Connexus Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Report 2024-2025

At Connexus we aim to create an inspiring and supportive workplace, where colleagues feel empowered to succeed. We are committed to ensuring what we offer is inclusive, with equal opportunities for everyone.

Our pay gap analysis helps us understand how we are performing against our equality, diversity and inclusion actions and what drives our figures, allowing us to take action to narrow pay gaps.

In our ongoing commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace, we have expanded our focus to include the ethnicity pay gap alongside our gender pay gap analysis, highlighting our dedication to transparency and diversity.

When we look across our entire workforce, we do see a difference between the average hourly pay of men and women which reflects the balance of genders in certain roles, however I am pleased to report that our gender pay gap has reduced since last year’s report. We’ve worked hard to address underrepresentation across Connexus and have seen positive changes in our trade teams, with female apprentices across the business forming a larger part of our intake this year. We’ve also continued to focus on offering flexible working options, which supports the attraction and retention of women and those from under-represented groups.

We realise that we still have a way to go and will continue to work proactively to reduce the pay gap and improve inclusion across our workforce, especially in underrepresented groups. As an organisation, we believe the solution to improving our pay gap is wider than just focussing on the differences between the average pay of men and women. Our ambition is to drive initiatives through our people strategy and equality, diversity and inclusion programmes which will enable change across Connexus and foster a culture of collaboration, innovation and inclusion. This will create a workforce with greater diversity of thought which is representative of the communities we serve.

Kate Smith 
Connexus Chief Executive 

The gender pay gap is the calculated difference between the average (mean and median) earnings of males and females across our workforce. It shows the difference in the average hourly rate of pay between women and men in the organisation and is different to equal pay, which is about men and woman being paid the same rate for the same work. This approach enables transparency about gender pay differences and enables positive actions.

As required in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, Connexus is publishing our:

•    Mean and median gender pay gap 
•    Mean and median gender bonus gap 
•    Proportion of female and male colleagues receiving bonuses 
•    Proportion of female and male colleagues in each quartile of our pay structure

The mean pay gap is the percentage difference in the mean average pay between all male and female employees in the organisation. We calculate the mean by summing up all the salaries and dividing by the number of employees.

The median pay gap is the percentage difference in the median average pay between all male and female employees within the organisation. We calculate the median by ordering all employees pay from highest to lowest and finding the middle.

Pay quartiles shows the percentage of males and females in each pay quartile. We develop these by ordering all employees pay from highest to lowest and splitting them into four equal groups.

Connexus published this data on the Gender Pay Gap Service on 11 March 2025, ahead of the deadline of 4th April 2025. You can view our published data on the Gov.UK Gender Pay Gap Service. The snapshot date for the data is 5th April 2024.

The image above gives an indication of the spread of salaries across the salary ranges split by gender.

The overall distribution of pay rates is wide for both genders, but the spread is more pronounced for females, indicating a larger variance in female employees' pay rates. There is a higher concentration of females in lower-paid roles and a higher concentration of males in higher-paid roles, which can be a contributing factor to the gender pay gap. 
 

The gender pay gap, measured by both mean and median earnings, has decreased in 2024, compared to a mean increase and median decrease in 2023. This indicates that the difference in average earnings between men and women is narrowing, reflecting progress towards pay equity.

As a result of a review of terms and conditions in January 2020 no employees at Connexus have received a bonus and therefore we make a nil return for this element of the report.

While there is no statutory requirement for us to report on our ethnicity pay gap and this year, for the first time, we have included it in the report. This demonstrates our commitment to progressing our equality, diversity and inclusion actions and willingness to support greater diversity in the workplace.

From the data set 80% of our colleagues identify as white and 1% as ethnically diverse.  The 19% who have not yet identified have been excluded from the pay gap analysis. An information campaign is planned to improve this data capture.

