Midcounties Co-operative: ethnicity pay gap insights

• Uncategorized
• Race Equality
• Healthy_Business
• Diversity and Inclusion

The Midcounties Co-operative has a long and rich history, dating back to the 19^th century. It operates a broad portfolio of businesses, including food, travel, childcare and utilities on behalf of its 700,000 members, and has a purpose stating that “Through the power of co-operation, we’re building a fairer, more sustainable and ethical future”.

Commitment to race equality

The business aims to create an open, transparent and supportive workplace culture that encourages the development, progression and retention of its colleagues, in line with Co-operative values and principles.  

To help support this aim, Midcounties Co-operative signed our Race at Work Charter, which asks businesses to make a public commitment to improving equality of opportunity in the workplace, including capturing ethnicity data and publicising progress.

How did you capture your ethnicity data?

In 2021, a five-year target was set to ensure better representation, aiming for 16% of the workforce to be from a Black, Asian, Mixed Race or ethnically diverse background. The Executive leadership team also have this measure as part of their long-term incentive plan.

At the time, very few organisations were reporting on their ethnicity pay gap. Midcounties Co-operative believed that doing so was just as important as reporting on mandatory gender pay gap reporting. Senior leadership also felt public reporting in this way would encourage other organisations to do the same and help this become normal practice. 

The company followed the five-category data analysis, suggested by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This resulted in an impressive disclosure rate of 97.8%.

Rebekah Smallwood, Head of Colleague Experience, believes that colleagues feel comfortable disclosing their ethnicity as Midcounties Co-operative goes the extra mile to foster a strong sense of trust and respect for diversity and inclusion.

“Colleagues are aware of our DOES (Democracy, Openness, Equality, Social Responsibility) values. That’s helped them understand that we are using demographic information in a positive, and transparent way through pay gap reporting and the work delivered by our Inclusion Allies Network to help make a real difference in this area.”

Shaping decisions

The insights gathered through the ethnicity pay gap report were used to inform decision-making in areas such as recruitment, benchmarking, pay and development; challenging for example, partner recruitment agencies to ensure diversity of candidates, in line with the demographics of the communities in which the organisation trades. 

The commitment to address pay inequalities boosted colleague morale and increased engagement and a sense of belonging, particularly from those from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse backgrounds. As a result, the ethnicity pay gap has been reduced from 4.3% in 2022, to 3.15% in 2023.

The organisation has been enhancing its reporting further by splitting out ‘White’ to give a more accurate representation based on ethnicity and not just skin colour. This allows for a more granular result, and planning on how to address.

What advice would Midcounties Co-operative give to another organisation?

In light of the recent Draft Equality (Race and Disability) bill, Rebekah Smallwood advises: “Be really specific and give reasons as to why you are asking for this data, so colleagues understand the importance of the report. For example, highlighting the fact the data collected can guide policies and initiatives aimed at promoting fairness and equality in the workplace.”

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