RICS releases the 2019 Gender Pay Gap Report

Just in time for the celebrations around International Women’s Day, RICS releases the 2019 Gender Pay Gap Report.

In 2019, we made a commitment to make improvements in areas where the differences in pay were more significant, and as a result we can now see new positive reductions in the gender pay gap. Some of the steps taken were:

• Refreshing RICS behaviours that reflect a commitment to inclusivity and valuing difference
• Introducing a refreshed leadership learning programme, Managing with Purpose, focused on strengthening the capability of our people to lead engaged, high-performing and well-supported teams; this includes unconscious bias training sessions to build our capability to make fair and equitable talent decisions, and performance-orientated and bias-free behaviour and role modelling
• Including inclusion and diversity training as part of our mandatory induction programme

Our gender pay gap data shows an overall snapshot taken on 5th April 2019 and includes all employees from RICS in the UK:

* Data found in this report is correct as of April 2019. When we look at the mean, we see larger variations due to imbalanced gender representation at various levels, rather than due to pay inequality in like for like roles.  It does signify a need to continue actions that ensure greater gender balance, particularly in areas such as our most senior leadership population.

It is worth remembering that RICS faces a 'gender role gap' challenge, characterised by a higher number of men than women in senior roles. To challenge this, we have been increasing women’s visibility, exposure and support within our organisation through an expanded RICS mentorship programme and communicating the resulting successes. The existence of role models is important and a great source of inspiration for the new generations. To reiterate the commitment with the promotion of women role models and their positions of leadership, in 2020 we will be re-running our survey of female employees to identify potential barriers to their advancement and opportunities to improve.

The institution’s CEO, Sean Tompkins, has been a consistent advocate of fairness and equality. His commitment to continue to create inclusive and flexible workplaces comes with numerous initiatives, as the one started in 2015 whereby he challenges any requests to speak on all white male conference panels. In this role as a leader in the wider Built & Natural Environment, this attitude has helped shine the spotlight on more diverse industry talent.