Reducing Gender Pay Gap in Tesco: Importance, Costs, and Benefits

This report discusses the importance of reducing gender pay gap in Tesco, including the background of the company and legal regulations. It also explores the costs and benefits of reducing the pay gap, along with a recommended strategy for implementation.

Assessment

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Background of company.........................................................................................................3
Aim of the report....................................................................................................................4
Legal regulation......................................................................................................................4
Costs and benefits...................................................................................................................4
Timescale................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations..................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
As the businesses are expanding and progressing the workforce combination is also
changing wot people belonging to different age, caste, sex, religion, skills, experiences etc.
working together so that the goals and objectives of company are achieved on time. In order to
successfully survive in the market it is important that the companies treat all the workers equally
and do not discriminate among them based on their differences which are essential in increasing
their job satisfaction so that they can be retained in company. It is thus important that the
companies do not have gender pay gap which means that women must be paid equally for equal
work done by them as the male workers (Abraham, 2017). In this report Tesco plc is taken so
that the importance of reducing gender pay gap can be understood along with the benefits which
can be achieved by the company. Further the cost and time which will be incurred in reducing
gender pay gap will also be determined along with giving recommendations so that gender pay
gap can be minimised in company.
Main Body
Background of company
Tesco plc is a British multinational company which deals in groceries and general
merchandise and is known for its high quality products and services which are focused on
achieving customer satisfaction. The company was established in 1919 by Jack Cohen and has its
headquarters in London, UK. The company has its 6,800 shops located in more than 11 countries
across the world and it has a string brand image in the market because of its high product quality
and low prices as compared to other retailers. Tesco earned revenue over £63.911 billion in the
year 2019 and is amongst the nine largest retailers in the world. It also ranks third in terms of
gross revenue among the retailers that are present in the world (Abubakar and Tunç, 2017). The
company employs more than 450,000 employees who are highly diverse in reference to their
caste, religion, nation, sex, skills, experiences etc. It is important that the company give equal
rights and opportunities to all the workers so that they can efficiently work in the company and
help it in achieving its objectives on time. It will also help in creating a friendly working
environment so that the employees can be satisfied by their jobs and employee retention can be
increased giving Tesco a competitive advantage in market.

Aim of the report
The aim of this research is to identify the areas where improvement can be made in
company so that effective working environment can be created which can help in increasing the
effectiveness of company in achieving its objectives on time. The issue of gender pay gap has
been identified in Tesco which needs to be addressed so that all the workers can be given equal
opportunities and they can be paid equally without being discriminated based on their differences
(Agbola, Acupan and Mahmood, 2017). This can help in building a healthy work environment in
Tesco and improve the work performance of all the workers. Equal payment for equal work is
important irrespective of the sex of workers so that all the employees can feel secure in the
company and use their skills and talents efficiently.
Legal regulation
As per the Equality Act, 2010, it is important that all the workers in an organisation are
given equal rights and opportunities without discriminating based on their caste, religion, sex,
age etc. It also includes equal pay for equal or similar or same value work done by the employees
irrespective of their gender. It is illegal to pay employees unequally based on their sex if the
work done by them is of the same value. This legislation is important to be followed in all the
businesses so that they can work under the legal pursuit of UK (Ali, 2016). This can also make
the business a legal entity and help in increasing the faith of the workers so that more talented
and skilled workers can be attracted to the company for recruitment. It also help the company to
increase the job satisfaction among employees thereby increasing employee engagement in
company.
Costs and benefits
Gender pay gap reduces the organisation’s performance as it creates a negative attitude
among the worker against the company as they are discriminated based on their gender and this
affects their equal pay in the company for similar work done by them. It affects the productivity
of female employees and also affects their confidence of working efficiently as they are paid less
than their fellow male workers which also impact on their ability to deal with the customers in an
efficient manner so that high customer satisfaction can be achieved. Thus overall organisational
productivity gets impacted which makes it important to reduce the gender pay gap so that high
work performance can be achieved.

