Role of Equality and Diversity in Minimising Gender Pay Gap

This research aims to determine the role of equality and diversity in minimizing the impact of gender pay gap within the organization. It includes a case study on Sollatek, an innovative electronic products manufacturer. The research will identify strategies and policies adopted by the company and recommend new policies based on the Equality Act.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Title: Role of Equality and Diversity in minimising the impact of gender pay gap
within the organisation. A case study on Sollatek.
INTRODUCTION
The organisations must take into consideration the concept of equality and diversity with the help
of which they can manage their workplace culture. This ensures that all the employees within the
organisation are treated equal and fair, which implies that each and every employee is provided
equal opportunity irrespective of their gender (Basu, 2017). The diversity leads to different talent
within the organisation that can facilitate the in achieving their objectives with varied ideas
suggested by them. With the globalisation the competition among the companies has been
increasing and this has impact on the organisation to keep their employees competent by way of
various trainings to them. Such training enables them to efficiently manage the change that is
taking place within the business environment. The diversity and equality among the workforce
motivates them to contribute to the organisation with commitment but for that the managers must
ensure that their does not exist any discrimination, gender pay gap, differentiated recruitment
policies etc. For undertaking this research a medium sized company Sollatek is taken into
consideration. The company is an innovative electronic products manufacturer which can be
used for controlling powers, temperature etc. The aim of conducting the research is to develop a
balanced workforce by ensuring equality and diversity among all the employees with which they
can manage them efficiently and can retain them for long.
TASK 1
P1) Aims and objectives of the research
Overview of the Research: This research is conducted for the Sollatek with the help of
which they can determine the role of equality and diversity in managing the gender pay gap
issues within the organisation. With this research various strategies and polices that has been
adopted by the company will be identified. On the basis of this research new polices and
strategies will be recommended to the company by considering various policies in the equality
act. For the research the data will be gathered with the help of both the primary sources as well
as secondary sources and thus will be evaluated from different methods. It facilitate the

investigator in providing recommendations to the company so that they manage the issue related
to diversity and equality within the organisation.
Aim of the research: The aim of the project is “to determine the role of equality and
diversity in minimising the impact of gender pay gap within the organisation.” A case study on
Sollatek.
Objectives of the research: The objectives of the project are:
 To determine the importance of equality act in managing the issues of gender pay gap within
the organisation.
 To identify the policies of Sollatek for managing the equality and diversity in the
organisation.
 To ascertain the benefits of implementing the concept of equality and diversity for the
Sollatek.
 To determine various policies and strategies with the help of which the company can
manage the impact of gender pay gap.
Questions: The questions of the research:
 What is the importance of equality act in managing the issues of gender pay gap within the
organisation?
 What are existing policies of Sollatek for managing the equality and diversity in the
organisation?
 What can be the benefits of implementing the concept of equality and diversity for the
Sollatek?
 What policies and strategies can be adopted by the company for managing the impact of
gender pay gap?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Importance of equality act in managing the issues of gender pay gap
According to Rob Gray, for an organisation it is important to consider various issues related
to equality and diversity such as gender pay gap so that they can manage their performance and
operations. As the equality act provides specific regulations for various issues related to equality
among the employees it becomes important for the organisation to comply with such regulations.
This enables them to satisfy their employees as well as to ensure avoidance of legal proceedings
by the government (Unequal pay still a problem, 2020).

Policies for managing the equality and diversity in the organisation
According to Deborah Ashton, various policies and strategies can be adopted by the
organisations for ensuring equality and diversity among all the employees as with this their
performance can be improved. Policies can be that the roles of both the employer and the
employees are defined clearly so that conflicts does not arise. Better recruitment and retaining
policies must be incorporated so that the morale of the staff can be enhanced and they can be
retained for a longer period of time. Importance of the employees must be focused so that impact
of globalisation can be reduced. Apart from this it is important for the organisation to focus upon
the legal compliances so that they can ensure equality among their employees (Curran, 2017).
Benefits of implementing the concept of equality and diversity
According to Louise Petty, the aim of equality and diversity is to ensure that each and every
employee has equal access to various opportunities and faces fair treatment. Incorporation of
such concept offers various advantages to the companies such as they can recruit the best talent
for their organisation, the existing staff members can be empowered efficiently and can be
retained for long which reduces the cost of training for the organisations. Also the cost of
turnover of the employees reduces for the company as this makes the organisational culture
comfortable and valuable to the employees. In addition to this the creativity of the employees can
be improved as they will be allowed to give their suggestions and recommendations to deal with
any issue or problem faced by the company (Equality & Diversity Improves Your Workplace,
2016).
Various policies and strategies for managing the impact of gender pay gap
According to Hira Ali, various policies must be incorporated by the companies so that they
can efficiently manage the issue of gender pay gap and this will also keep their employees
motivated which have direct impact and influence on their performance. The policies that can be
adopted by the company includes offering better paternal leaves so that both the parents get the
opportunity to take care of their child, flexibility in the working must be allowed so that both
work and home can efficiently be managed. Along with this, an improved work-life balance must
be ensured for both men and women within the organisation. All the unconscious bias must be
addressed so that such an act and its impact can be reduced on the overall organisational culture
(Five Strategies For Narrowing The Gender Pay Gap, 2020).

