Goal 1: By 2022, Nesta will have eliminated our gender and ethnicity pay gaps, and by 2025 our gender and ethnicity progression gaps, at all levels of the organisation.
Our starting points for change
In 2020, men at Nesta were paid 19 per cent more than women, on average. This is largely because men were more likely to work in senior positions, and to be paid more in those roles.
White staff were paid 11 per cent more than staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, on average. While colleagues in similar roles were typically paid fairly, there are likely issues in attracting and recruiting people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups to senior posts, and in supporting their career progression at Nesta. There is no excuse for these inequalities, and we are determined to correct them.
How we will address these issues
We aim to resolve these pay gaps by 2022 through a robust pay review and development support, and will publish our gender and ethnicity pay gaps annually. We will also implement evidence-informed practices to reduce bias in awarding progression opportunities, including:
Given that wage negotiation and discretion contributes to gender and ethnicity pay gaps, explicit criteria and transparent processes for pay and promotion are effective in reducing biases that can drive this gap. We will develop and adopt a core competencies framework to assess pay and progression decisions at all levels, starting with decision to hire.
- Career development and mentorship has been seen to result in mentees having increased responsibilities and recognition, and applying for more senior posts. To address the progression gap at Nesta, we may set up ‘reverse’ mentoring in which junior staff from minoritised groups enter co-mentoring relationships with senior staff, provide access to leadership skills development courses for women from minority ethnic groups, and/or fund Masters and PhD placements in innovation methods that have low uptake amongst minoritised groups. We will consider ways to award/distribute ‘stretch opportunities’ and low-promotability tasks equitably, to address unequal work assignments.
Measures of progress
- Pay gaps
- Progression rates
- Participation in talent development programmes
