HKA supports the UK Government requirement for employers to publish their gender pay gap data, which helps to inform more effective strategies and actions to promote gender equality in the workplace.
At HKA, we make merit-based decisions about our people (e.g., hiring, promoting, rewarding, selecting colleagues for projects, etc.). We also take action to treat our people fairly, value differences, include everyone appropriately, and prevent discrimination.
To continue improving and growing HKA while being the best employer, we focus on rewarding results following merit-based decisions. In addition, we prevent discrimination and give fair and equal consideration to all.
Our UK gender pay gap is one of the metrics used for measuring merit-based gender equality across our UK business. It is linked to our Total Reward and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategies to improve merit-based gender equality and is underpinned by our People vision: Everything we do makes HKA a great place for our excellent people to work, grow and enjoy.
Kate Wood, Partner Chief People Officer said: “Everything we do makes HKA a great place for our excellent people to work, grow and enjoy.”
In this Employer Statement, you will find key information on HKA’s UK Gender Pay Gap results as of 5 April 2024 (the UK Government snapshot date). Detailed is our approach to our UK Gender Pay Gap, context and drivers, followed by the actions and strategies we are taking to continue to improve our UK Gender Pay Gap.
What the UK Gender Pay Gap tells us: The UKGender Pay Gap tells us the difference between the mean (average) or median (midpoint) pay between women and men within the organisation across the UKworkforce (in this context, this is across all our UK employees, regardless of role or level). Employee gender at HKA is disclosed on a voluntary basis. As per the UK Government guidelines, UK employees who identity as non-binary are excluded from the UK Gender Pay Gap calculations.
For reference, the lower the percentage, the better the Gender Pay Gap.
What the UK Gender Pay Gap does not tell us: The UK Gender Pay Gap is not the same as equal/fair pay as it does not indicate a disparity of pay within role levels. Equal/fair pay assesses whether individual women, men, or other gender identities with equivalent levels of experience and performance are paid differently for the same or equivalent work.
HKA’s approach to our UK Gender Pay Gap:
At HKA, we are passionate about having a talented team, a merit based high performing culture with increasingly good diversity. We are committed to organically achieving a merit-based gender balance. In the last 12 months, pleasingly our UK Gender Pay Gap has reduced, yet we know we still have work to do, and we are committed to improving our merit-based gender equality.
Merit-based gender equality continues to be an area of focus for HKA in the UK. In the UK, we have made progress in improving our UK gender pay gap and this is evidenced in our 2024 results, which have improved since 2023.
We know we still have work to do and we are committed to continuing to build on these improvements in 2025 and beyond, which in turn will help us continue to close our UK Gender Pay Gap and organically improve merit-based gender equality.
HKA’s key 2024 UK Gender Pay Gap results –
As of the snapshot date 5 April 2024, HKA’s UK Gender Pay Gap results are below and follow the precise definition and calculations required by the UK Government:
- HKA’s average UK Gender Pay Gap for hourly pay as of 5 April 2024 was 32.9%
- Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s average hourly salary, expressed as a percentage of men’s hourly salary, across all levels.
- Improvement: This result has improved by 2.7% since 2023
- HKA’s median (the middle point) UK Gender Pay Gap for hourly pay as of 5 April 2024 was 34.1%
- Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s median (the middle point) hourly salary, expressed as a percentage of men’s hourly salary, across all levels.
- Improvement: This result has improved by 15% since 2023
- HKA’s average UK Gender Pay Gap for bonus pay as of 5 April 2024 was 9%
- Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s average bonus pay, expressed as a percentage of men’s bonus pay, across all levels.
- Improvement: This result has improved by 14.7% since 2023
- HKA’s median (the middle point) UK Gender Pay Gap for bonus pay as of 5 April 2024 was 40%
- Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s median (the middle point) bonus pay, expressed as a percentage of men’s bonus pay, across all levels.
- Status: This result has gone down by 1% since 2023
To see the full 2024 report for HKA’s UK Gender Pay Gap results, please visit the UK Government Gender Pay Gap Service: UK Gender pay gap reports for HKA GLOBAL LTD. – Gender pay gap service
UK Gender Pay Gap Drivers at HKA
As of 5 April 2024, HKA in the UK had more male than female employees (64% vs. 36%), hired, promoted and retained based on merit. Additionally, we had more males in UK-based management positions (78%) than females (22%), which typically attract higher total rewards and thus impacts our UK Gender Pay Gap.