P2) Project management plan for the research
Project management plan is defined as a plan with the help of which different phases of the
project can be defined. It facilitates the researcher in guiding, controlling and monitors various
activities of the project. The components which are included in a management plan of a project
include resources, quality, cost, communication, scope and many more (Gambles,2017) With this
plan the value propositions of the project can be identified along with the reason for which the
project is undertaken. The activities that are to be performed are determined with various roles
and responsibilities to be allocated to different people. The project management plan for
undertaking this project is given below:
 Cost: For conducting the research an investigator has to incur some cost which is related
with the procurement of various resources. They have to gather information through
various sources for undertaking the research and while collecting such data they have to
take some subscriptions for which they have to pay some cost. Along with this they have
to pay stipend to the team members and also have to bear various travelling cost. The
total cost for undertaking this project is given below:
Description Cost
Survey 35£
Equipment for the project 30£
Travel cost 30£
Management cost 55£
Total 150£
 Scope: The scope of undertaking this project is that with the outcome of this project the
project manager of the Sollatek can formulate various strategies with which they can
manage the issue of gender pay gap within the organisation. With this they could easily
improve the performance of the organisation and can manage their employees.
 Time: It is important for the researcher to identify the timeframe within which the project
must be completed. For completing this project the researcher will be required 4 weeks
and on the basis of this they will allocate the time limit to their activities such as data
collection, data analysis etc. This will ensure that the project gets completed on time.

 Quality: To ensure better quality of the outcomes of the project it is important for them
to consider authentic sources while gathering data. The researcher can adopt the
technique of quality chart with which they can compare the information as per the
specifications so identified by them. In addition to this the benchmarking can also be
used by them for ensuring better quality of the project (Hebl and Avery, 2012).
 Communication: At the time of undertaking the project, researcher has to communicate
with the project manager of the company so that they can track the progress of the
project. The methods through which they can communicate are emails, video-conference,
reports, telephonic discussions etc.
 Risk: The investigator has to plan the mitigation of various risks faced by them while
undertaking the project. To complete the project on time the investigator will use various
techniques such as diagram technique in which they will develop Gantt chart, WBS etc.
with which they can divide the overall activities into small manageable sections along
with time limits. They may also face technical risk at the time of gathering data and
analysing them but with the help of various methods this risk can be resolved.
 Resources: The resources required to the investigator for undertaking this project include
various books, journals, website and many more. But for arranging them they will be
required to procure various resources for which they need to arrange funds as well. Also
for the assistance they can take help of interns who can help them in undertaking the
research.
P3) Work breakdown Structure and Gantt chart
Work breakdown structure is a technique with enables the researcher in dividing the entire
project into small and manageable chunks. This facilitates them to determine the activities that
they have to perform while undertaking the research. The sequence of the activities can also be
determined along with the roles that have to be associated with particular activity. With this the
researcher can efficiently allocate the roles as per the ability of team mates. The WBS ensures
that the projects get completed on time and the activities do not get duplicated as they have been
classified in a sequence. Also identification of various activities ensures that the activities can be
done simultaneously so that they objectives can be achieved efficiently within the time frame so
allocated for completing the project (Susmanschi, 2018).

Gantt chart is another technique with the help of which the time limit can be allocated to the
activities as per the complexity of the activity. In this the activities that are to be performed are
allocated on the vertical axis of the chart while the time limit is allocates on the horizontal axis.
With this each and every activity can be provided a time limit in which it has to be completed
which ensures that the project will complete on time and they can deliver the outcomes within
the assigned timeframe. In this the start date and the end date of the particular activities are
identified which facilitate the responsible person to ensure that one activity completes before the
other starts. The project managers can determine the status of the project completion by
comparing it with the time frame so allocated to them (Nardi, 2018).

