Is your business up to speed with its Gender Pay Gap reporting requirements?

On 6 April 2017, new regulations will come into force requiring all employers in the private and voluntary sectors with 250 or more employees to publish certain data outlining the differences in pay between their male and female employees. The information collected must be published annually and retained for a minimum of 3 years.

If your business falls in scope, failure to comply with the requirements could lead to serious reputational damage if the government "names and shames" your business. Equally, failure to comply could lead to adverse reactions within your workforce itself and also deter new talent, investors and even customers from engaging with your business. You, therefore, need to get it right.

So how can we help?

You may already be alive to the issue of Gender Pay Gap reporting but are you prepared for the new requirements? It may be that you know what to do but you simply lack the resource to be able to compile and analyse the data.

This is where we can help. We are experts in this field and are currently working with affected employers across a wide range of sectors and size, providing bespoke training and advice on Gender Pay Gap reporting.

We are also helping businesses with some of the tricky questions such as:

• which companies within your group need to report;
• the meaning of a "relevant employee" for reporting purposes;
• the meaning of "ordinary pay" and "bonus pay";
• how to work out the "relevant pay period"; and
• how to publish the report.

From a more practical point of view, we can assist in:

• compiling the data required under the new rules;
• analysing the data;
• advising on any need for remedial action;
• advising on how to communicate the results internally and externally; and
• assisting with the preparation of a narrative to accompany the data- whilst this is not required under the regulations, we believe that providing one can be an important tool for setting your business apart from your competitors.

Please get in touch if we can help your business. In certain circumstances, using our services in this way, could also mean that any information collated attracts legal privilege, which may be beneficial if you choose to do a dry run first.