At HKA, there were two main outcomes after applying the UK Government criteria to our UK Gender Pay Gap data:
- As of 5 April 2024, HKA’s UK workforce comprised of 36% women and 64% men, hired, promoted and retained based on merit. Employee gender at HKA is disclosed on a voluntary basis. As per the UK Government guidelines, UK employees who identity as non-binary are currently excluded from the UK Gender Pay Gap calculations.
- As of 5 April 2024, in the UK we had a higher percentage of men in management positions (78%) than women in management positions (22%) e.g. Partner, Principal, Director level. Management roles typically attract higher total reward, and proportionally at HKA in the UK more men occupy our management roles than women, thus impacting our UK Gender Pay Gap. This does not mean there is a pay disparity in role levels, as UK Gender Pay Gap considers the whole UK workforce, regardless of role/level.
UK Actions and Strategies
HKA UK is committed to improving our UK Gender Pay Gap through a fair and merit-based approach, including, total reward, clear career progression routes to Partnership, and comprehensive learning and development opportunities, including mentorship. We have also enhanced our UK family-friendly policies and established a dedicated UK Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee. Our goal is to foster a healthy, open, and merit based high-performing culture while actively working to prevent discrimination.
HKA recognises that achieving merit-based gender pay equality takes time, cultural change, and action in several different areas. Successful actions we are taking to continue to improve our UK Gender Pay Gap and tackle some of the drivers outlined above, include:
- A fair and merit-based UK total reward approach– clearly communicated and embedded though the inclusion of gender and performance metrics to support fair and merit-based decision making. In addition, we refer to objective internal and external benchmarking data to eliminate bias. We implement merit based decision making with equality, diversity and inclusion principles in all our People decisions.
- Clear career progression routes to Partnership in the UK – To positively influence our UK Gender Pay Gap, we have an application-based, robust, and transparent Partner track programme that provides direction, mentorship and development to enable our top talent to achieve Partner status over a defined period.
- Learning and development opportunities in the UK, including mentoring – To help HKA UK employees progress in their careers, learning and development opportunities are available to all. HKA also has an established global mentor programme supported by a mentor matching platform to help mentors and mentees grow, learn and develop professionally.
- Our corporate signatory for Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses (ERE) – HKA has signed the ERE pledge to support Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses. The ERE pledge aims to enhance the global representation of women as expert witnesses in dispute resolution procedures, striving ultimately for complete gender parity.
- Our corporate signatory for Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) – In recognition of the under-representation of women on international arbitral tribunals, HKA has signed the ERA pledge. The Pledge seeks to increase, on an equal opportunity basis, the number of women appointed as arbitrators in order to achieve a fair representation as soon practically possible, with the ultimate goal of full parity.
- UK Family-friendly policies – To support attraction and retention and gender equality, we have an enhanced parental leave policy for our UK employees. In addition, we support our UK employees’ flexible working arrangements to fit around their family life.
- UK Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee – HKA has established executive-sponsored, employee-led ED&I Committees in each of our regions. In the UK, our ED&I committee is dedicated to ensuring equality for everyone, diversity is valued, ensuring all our employees are included. In the UK we also continue to improve gender equality, making HKA a more inclusive place to work for everyone, and coming together to recognise and celebrate noteworthy international days such as International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day.
- In the UK, we are promoting a healthy, open, honest, high-performing merit-based culture and preventing discrimination– In the UK, HKA is an equal opportunities employer. We put merit first while believing that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, belief or religion, sex and sexual orientation). Additionally, we ensure our employees know how they can raise concerns and have embedded Grievance, Whistleblowing and Disciplinary policies.
At HKA, Equality is for everyone. Diversity valued. Inclusion always.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via the contact details below.
Contact Details
Hayley Abrahams
Global Total Reward Manager
HayleyAbrahams@hka.com
Ph: +44 7521 389 640
Kate Wood
Partner, Chief People Officer
KateWood@hka.com
Ph: +44 7395 833 829
