AkzoNobel 2022 Gender Pay Report

Foreword
 

AkzoNobel is proud to be building a diverse and inclusive company where we can all perform at our best and support others in their success. By becoming a more inclusive employer, great people will want to work here who can help drive us forward and understand and anticipate the changing needs and expectations of our customers. “We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where employees are rewarded equally, regardless of their gender – in addition to improving female representation, especially at senior levels in the organisation. To prevent a gender pay gap, we follow a rewards philosophy of globally structured compensation based on market references and performance.” (excerpt from 2022 Annual Report).

The historical gender imbalance which exists within some business areas continues to be an area of focus for all UK Management Teams. We have implemented initiatives to seek to address these imbalances where they exist. Equally, we acknowledge that real and long-term difference to the current gender pay gap will take time and as a company, we remain committed to continuing this journey. 

Approach Taken

Under the requirements specified by UK legislation, we are required to report on the legal entities within our Group which have over 250 ‘UK employees’ (as defined in accordance with that legislation). The data provided in this report is based upon the snapshot date of 5 April 2022, and the 12-month reference period up to 5 April 2022 for the purpose of bonus analysis.

Statutory Disclosure

There are three legal entities within the AkzoNobel Group of companies which have over 250 UK employees (as defined in the legislation). These entities are Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (trading as ICI Paints AkzoNobel) (ICI), International Paint Limited (IPL) and J.P. McDougall & Co. Limited (JPM) The figures for ICI are as follows: 

Mean Gender Pay Gap

ICI -5.22% (2021 : 1.36%)

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI -11.6% (2021 : -5.9%)

Mean Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 11.2% (2021 : 31.5%) 

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 19.8% (2021 : 25.9%)

Proportion of employees receiving a bonus payment

      Female Male                 Female Male

ICI  96.6%    95.8%     2021   97.7%   97%

Proportion of employees within each pay quartile

         Q1    Q1    Q2    Q2    Q3    Q3   Q4     Q4
         F       M      F       M     F      M      F       M
ICI   36% 64%  21% 79% 36% 64% 39% 61%

Gender Pay Gap – Hourly Rate and Bonus
 

Across ICI, the 2022 gender pay gap is now below zero which highlights the gender diversity across the more senior positions.

Although the bonus gender pay gaps have reduced, we fully acknowledge that there is still work required to reduce it further. The emphasis continues to be a focus on increasing the proportion of females across both senior management and executive positions.

At a UK level, Talent Acquisition initiatives continue to focus on increasing the proportion of females who we attract and recruit across all levels of the business. These include:

• Ensuring job adverts are worded to be gender neutral. 
• Investing in advertising our vacancies on female focused job sites 
• Investing in our Women’s Inspired Network to develop, support and empower our female colleagues 
• Promoting our flexible and hybrid working offerings 
• Ensuring interview panels are gender balanced 
• Educating hiring managers on unconscious bias 

In addition to the steps above, the UK HR Leadership Team also review the exit interview and recruitment data on a quarterly basis to assess how our recruitment practices and work environment are contributing to our overall objective to increase female representation across the organisation.