and Executive Director for People and Client Success (Kate Beardmore), Legal & Compliance Director (Marian Humphreys), and Finance Director (Rosie Jones) all providing leadership in their roles – all of whom are passionate about championing the need to encourage more women into senior positions within the company.

Initiatives to continue to reduce our gender pay gap

Our People Success team actively monitor pay to ensure that there is no gender bias in terms of recruitment, pay review or promotion process.

• We are actively reviewing all our policies and procedures to provide frameworks where appropriate, which allows the flexibility required to support our employees based on their personal circumstances.
• We have improved our maternity benefits and offer returning mothers from maternity leave increased support as they adapt to a return to work with added responsibilities at home.
• We are in the process of evolving our working practices to fully adopt hybrid working, allowing employees to flex their working week around their other commitments and find a rhythm that works.
• We have introduced a new Talent Management Framework which aims to better understand and support colleagues in achieving their career aspirations.
  
  

Further work which we are committed to reduce gender pay bias

• Reignite our presence and promotion of employment opportunities at careers fairs with female staff who occupy technical roles to demonstrate the opportunities available to female attendees and the support we can offer.
• Focus on trying to attract more female applications for our various internships and work experience programmes.
• Focus our efforts on identifying development opportunities to support women maximise their potential in the workplace.

Declaration

Rosie Jones, Finance Director.

I confirm that our data has been calculated according to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2018.