In order to reduce gender pay gap in Tesco certain cost will be involved which needs to be
considered so that appropriate amount of funds can be gathered in order to give equal payments
to all the employees. Also it is important that the costs are prudently determined which can help
the management in effectively reducing gender pay gap and achieving the aims of this report
(Bishu and Alkadry, 2017). The estimated cost which will be incurred in Tesco for reducing
gender pay gap will be £200 million. This cost will include paying equal wages and salaries to all
the female employees so that they can be given equal salaries for the equal work done by them.
This cost will also help in covering all the departments of Tesco so that all the female workers
can be considered and gender pay gap can be removed from its root cause. It will also include the
cost of training and development of managers and leaders so that discrimination among workers
can be reduced. The benefits of reducing the gender pay gap will be as follows:
 Improving the performance of female workers so that they can help in improving
customer satisfaction (Blau, 2016).
 Attracting more skilled and talented female employees in company so that more
innovative ideas can be applied which can help in improving company’s image in market.
 Tesco can gain a competitive edge in market as more number of employees can be
retained who can help in improving its productivity and profitability.
 It will help in creating a healthy working environment so that the coordination and
cooperation among workers can increase which can help in improving the effectiveness
of Tesco in achieving its objectives on time.
Timescale
It is important that the time period in which the objectives of the company can be achieved
using the available resources and finds are determined so that high quality results are achieved
on time which can help in improving the company effectiveness. In order to reduce the gender
pay gap it is important that certain activities are followed within the set milestone so that the
overall objectives are achieved on time (Guimarães and Silva, 2016). In order to efficiently
reduce gender pay gap in Tesco the time which will be required will be 8 months so that all the
activities regarding reducing the gender pay gap can be effectively implemented in company.
Identification of departments where the issue of gender pay gap exists, formulating strategies to
reduce gender pay gap, implementation of strategies that can help in achieving the objectives,
reviewing the effectiveness of strategies in achieving the aims, making improvements based on

the feedbacks and finally effective implementation of those strategies. These all activities need to
be conducted in an efficient manner so that the aim of reducing the pay gap can b achieved on
time so that project can be implemented effectively and help Tesco in gaining a competitive
advantage in market.

Recommendations
From the above report it can be said that it is very important for Tesco to reduce the gender
pay gap so that it can maintain its brand image in market and improve the productivity of its
workers. Gender pay gap can negatively impact the performance of female employees which
make it important to reduce this gap so that they can efficiently use their skills and knowledge in
achieving company objectives on time (Jiang and Wang, 2016). The reduction in this gap will
also help the company in gaining the trust of its workers as they will be treated as per the laws of
UK which can help in the company to function legally in the market. Following are the ways
which can help Tesco to efficiently reduce the gender pay gap so that highly efficient work
environment can be created in the company:
 Effective implementation of Equality Act, 2010: the company should effectively
implement Equality Act so that all the workers can be paid equally for equal work done
and no discrimination is done among them based on any differences.
 Training and development of managers: The managers of company should be trained so
that they can give equal opportunities to all the workers which can help in improving
women participation in company’s decision making thereby increasing their value in
company (Mihăilă, 2016).
 Encouraging female leadership: Tesco should encourage female leadership in the
company so that female leaders and mangers can be appointed in various departments
who can look for any discrimination done based on gender.
 Equalising performance reviews: The performance reviews which are given to the
employees should be based on fair and equal basis so that the employees can be reviewed
on fair grounds. It can also help in enhancing the ability of workers to perform better so
that they can be given performance appraisals which can help in boosting their
performance and productivity (Piercy, 2016).
 Making equitable offers: It is important that the company give equal offers to employees
for same work without discriminating the employees based on irrational basis like caste,

gender, religion etc. Equal offers will also help in effectively reducing the gender pay
gap.
Conclusion
From this report it can be concluded it is important for an organisation to give equal
payment to all the employees for the similar level of work done by them without discriminating
among them on irrational grounds. This can help in increasing the confidence and productivity of
all the employees so that their work efficiency gets improved thereby increasing company
profits. Reducing gender pay gap will also increase the legality of the company which is
important in attracting more talented staff so that high level of customer satisfaction can be
achieved along with increased innovations so that competitiveness of company can increase.

References
Books and journals
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