Triodos Bank’s mission is to help create a thriving society that promotes quality of life for all. To be successful in the delivery of our mission, we see the nurturing of diverse talent and equality of opportunity across the bank as essential. This is underpinned by having an inclusive culture that is strongly promoted internally amongst our co-workers.

We see the gender pay gap as a critical part of our wider ED&I activity and value the role this metric has in monitoring our progress and holding ourselves accountable. We’re pleased to report that our overall gender pay gap has decreased this year, although we know that there is still more work to be done.

We acknowledge that the current requirements of gender pay reporting is undertaken in a binary way, recognising only men and women, and that non-binary or other identities are not reported on in this report. We also recognise that there are other gaps that all employers should be working to close – including disability and ethnicity – and whilst we’re not currently reporting on these factors, we hope to start monitoring in the future.

What is the gender pay gap?

The gender pay gap is the percentage difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women across an organisation. The gender pay gap is different to unequal pay, which is paying men and women differently for performing the same (or similar) work.

Since 2017, any UK business with 250 or more employees  is required to report on its gender pay gap; taking an annual snapshot of any differences and publishing this externally, as both a mean (an average) and median (the ‘middle wage’) metric.The UK was one of the first countries to introduce this reporting requirement with the aim of understanding and narrowing the pay gap between men and women.

Historically, Triodos has not been required to publish its pay gap, but the bank has monitored it voluntarily since 2018. Now, with over 250 employees in the UK, 2023 is the first year we have a legal requirement to report our gender pay gap.

What is Triodos’ gender pay gap?

In summary, our pay gap has decreased this year in both the mean and median metrics.

These figures are based on the average amount paid to men and women at Triodos Bank UK, regardless of their seniority or whether they work full-time or part-time.

“The changes we have made, to encourage and support a diverse coorker population, have started to make a difference and we are focused on continuing in this direction. As part of our wider Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, this work has clear benefits for co-workers, customers and the bank as a whole,” Karen adds.

How do Triodos’ results compare to other banks and financial institutions?

In 2021, the Office for National Statistics reported that the average gender pay gap for financial services was 29.4% (mean) and 31.3% (median). The 2022 results will be published later this year.

We are pleased that Triodos’ results continue to compare favourably within the financial services industry.

What is causing our gender pay gap?

In 2022, we saw an increase in women with roles at our most senior pay grades, which has led to our pay gap narrowing this year, however we still have a higher proportion of women in our lower paid roles.

The increased numbers of women in our lower paid roles gives us a strong pipeline of female talent to progress their careers in Triodos. However, it means that our current distribution is uneven.

2022 pay quartile percentages by gender

Since we began monitoring our pay gap in 2018, we have maintained a good overall gender balance with roughly half of Triodos’ employees identifying as male and the other half as female. The 2022 overall gender split is 53% females and 47% male.

What is Triodos doing to address the gap?

We see addressing our gender pay gap as a long-term journey and we’re committed to putting in place a plan to work towards our aspiration of a 0% gap.

We have made improvements to our recruitment process, including ensuring we use neutral language that avoids unconscious bias in job descriptions, removing questioning about salary expectations in the recruitment process, and updating our inclusion statement in job adverts. All of these measures work together to contribute to breaking down structural barriers for women.

Female co-worker development has been a key focus, with a number of focus groups taking place to better understand the barriers individuals experience and what support can be put in place to foster progression. We have become a corporate sponsor of Women in Banking and Finance and provide membership to a number of female co-workers. We are delighted to have achieved the target we set for female representation at senior levels (Board and Senior Management Team) a year early, with 54% female representation.

We have also carried out a benefits review, which has led to increased paid leave allowances and an enhanced package with many elements supporting physical and mental health. Flexible and hybrid working continues to be embedded across the bank, supporting co-workers to balance work and home commitments.

Reflecting on these measures, Catherine Ridd, HR director, commented: “We’re moving in the right direction, but we want to keep up this momentum. We will continue to work on improving our recruitment process and supporting more women to progress into more senior roles at the bank. We’ve had insightful and productive conversations with women across the bank over the past year and their views will continue to inform the actions that we take.

“We will continue monitoring the success of these actions through our annual reporting to ensure they are having the needed impact and working towards a further reduction in our pay gap, as well as more widely supporting making Triodos a more equitable, diverse and inclusive place to work.”