There is a fairly even distribution of ethnically diverse colleagues across the pay quartiles, although the lowest quartile has the least representation:

Both the mean and median ethnicity pay gap show a favourable comparison for our ethnically diverse colleagues with -7.8% mean and -1.8% median figures. The communities in Shropshire and Herefordshire that we serve have ethnically diverse populations of around 3% (ONS). We recognise that diversity of our colleagues needs to improve across all levels of the organisation which will be a key element of our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy.

According to 2024 analysis of trends in the gender pay gap by PwC r (Mandatory UK Diversity and Gender Pay Reporting - Beyond the gender pay gap - PwC UK) there has been only a 1.6% reduction in the UK mean gender pay gap since reporting started in 2017.Since the April 2018 snapshot data, Connexus’ mean gender pay gap has reduced from 11.4% to 4.3% this year.  (Connexus was formed in July 2017 so did not report for April 2017)

We need to better understand the data behind our gender pay gap and be proactive in working to address this. However gender pay gap is a lagging indicator, which means positive actions to improve gender representation often take years to significantly impact the gap.

Connexus continues to take proactive action and for this to be effective we will spend time understanding where we need to make improvements in the context of our organisation and the areas in which we operate.

To understand Connexus’ Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap this year including the reduction we looked at a number of factors:

• Connexus has a number of different roles and some of those impact our gender pay gap. Our trade colleagues made up 29% of our total workforce and 99% of trade colleagues (excluding apprentices) are male, an area we need to address. This group are also more likely to be able to take up overtime opportunities thus increasing their mean hourly pay.  Analysis indicates that some of the reason for the reduction in the gender pay gap is due to fewer trades colleagues appearing in the upper quartile of pay because of a reduction in overtime hours worked.
• We recognise the need to increase female representation in trades and will do this through the apprenticeship route, through recognising and celebrating female role models in Connexus trades.  We will also look at more flexible working hours and arrangements in trade roles, recognising that women are more impacted by caring responsibilities and therefore flexibility can remove some of the barriers to employment and progression in higher paid roles. External societal influences and systemic barriers in this area remains challenging.
• While our overall representation of women in the two upper quartiles of pay has not significantly changed over the last few years, we have seen a change within the last year in the gender balance of the executive leadership team. This has meant that at the time of the data snapshot there were three women and one man, having a positive impact on the gender pay gap.
• We have equal pay across our roles, and benchmarking these roles ensures we remain competitive. Our commitment to paying at least the Real Living Wage to all our employees continues, however, we will continue to monitor our pay and benefits to see how this might affect our gender pay gap in future years.
• Connexus continues to promote and review hybrid, flexible and part-time working arrangement in all of its roles.

• All of our policies, strategies and projects are subject to an equality impact  assessment to promote inclusion and ensure fairness.

  Our job adverts include an inclusivity statement which encourages applications from underrepresented groups to apply for our roles and we advertise on a variety of job boards. Through our equality, diversity and inclusion action plan we will review where and how we attract talent to ensure we are reaching diverse under representative groups in our workforce.  We will use diversity frameworks and accreditations to help us have the best possible reach for talent.

• As part of working to address these imbalances we will look at how we can attract more males or females and will work to understand and address any barriers to employment, ensuring we run appropriate campaigns on key topic areas.
   

• Focussed trade apprentice recruitment to make our roles more attractive to women resulting in almost 20% of new trades apprentices being female.
• Calculated the ethnicity pay gap as part of our ongoing people strategy.
• Preparatory work looking at career pathways and succession planning through the lens of diversity.
• Registered for accreditation as a menopause friendly employer.  A menopause policy along with guidance and training for managers was launched.
   

• Build an equality, diversity and inclusion strategy to promote equal opportunities which will include encouraging colleagues to provide diversity data.
• Networking and awareness groups to be set up to promote diversity conversations, activities and engagement.
• Nurture opportunities for colleagues to grow, progress and develop to increase female and diverse representation at middle senior level, through career pathways and succession planning.
• Further develop our commitment to accreditations including the Age Friendly Employer Pledge and the Mental Health at Work Commitment as well Disability Confident that we already hold.
• Commitment to becoming a Living wage accredited employer.