Minimising Gender Pay Gap at Sollatek: Equality & Diversity Role

This report examines the critical role of equality and diversity in mitigating the gender pay gap within organizations, using Sollatek as a case study. The research begins with an introduction to equality and diversity, emphasizing the importance of fair treatment and equal opportunities in the workplace. The report outlines the research aims, objectives, and key questions, followed by a comprehensive literature review that explores the importance of the equality act, various policies for managing equality and diversity, the benefits of implementation, and strategies for managing the gender pay gap. A project management plan is detailed, including cost analysis, scope, time constraints, quality assurance, communication strategies, risk assessment, and resource allocation. The report further includes a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and a Gantt chart to illustrate project timelines and task management. The report offers a small-scale research component to further investigate the topic, providing insights and recommendations for Sollatek to foster a balanced and equitable workforce.

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