HRM Strategies: Promoting Gender Diversity for Women in UK Firms

This report examines common Human Resource Management (HRM) practices used in UK workforces to promote gender diversity for women, evaluating their efficacy and highlighting less recognized but effective strategies. It discusses initiatives by companies like Lloyds Bank, Virgin Money UK, Paddy Power Betfair, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Sage UK, and Marks and Spencer’s, focusing on aspects such as gender pay gap reduction, maternity leave policies, mentoring programs, and flexible working options. The report identifies enablers and barriers to adopting new practices, noting Virgin Money UK's targeted executive personnel and internal diversity goals as standout approaches. While most companies show progress, Paddy Power Betfair lags in gender pay equality. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

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Table of Contents
Common Practices for Promoting Gender Diversity for Women in Workforces in the UK and
the Efficacy of Such Practices....................................................................................................2
Effective Practices for the Promotion of Gender Diversity for Women in Workforces in the
UK which are not Recognized or Widely Adopted...................................................................6
Enablers and Barriers to the Adoption of New Practices...........................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Common Practices for Promoting Gender Diversity for Women in Workforces in the
UK and the Efficacy of Such Practices
Gender Diversity is a subject that is being addressed by work places and business
organizations in every part of the world, and the United Kingdom is no exception. As argued
by Andrews and Ashworth (2015), it is being increasingly recognized that women form an
invaluable part of work culture and the work force, irrespective of the type of job or
profession that they are in. However, experts are of the viewpoint that as per the current UK
business standards it would take more than 70 years to get gender equality in the board rooms
of the different UK business enterprises (Page 2017).
As opined by Moore (2015), some of the most important problems faced by the
women in these organizations which hinder their work related performance in a significant
manner are gender pay gap, inadequate maternity leave policies, mentoring, flexibility work,
education sponsorship and others. Thus, the different organizations of UK are taking the help
of various kinds of measures so as to attain gender diversity within their workplace and also
to offer the kind of opportunities to the women of their organization which are likely to
enable them to perform on par with the male employees of the same. In this regard, mention
needs to be made of the banking organization Lloyd Bank which has taken significant strides
in the recent times to foster gender diversity within its workplace and also to ensure the fact
that the women of the organization have adequate growth opportunities. More importantly,
the organization ensures the fact that more than 40% of the 4000 employees of the
organization are women (Lloydsbankinggroup.com 2019). Furthermore, the organization
offers the right kind of training to these women employees so as to ensure that latter on in
their professional career they are being able to undertake executive roles. Moreover, the
organization realizing the fact that if the professional career of these employees are going to

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span for more than 40-50 years then they are likely to require maternity leaves and also time
off their work to care for their children and family (Lloydsbankinggroup.com 2019). In order
to address this, the organization offers a maternity leave to the women employees for a
maximum period of 1.5 years and also offers flexible working options to them (Lee and
Kramer 2016). The net result of all these initiatives of the organization is the fact that the
concerned banking institution ranked among the top 50 organizations of the world in terms of
women diversity and the measures which are undertaken for the empowerment of the same
(Lloydsbankinggroup.com 2019). It is an indicative of this fact that the banking institution in
order to promote gender diversity has made Claire Calmejane the Director of Innovation and
also similar growth and enterprise leadership opportunities are being offered to other capable
as well as qualified female employees of the organization (Eagly 2016).
According to Lee and Kramer (2016), a number of ways by which Virgin Money UK
has addressed the matter of gender diversity is to appoint executive personnel who are solely
responsible for all matters related to gender diversity and inclusion. In this regard, it needs to
be said that in the year 2016 the gender pay gap was 36% whereas in the year 2018 the
organization was able to reduce this gap to less than 28.9% (Virgin 2019). This can be
attributed to the organization 50:50 recruitment policies, focus on the notion of “equal work
equal pay”, fixed number of working hours for both men and women and others (Virgin
2019). According to Ozturn and Tatli (2016), it has set internal targets for the purpose of
gender diversity at the senior levels of its management and parts of the company’s
remuneration packages are connected to the firm’s executive team with a view to achieving a
gender balance target. More importantly, as per the “Women in Finance Charter in 2016”, the
organization currently has more than 30% in the higher management positions in addition to
the active executive roles that they are playing within the framework of the concerned
organization (Virgin 2019). Furthermore, the organization offers a year’s maternity leave to

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the women employees and also offers adequate mentoring and coaching services so that they
are being to maintain a balance between their work and personal lives and also give an
effective performance for the organization. In this regard, mention needs to be made of the
various programs launched by Richard Branson, the founder of the organization for the
women employees like “Mummy Money Matters” and others (Kakabadse et al. 2015).
The organization Paddy Power Betfair has a very low level of gender diversity and
also the gender pay gap is quite high and few women are recruited to top levels of the
management (Hutchinson, Mack and Plastow 2015). There is a discrepancy in terms of pay as
well as bonus. According to Andrews and Ashworth (2015), this is largely due to the fact that
bonus is restricted to senior workers only and the company has more men working for it than
women. The company has launched an initiative known as Fair Game in 2017 since it knows
it has plenty to do in order to address gender diversity, with the aim of including more
women into its work force. It signed up for the All Diversity Project in 2018 with the same
intention (Paddyppowerbetfair.com 2019). More importantly, the organization so as to place
the women employees of the organization on par with the male employees has resorted to the
use of various policies like flexible work timing, work education sponsorship and others
(Greene and Kirton 2015). Furthermore, the organization is currently offering various kinds
of mentoring and coaching services to the women employees so that they are being to met the
requirements of the organization and also play an increasingly important role within the
organization. In addition to these, mention also needs to be made of the “Maternity Buddy
Program” which is primarily intended for the women employees who are returning from
children (Paddyppowerbetfair.com 2019). The main focus of this program is to enable these
women employees cope up with their emotions after child birth and also adjust to the
working environment and the work that they are required to perform in the organization.

