Vitality’s 2023 gender and ethnicity pay gap report
At Vitality, we’re committed to diversity and inclusion because it’s good for our employees, for our business, and for society.
We want all our great people to bring all of themselves to work, so that they can liberate the best in themselves. We know that diversity fosters innovation, which is part of our DNA. And we believe that inclusive diversity promotes social cohesion, which benefits society.
Diversity and inclusion chime with our shared value model, and advance our core purpose, which is to make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives. Diversity and inclusion are also explicitly called out in our values.
Gender pay gap
We have successfully reduced our mean gender pay gap by almost 1.5% since last year and almost 12% since 2018
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean pay gap | 31.55 | 26.59 | 25.79 | 22.92 | 20.94 | 19.60 |
| Median pay gap | 16.50 | 15.52 | 15.03 | 12.12 | 10.28 | 9.81 |
We’re confident that men and women get equivalent pay for equivalent work at Vitality. This was confirmed by a review which established that differences in pay for the same role are explained by factors such as performance, experience, tenure, and office location (London jobs attract a premium) – and are not influenced by gender or ethnicity.
Our pay gap is explained by the under-representation of female employees in senior leadership roles. We are committed to increasing the number of women in these roles as positions become available and will be able to draw on a strong layer of female talent at the level below the executive.
Vitality has implemented a raft of initiatives aimed at facilitating the advancement of women, and we’re making good progress. We have:
- Signed up to the Women in Finance Charter, with a goal of gender parity at senior levels by 2025.
- Set a target of 60% external female appointments to higher paying roles – and we’re meeting that target.
- Enhanced and equalised parental leave entitlements and signed up to the Association of British Insurers’ transparent parental leave and pay initiative.
- Changed our recruitment and selection practices to source more talented women, including using gender neutral language and promoting flexible working options. Our hybrid working policy, which requires employees to attend the office two days a week, also supports working parents.
- Rolled out annual executive mentoring programmes for high performing, high potential employees (mostly women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds).
- Applied a gender lens to succession planning to develop a female talent pipeline.
- Consulted our Women’s Forum on gender-related issues.
- Participated in the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Insuring Women’s Futures campaign.
- Encouraged employees to update their diversity data on our HR system to enable us to track progress.
- Appointed and trained a business-wide network of diversity and inclusion champions.
- Rolled out unconscious bias training to all managers and included a module on diversity and inclusion in annual compulsory training for all employees.
- Continued to evolve the D&I hub on our internal communications platform.
- Introduced child-minding, fertility, menopause, and parent support services for employees.
- Piloted Lean-In circles for female employees.
- Rolled out a leadership development programme for women in partnership with everywoman, which is being repeated this year.
- Introduced a parent buddy scheme.
2023 gender pay gap numbers
| Difference between men and women |
||
|---|---|---|
| |
Mean |
Median |
| Hourly fixed pay | 19.60 | 9.81 |
| Bonus paid | 62.25 | 22.18 |
This table reflects our gender pay gap at the snapshot date (5 April 2023).
Bonus distribution
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus distribution | 92% |
93% |
Pay quartiles
2,346 employees in total (1,224 female, 1,122 male). 586 or 587 employees in each quartile.
| Pay quartiles | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | 54% | 46% |
| Quartile 2 | 58% | 42% |
| Quartile 3 | 54% | 46% |
| Highest | 42% | 58% |
Ethnicity pay gap
Our ethnicity pay gap for 2023, calculated using data provided voluntarily by employees, was 6.53%. In 2022 it was 4.49% and in 2021 it was 4.28%. The relatively small size of this cohort of employees makes these numbers sensitive to small changes in employee demographics.
| Mean | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly fixed pay | 6.53% | -1.08% |
| Bonus paid | 35.72% | 7.36% |
The profile of employees who have disclosed their ethnicity is detailed below:
| Headcount | ||
|---|---|---|
| BAME | 201 | 8.6% |
| White | 1,300 | 55.4% |
| Not disclosed | 845 | 36% |
Our ethnicity pay gap is explained by the under-representation of Black, Asian and ethnic minority employees in senior leadership roles. We are confident employees receive equivalent pay for equivalent work regardless of their ethnicity.
We are committed to increasing the number of employees from an ethnic minority background in senior leadership roles and to developing a strong talent pipeline of ethnic minority employees.
To support the advancement of employees from an ethnic minority background at Vitality, we have (in consultation with Vitality’s Let’s Talk Race Forum):
- Developed a race fluency e-learning pathway.
- Published our commitment to diversity and inclusion on our careers site.
- Signed the Race at Work Charter.
- Supported a campaign to make ethnicity pay gap reporting mandatory.
- Applied a D&I lens to our engagement survey analysis.
- Applied an ethnicity lens to succession planning.
- Observed Black History month in various ways.
Other D&I initiatives
Other D&I-related initiatives at Vitality in the past year which have supported employees of all ethnicities and genders included the introduction of:
- A flexi-retirement benefit
- An ADHD and autism diagnosis and treatment benefit
- Access to Inflow, an app created by ADHD clinicians and psychologists to help people understand neurodivergence, build lifelong skills, and get things done.
We have also launched a forum for LGBTQ+ employees.
Judy Parfitt
Chief People Officer, Vitality