We understand and fully support the social policy behind the gender pay gap reporting legislation. As a company and group of companies, we are willing to be open about how we treat males and females and we are committed to addressing inequality if it is identified.
Importantly, we are confident that there are no concerns regarding unequal pay in any of our companies. We carry out regular reviews of our basic pay rates as well as our bonus and commission structures and are certain that we pay males and females at the same rate and based on the same criteria.
Our gender pay gap is calculated in accordance with The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.
Across our company, our mean (average) gender pay gap is 25.8% and our median (middle) gender pay gap is 20.2%. These figures are based on a snapshot of earnings taken in April 2017. We have provided the data split by the individual companies in our group*.
| Mean Pay Gap | Median Pay Gap | Mean Bonus Gap | Median Bonus Gap | |
| Spire | 24.5% | 16.5% | 60.6% | 81.7% |
| Barons | 20.7% | 17.6% | 50.5% | 60.6% |
| Hodgson | 26.9% | 24.1% | 79.8% | 100.0% |
| Think | 33.4% | 26.2% | 74.2% | 100.0% |
| Group | 25.8% | 20.2% | 66.8% | 90.3% |
*Spire includes Barons Borehamwood, Barons Watford, Barons Kentish Town, Barons Ruislip, Finchley Road Audi, Watford Audi, Whetstone Audi, Hatfield Audi, Hatfield SEAT, Watford SEAT, Lakeside SEAT, Hatfield VWCV, Watford Jaguar.
Barons includes Barons Bedford, Barons Cambridge, Barons Stansted.
Hodgson includes Stansted Audi, Southend Audi, Chelmsford Audi, Harold Wood Audi, Chingford Audi, Audi Approved Colchester.
Think includes Think Ford Wokingham, Think Ford Farnborough, Think Ford Guildford, Think Ford Bracknell, Think Ford Reading, Think Ford Newbury, Think Ford Basingstoke.
Our group average gender pay gap is represented here in pounds.
We believe our gender pay gap is due to there being:
For some time our automotive industry has attracted male candidates for employment, unintentionally rather than by design. This follows a social history of schooling systems and colleges encouraging male interest in our industry’s technology. Our workforce reflects that history. We are proud to say that the brands we work with are leading the industry in terms of attracting female interest in the technology and the sales element of motor vehicles. Particularly, our partner brands as well as many dealerships within our company are reaching out to schools, colleges and other channels that may attract candidates for work experience, apprenticeships and trainees with the specific message that the industry can offer a vibrant career for women. Our industry has also adopted the nation’s 30% Club in its own Automotive 30% Club (chaired by Julia Muir) that aims to fill at least 30% of key leadership positions in its member organisations by women. We are proud members of that group.
The majority of our target driven roles that offer bonus related pay are technical and therefore labour intensive, or are in a sales environment that require a longer working week. Both of these elements have historically been considered less attractive to female candidates. Introductions of new technology make the labour less intensive and the company has been working with its sales workforce to accommodate flexible working applications. We hope both of these changes will encourage females to consider applying for target driven roles with bonus related pay.
Our companies support part time and flexible working in appropriate positions and our workforce mirrors the nationwide pattern of approximately 75% of part time positions being held by women. We now recognise that our companies mirror the national picture of slower wage growth in part time positions and will consider means of addressing this such as basing pay increases on an hourly rate as opposed to a final annual salary.
| Highest Quartiles | Second Quartile | Third Quartile | Fourth Quartile | |||||
| Males | Females | Males | Females | Males | Females | Males | Females | |
| Spire 168 employees in each quartile | 90.9% | 9.1% | 80.0% | 20.0% | 65.1% | 34.9% | 74.7% | 25.3% |
| Barons 66 employees in each quartile | 92.3% | 7.7% | 78.8% | 21.2% | 62.1% | 37.9% | 76.9% | 23.1% |
| Hodgson 100 employees in each quartile | 92.1% | 7.9% | 84.0% | 16.0% | 53.0% | 47.0% | 71.0% | 29.0% |
| Think 91 employees in each quartile | 95.6% | 4.4% | 90.0% | 10.0% | 72.2% | 27.8% | 88.9% | 11.1% |
| Group 425 employees in each quartile | 92.2% | 7.8% | 83.6% | 16.4% | 63.6% | 36.4% | 75.3% | 24.7% |
Our recruitment, career development and succession planning policies are all non-discriminatory and inclusive. We appoint candidates based strictly on a competency based assessment. We award development opportunities, promotion and training based on merit, all of which we feel enhances our emphasis on gender equality. We offer training to our management teams responsible for implementing these policies and all of our training (whether internally designed or held by one of our partner brands) is delivered with the specific message of our equal opportunities policy in mind.
Next steps that we can take to reduce our gender pay gap start with reaching out to more female candidates by a) actively advertising positions on female-oriented platforms, and b) re-energising our engagement with local schools and colleges. We hope increasing our female to male staff ratio should naturally lead to a higher proportion of women in better-paid positions provided all of our training, career development and equal opportunities policies are embraced. We will also review our development mechanisms for aspiring managers so we are confident they provide appropriate support for female employees. We are committed to reducing our gender pay gap and will discuss a gender pay gap target for consideration over the next five years.
Darren Guiver
Managing Director, Group 1 Automotive UK
Paul Daynes
HR Director, Group 1 Automotive UK
