TWI UK Gender Pay Gap Report

At TWI, our employees form the foundation of our organisation. Their contributions are pivotal in influencing the environment, engaging with our members and customers to address the significant engineering obstacles our world encounters to create a sustainable environment. In a globally diverse and interconnected society, it's imperative that our workforce mirrors the communities we aim to support. To address the growing demand for engineers in the future, it's essential to foster diversity within the workforce. Encouraging greater participation of women in engineering would be instrumental in achieving this goal. This is why narrowing the Gender Pay Gap has emerged as a central focus in our five-year corporate strategy (2022-2026) on diversity and inclusion. We are committed to reducing our Gender Pay Gap from 20.5% (GPG figure for 2022- 2023) to 10% or less by 2026 as well as having a third of leadership roles occupied by women.

The representation of women in engineering remains low, with recent statistics from EngineeringUK indicating that only 16.5% of engineering professionals are women. While there has been some improvement, a significant portion of female professionals in the field occupy peripheral rather than central engineering positions.

We acknowledge that our progress in addressing the Gender Pay Gap has been slow. It is imperative to enhance the participation of women in engineering positions at TWI, and our recruitment team is actively pursuing new methods to attract female candidates. Moreover, we are committed to implementing initiatives aimed at reducing the pay gap by providing increased opportunities for women to flourish within TWI.

We recognise we have to make significant changes to close the Gender Pay Gap and remain committed to achieving positive change. We are confident that our Diversity and Inclusion plan will enable us to make TWI a truly inclusive organisation.

Declaration

We confirm that the gender pay gap data provided in this report is accurate and in line with mandatory requirements.

See our gender pay gap report here:

Gender Pay Gap Report

The Difference between the Hourly Pay of Women and Men at TWI

Although the mean Gender Pay Gap has remained static, closing by 0.1%, we have made a significant improvement since 2017 (Please see Figure 1). TWI is implementing a number of initiatives that will support closing the gap in the longer term.

The table below outlines the mean and median difference in hourly pay between men and women within this reporting period:

Table 1: Average gender pay gap in hourly pay

The reasons for the differences in hourly pay between men and women are:

There are fewer women than men in leadership roles, i.e. the executive team, senior management, senior business development and senior specialists (see figure below).

There are more women than men in support roles.

 Figure 1: TWI Proportion of male and female employees in quartile pay bands

 During this reporting period, women made up 33% and men made up 67% of the working population at TWI. The Technology Group employed fewer women than men as engineering professionals (15% and 85% respectively), which typically have higher salary than support roles. Nationwide, women remain under-represented in engineering, with only 16.5% of engineering professionals in the UK workforce (EngineeringUK).

Recruiting women at the entrance level, will increase the disparity in the percentage gender pay gap in the short term. However, we will see a closure in this gap provided more women progress into senior roles.

The Difference in Bonuses between Women and Men at TWI

During the reference pay period for this report no bonus payment were made.

Our Commitment to Increase Gender Diversity in Leadership Roles at TWI

Progress with our Action Plan during 2022–2023

Closing the gender pay gap requires new ways of thinking about how we recruit, promote and encourage our employees through their careers. That is why TWI are reviewing the Organisational Design of the global organisation. We are undertaking a full review of:

• In 2021, our 'Living our Values' campaign explored behaviors aligned with our corporate values, with a focus on 'Inclusion.' Throughout 2022, we've acted on feedback from the campaign, notably implementing flexible work arrangements. This change promotes work-life balance, particularly benefiting women, enabling them to thrive.
• The imbalance of women in engineering roles requires investment at an early stage and TWI is actively seeking opportunities to support development and recruitment of women engineers. Following the roll-out of our programme ‘Inspiring women leaders’ in 2019, aimed at encouraging our women to progress through the Company, we have been working hard to create a more transparent pay structure and career framework that allows our women to see how they can progress at TWI. We are particularly proud of our new Mentor programme that will provide support for our women throughout their careers.
• We implemented training programs that raise awareness of unconscious bias and how it can negatively impact decisions, particularly in areas like hiring, promotion, and evaluations. We have started work on developing a comprehensive training matrix, where Diversity and Inclusion learning is embedded throughout .
• We believe outreach is the bedrock of creating a sustainable future pipeline of talent. At TWI, we support a number of initiatives through our outreach working group, such as The Welding Institute’s The Younger Members' Committee (YMC) and STEM Ambassadors.

   

  We recognise that Gender balance must be supported at all levels of the organisation and to help us identify potential TWI is implementing a succession planning tool to ensure a visible process to the leadership team.

A Review of the Working Culture at TWI

As a global membership research and technology organisation, with a far-reaching geographic and technological footprint, inclusive business practices are vital in helping us serve our Members around the world.

We have recently launched TWI Professional Board D&I charter. We are dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive workplace for all employees. This includes fair processes for development, performance management and progression, and the creation of a more diverse workforce.

TWI, March 2024