TASK 2
P4) Small scale research with the help of qualitative and quantitative research
Research methodology is defined as a systematic study with the help of which an issue can
be studied by the researcher in detail by gathering various data and information. Research
methodology provides various tools and techniques that facilitate in collecting, analysing and
interpretation the information so gathered by the investigator. The data for the research can be
collected from various direct or indirect sources that can be both primary sources and secondary
sources.
Primary data is the data that has been collected by the investigator for the first time as per
the nature of the research from the primary sources. This data is considered to be first-hand data

that has been collected for a specific study. The results from primary data are most reliable and
authentic.
Secondary data is the existing data that has been collected by someone for research. It can
be collected from secondary sources and adjustments can be made as per the requirement. The
data is analysed and interpretation is done but it includes a generalisation of the data
(Hillson,2017).
The data can be gathered by the use of various methods that includes quantitative and
qualitative methods of research.
Qualitative method: Qualitative method of the conducting the research is that in which
data is expressed in words and it is also known as exploratory research. With this study can be
done with more accurate and in-depth information. Various questions can be asked from the
respondents that fall under the research so that their opinions can be gathered as the questions
asked are open-ended questions (Vickers, 2017). Various qualitative methods of data include
interview method, focus groups, case study method etc.
Quantitative method: Quantitative method is the method in which the data is gathered in
numbers and expressed in graphs and charts. With the help of this research, information can be
gathered from a large number of people through various methods such as questionnaire method,
survey, etc. In this method generally, the question that is asked includes multiple choice
questions so that people can respond to them easily and quickly (Wied, 2020).
Sampling is done by the investigator while undertaking the research project with the help
of which they select the people from the population who can provide relevant responses to them.
For this 40 employees are taken from Sollatek to respond to the questions.
For undertaking, this research both the methods of undertaking research are used and
questionnaires are used for gathering data. The questionnaire used for the research is given
below:
Questionnaire
Quantitative Questions
Q1) For how long you have been working within the organisation?
a) 0-2 years
b) 2-4 years

c) 4-6 years
d) More than 6 years
Q2) Do you think Equality Act is important to consider for managing the issue
of gender pay gap within an organisation?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What do you understand by the term equality?
a) Equality in the pay
b) Respect to all irrespective of their gender and designation
c) No discrimination
d) All the above
Q4) What do you think that Sollatek is facing an issue of gender pay gap?
a) Yes
b) No
Q5) While working in the organisation, have you faced any issue related to
equality and diversity?
a) Yes
b) No
Q6) Do you think Sollatek follows any policy or strategy for managing the
issues such as gender pay gap?
a) Yes
b) No
Q7) According to you what can be the impact of the issue of gender pay gap
on the organisation?
a) Demotivation among the employees
b) Frequent conflicts

c) Lack of understanding among employees
Q8) As per your view, what can be the possible reasons for the emergence of
an issue of gender pay gap?
a) Low paid job roles for the women
b) Man are offered senior positions
Qualitative Questions
Q9) Out of all these strategy which one is most suitable to your organisation
for managing the issue related to gender pay gap?
a) Developing diverse workforce
b) Developing workplace environment inclusive
c) Providing more liberty to the leaders
Q10) What can be the benefits of implementing the concept of equality and
diversity for the Sollatek?
a) Effective decision making
b) Better, creative and innovate culture
c) Minimises the conflicts
Q11) Suggest some ways with the help of which Sollatek treat their employees
equal and fair and can manage the issues of gender pay gap.....
TASK 3
P5) Analysis of the data with the help of various tools and techniques
Theme 1: Years of working
Q1) From how many years you have been working within the
organisation?
Frequency
a) 0-2 years 8
b) 2-4 years 12

c) 4-6 years 9
d) More than 6 years 11
Interpretation: On the basis of above graph, it is identified that most of the people are working
for 2 to 4 years which implies that they have significant understanding of various policies of
the Sollatek in comparison to those who have been working for 2 years.
Theme 2: Role of Equality Act
Q2) Do you think Equality Act is important to consider for
managing the issue of gender pay gap within an
organisation?
Frequency
a) Yes 28
b) No 12

Interpretation: On the basis of this graph, it can we analyse that most of the employees within
the organisation favour of considering equality act for resolving the issue of gender pay gap.
Theme 3: Equality in the organisation means
Q3) What do you understand by the term equality? Frequency
a) Equality in the pay 5
b) Respect to all irrespective of their gender and designation 6
c) No discrimination 6
d) All the above 23