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In the view of Bendl et al. (2015), Enterprise Rent-A-Car is another company that is
considered to be one of the leading proponents of gender equality and gender diversity in the
UK. Inclusion and diversity form a central component of the company’s business agenda and
it provides women with a work environment in which they can truly thrive (Enterprise.co.uk,
2019). As argued by Eagly (2016), each and every designation, from that of accounting, to
graduate management trainee to IT, all of these roles provide women working for the
company with plenty of room for growth. Pay is something that is linked directly to
performance only. Thus, as argued by Farndale et al. (2015), and Donelly (2015), the more
women work the more that it is that they get out of this job. In the view of Syed and Ozbilgin
(2015), Sage UK ensures diversity in every form by ensuring equal pay for men and women
in the organization and by recruiting an equal number of men and women as a part of its
workforce. Gender parity is something that the company has been working at long and hard
with both women as well as men being allowed to work up to the top (Sage.com, 2019).
Marks and Spencer’s ensures that the same number of men and women are hired into the
organization and that they get the same or equal amount of pay. It also ensures that women
get the same amount in terms of a bonus that men do, and tries to make sure that women are
represented well in the company, just like men are (Marks and Spencer 2019).
In the view of Green and Kirton (2015), as far as efficacy of the gender diversity
practices are concerned, all companies other than Paddy Power Betfair are seen to be doing a
good job. Hutchinson et al. (2015), agree, stating that Sage Publications ensures equal
representation in the workforce and equal pay and bonuses for women and men. Schneid et
al. (2015), further add that Marks and Spencer’s does the same. Sheehan and Anderson
(2015) state that Enterprise Rent-A-Car gives women room for growth in each and every
category of work that is done by the company. As argued by Kakabadse et al. (2015), Lloyd
Bank’s practice of gender diversity has proven to be extremely effective has it has managed

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to recruit a considerable number of women into its top management, while Virgin Money UK
has set itself regular and specific internal targets for the purpose of achieving gender
diversity. According to Theodorakopoulos and Budhwar (2015), only Paddy Power Betfair is
lagging behind with the gender pay gap still being so high.
Effective Practices for the Promotion of Gender Diversity for Women in Workforces in
the UK which are not Recognized or Widely Adopted
Some of the effective practices for promoting gender diversity for women in the work
force in the UK that are not too recognized or widely adopted are those that are implemented
by Virgin Money UK. The company specifically recruits executive personnel whose
responsibility it is to see that matters of gender, diversity and inclusion are addressed. In this
regard, mention needs to be made of the “Empowering Productivity: harnessing the talents of
women in financial services” presented by Virgin Money’s Chief Executive, Jayne-Anne
Gadhia is important one which states the manner in which the organization can further
enhance its gender diversity (Virgin 2019). There are internal targets like making the gender
pay gap 0%, having a 50:50 male and female workforce and also management team that the
company sets for itself in order to achieve gender diversity and remuneration packages are
structured to ensure that there is no gender pay gap, especially with regard to the company’s
senior management (Virgin 2019). In the view of Moore (2015), while Marks and Spencer,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car and, Lloyd Bank have been doing a good job of addressing gender
diversity, the practices adopted by Virgin Money UK are those that definitely stand out and
ought to be implemented by the other companies as well to better achieve gender diversity
targets. As argued by Mor Barak (2015), Paddy Power Betfair is not effective at all where
gender diversity and inclusion is concerned since the gender pay gap in the organization is
still more than 39% even in the present times. Hence its involvement in the All Diversity

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Campaign and Fair Workforce initiatives should ultimately help it to be a champion of gender
diversity at some point.
Enablers and Barriers to the Adoption of New Practices
In the view of Lewis et al. (2017), as far as enablers and barriers to the adoption of
new barriers are concerned, there is seems to be no challenge that is faced in addressing
gender diversity by companies like Virgin Money UK, Lloyd Bank, Enterprise Rent a Car,
Sage Publications and Marks and Spencer’s. The enablers are the individuals like the women
returning from child birth, women employees, management teams and others who work for
the implementation of these policies whereas the barriers can be existing corporate
governance policy of these organizations, male employees and others who are likely to inhibit
the implementation of these measures (Farndale et al. 2015). According to Page (2017), only
Paddy Power Betfair states that a major challenge that it is faced with when it comes to
addressing gender diversity is the fact that it has more men working for it than women,
something that comes across as an excuse rather than a challenge. As argued by West and
Kaur (2015), what enables companies like Virgin Money UK, Enterprise Rent A Car, Sage
Publications, Lloyd Bank and Marks and Spencers to address gender diversity is its sheer
acknowledgement of the fact that women form a vital component of the workforce in the UK
and that they can contribute positively to business outcomes and goals as well as men can.

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References
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Bendl, R., Bleijenbergh, I., Henttonen, E. and Mills, A.J. eds., 2015. The Oxford handbook of
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