Interpretation: Out of 40 employees 23 consider equality in terms of pay, respect and no
discrimination, while some employees are in favour of individual factors. With this it can be
analysed that the qualification of the employees in Sollatek is high due to which there
understanding is also better.
Theme 4: Organisation is facing the issue of gender pay gap
Q4) What do you think that Sollatek is facing an issue of
gender pay gap?
Frequency
a) Yes 20
b) No 20

Interpretation: In the above graph, it can be seen that 20 employees are in favour that the
company is facing the issue of gender pay gap while rest 20 says that they are not facing any
such issue.
Theme 5: Issue faced related to the equality and diversity within the
organisation
Q5) While working in the organisation, have you faced any
issue related to equality and diversity?
Frequency
a) Yes 10
b) No 30

Interpretation: Out of 40 people in the organisation, 10 employees are those who have been
facing problem related to the gender pay gap and equality. 30 employees say that they do not
face any issue which represents that better policies are adopted by the organisation.
Theme 6: Awareness of existing policy or strategy
Q6) Do you think Sollatek follows any policy or strategy for
managing the issues such as gender pay gap?
Frequency
a) Yes 27
b) No 13

Interpretation: On the basis of the above graph, it can be analysed that most of the employees
of Sollatek have awareness of policies and strategies adopted by the company for managing such
issues. They are considered to be the employees who have been working for long.
Theme 7: Impact of gender pay gap on the organisation
Q7) According to you what can be the impact of the issue
of gender pay gap on the organisation?
Frequency
a) Demotivation among the employees 12
b) Frequent conflicts 14
c) Lack of understanding among employees 14

Interpretation: On the basis of this graph, it can be analysed that 14 people are in favour that
the issue of the gender pay gap can leads to frequent conflicts among employees while 14 are in
favour that it will increase lack of understanding among the employees that have an impact on
the overall performance of the organisation. Out of 40, 12 employees say that it will lead to
demotivation among the employees of Sollatek.
Theme 8: Reasons for the issue of gender pay gap
Q8) As per your view, what can be the possible reasons for
the emergence of an issue of gender pay gap?
Frequency
a) Low paid job roles for the women 22
b) Man are offered senior positions 18

Interpretation: With the help of this graph it can be analysed that most of the women have this
belief that they have been offered low paid jobs while some have the belief that generally man
are offered senior position within the organisation as it is believed that they have more
capabilities. Out of 40 employees 22 are in favour of the fact that the women are offered low
paid jobs while 18 are in favour that most of the men are offered high designated jobs.
Qualitative Questions
Theme 9: Strategy can be adopted by the Sollatek
Q9) Out of all these strategy which one
is most suitable to your organisation
for managing the issue related to
gender pay gap?
Explanation
a) Developing diverse workforce With this better opinions and
suggestions can be gathered from
the diverse employees.
b) Developing workplace environment
inclusive
With this all the employees will be
encouraged to take part in activities

which will make them feel equal.
c) Providing more liberty to the leaders Least employees were in favour of
this as leaders always plays crucial
role more liberty to them cannot
lead to deal with this issue.
Theme 10: Benefits of Incorporating equality and diversity
Q10) What can be the benefits of
implementing the concept of equality
and diversity for the Sollatek?
Explanation
a) Effective decision making Employees believe that it will
contribute to the better decision
making as all the employees will
contribute with this.
b) Better, creative and innovate culture More employees were in this favour
that it will develop understanding
among employees and this will
improve organisational culture.
c) Minimises the conflicts Some are in favour that it will
reduce conflicts as well.
P6) Recommendations
On the basis of the analysis, it is identified that Sollatek needs to formulate various Strategies
and policies with the help of which they can manage the issue of gender pay gap by
implementing equality and diversity within the organisation. The recommendations provided to
the company on the basis of analysis are given below:

 The considerations related to the payment to employees that are given in the Equality Act
must be complied by the organisation as with this they can improve the satisfaction level
of the employees. The considerations include the data of payments to females and males
must be provided to the government so that they can regulate the practice of the
company.
 Various training must be provided to each and every employee irrespective of their
gender so that the competence and capability of every employee improves as this will
reduce the possibility of conflicts within the organisation.
 Various mentoring programs must be organised for the female employees with the help
of which they can be made capable and comfortable for each and every type of job.
 The negotiating policies of the company which insist women to behave like men must be
eliminated as it will allow women employees to express their opinions openly like other
male employees.
 The clause of paternity leave must be applied within the organisation and they must be
allowed to have such leave. This will bring change to the behavior of male employees
within the organisation as they will understand their responsibilities and will treat their
co-workers in a much better way.
 In each and every decision making process employees on the basis of their designation
and authority must be allowed to take part so that equality can be promoted within the
organisation and the employees can be motivated.
TASK 4
P7) Reflection on the values while undertaking the research
For conducting this research efficiently I collected data from different sources so that the
outcomes of the research can be made authentic and reliable. All the sources from where the data
was gathered were ensured and their authenticity was considered. For this research, I considered
both primary and secondary sources such as a questionnaire was prepared for which responses
were collected from the employees of Sollatek. With this, I could easily identify their opinions in
context of equality and diversity along with the issue of the gender pay gap. On the basis of my
study, I analyse that such issues have direct impact on the performance of the organisation due to
which the company must ensure that the employees have better understanding among them.

Also, I realise that my communication skills were not that very strong because I used to face
problems while communicating with the project managers of the company. To get over this I
took various online sessions with the help of which i could improve my writing skills in context
of formal letters and emails, report writing, etc. Another problem that I faced was related to the
analysis of the responses of the employees. This was because the perception of the employees
while responding to the question may vary to my perception and this can affect the outcome of
the research. Also, the issue of the gender pay gap is sensitive due to which the behaviour of the
employees was not appropriate due to which I faced problems in managing them. When I was
working with my team I have to guide them so that they can get the data efficiently from all the
sources as per the requirement of the research. At this point in research, I realise my leadership
and mentoring skills which is beneficial for undertaking various professional roles. This research
facilitated me in understanding importance and need of managing the issues of gender pay gap
along with equality and diversity for an organisation. With this I got to know the importance of
various strategies and policies for the organisation to manage its employees so that they can
achieve their objectives. The ability so developed of interpreting the data will be beneficial for
me while undertaking research in future.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that an organisation must consider equality and
diversity within their organisation so that they can keep their employees motivated and
committed towards their role. For this, it is important to treat all the employees equal and fair. It
can be done with the help of various strategies and policies so identified on the basis of data
about the research from primary and secondary sources. To facilitate the research it is important
that management plan is developed so that different activities can be identified, while to ensure
the completion of the project on time the technique of Gantt chart and work breakdown structure
can be used by the investigator. The qualitative and quantitative methods of research enable to
gather the data from which analysis can be made. Such analysis enables the researcher to
recommend various strategies and policies to the company with which they can resolve the
issues.

Logbook

Week No. Date
Identified
Update on weekly research (including new ideas or change in project
direction)
1 06-08-20
to
10-08-20
In this week the investigator will identify the issues which are faced by the
organisation on which they have top undertake the research. Also they will
determine the extend to which it has been affecting the company because they
accordingly have to plan for the further steps of the research.
2 11-08-20
to
17-08-20
In this week the aims and objectives of the research are identified by the researcher
with the help of which they will be planning various steps for the research. Along
with this the areas will be identified that will be considered within the research.
The objectives so formulated will facilitate the investigator in providing necessary
recommendations to manage the issues.
3 18-08-20
to
27-08-20
In this week the investigator will identify various secondary sources with the help
of which they can identify the view and the opinions of authors through various
articles, books and journals. Further it will enable in developing better
understanding of the areas in which the research has to be undertaken.
4 28-08-20
to
14-09-20
In this week or phase researcher will identify various methodologies that they will
take into consideration for collecting the data and its analysis. They will take into
consideration both primary and secondary research along with qualitative and
quantitative data.
5 15-09-20
to
13-10-20
In this week the data will actually be collected by the researcher through
questionnaire from the selected respondents which includes 40 employees of
Sollatek who are working within the company. The researcher will approach them
directly within the office campus and the employees will be selected with the help
of random sampling method.
6 14-10-20
to
06-11-20
In this week the analysis of the data will be done by the researcher with the help of
which they can take into consideration the impact and influences of various
aspects mentioned in the objectives of the research.

Week No. Date
Identified
Update on weekly research (including new ideas or change in project
direction)
7 09-11-20
to
17-11-20
On the basis of the analysis of the data the researcher will identify various
recommendations to be made to the company so that they can ensure that make
necessary changes within the organisation and can get over the issues faced by
them.
8 18-11-20
to
24-11-20
In this week reflection will be made by the researcher within the help of which
they can identify the changes that they have to make in their future research are
identified. This will enable the researcher to undertake better planning in future
and in making various improvements.
9 25-11-20
to
26-11-20
On the basis of this research the final reports will be prepared by the investigator
that will enable the project manager of the company to incorporate changes so that
the issues faced can be managed.