The SKYCITY Equal Pay Journey: The Story Behind the Story

The YWCA Equal Pay Awards have made a welcome return in 2016. The third annual campaign has launched at a time of growing solidarity for the equal pay cause, as the Awards programme continues to attract growing support from all sides of the spectrum.

SKYCITY Entertainment Group is part of that support, proud sponsors of the Awards in 2016, alongside EY and Coca-Cola Amatil NZ. Committed to their own equal pay journey, SKYCITY has twice been recognised by the YWCA Equal Pay Awards for its own significant achievements in addressing equal pay.

“SKYCITY is thrilled to be a sponsor of the YWCA Equal Pay Awards this year,” says Gráinne Troute, General Manager of Corporate Services for SKYCITY.

“This is a fantastic initiative we are proud to be a part of and support.”

In 2012, SKYCITY became a signatory and corporate sponsor of the United Nations Global Women’s Initiative, increasing the focus and importance of their internal processes and systems, ensuring SKYCITY has a fair and equitable platform for their female staff to succeed. “Gender pay fairness is front-and-centre of our organisational policies, human resources and remuneration strategies. This position is fully ratified by our Board and Executive, and are key reporting measures for our business,” says Ms Troute. The ‘story behind the story’ SKYCITY has undertaken significant work in the last few years to ensure they are delivering pay equality and as part of their learnings, Ms Troute stresses the need to be fully committed to the process. “When it comes to audits and reviews, you have to really look under the bonnet of your organisation’s pay and rewards data, analysing the results in a number of ways. You have to look for ‘the story behind the story,’” she shares.

“For instance, our initial findings at the top level looked good. There was no material difference between the average salary increases given to men vs women and when compared to the wider market data, they were being paid to market. However, a more detailed inspection noted that some of our higher performing female staff should have received higher than average increases, which had not consistently been the case. This opened our eyes to a disparity we had not been aware of, but the data empowered us to act. Once we understood the issues, we immediately swung in to action, determined to resolve the issues and enforce changes to ensure the problems were not recurring.

“Our Board and executive team were all very surprised by the discrepancy and were instantly committed to implementing resolutions. From the top level down, there was 100% engagement in every measure undertook to ensure that a fair remuneration outcome was implemented for staff of all backgrounds, without bias,” says Ms Troute.

Solutions in action SKYCITY shared the findings with the management community and let them see the outcomes of the initial data they had submitted. This then formed the basis of unconscious bias training that supported managers to pre-empt these types of outcomes in the future. Dashboard data and analysis was also introduced, integrating PIR (position in range) analysis and a thorough pay equity review process as part of the annual salary review. The organisation developed a bespoke, embedded report with software providers, Pivot, to measure pay equity within the organisation. Today, this standardised reporting plays a critical checkpoint for managers assessing the pay equity status of their teams.

It provides automatic visibility for managers who are committed to sharing the outcomes with the Board and CEO on an annual basis. Staff on maternity leave were also taken into consideration, ensuring they were not disadvantaged in relation to performance ratings. “Prioritising the issue, along with the introduction of these rigorous new measures and practices, have all contributed to a significant correction of female income since 2013. We are hugely proud of the results,” says Ms Troute.

Within a single year of the change, SKYCITY saw a 15% increase for salaried female staff vs men. More importantly, the issue has become a priority beyond SKYCITY’s human resources and remuneration teams, with managers company-wide proactively looking to ensure bias does not occur.

“We are committed to supporting our female staff to grow their careers at SKYCITY. Through network groups and supportive development, we believe we can further assist female staff to maximise their careers in SKYCITY, in whatever direction they choose to take,” concludes Ms Troute.

YWCA Equal Pay Awards winners The inaugural YWCA Equal Pay Awards in 2014 saw SKYCITY win Silver, while last year they received a Special Commendation for their outstanding efforts towards equal pay within their organisation.

In the words of the judges: “SKYCITY Entertainment Group has taken full ownership of equal pay within their organisation, despite not being compelled to do so under compliance, working alongside external groups and influencers, like Global Women, to better understand the issue.” Says Monica Briggs, CEO of YWCA Auckland, owners of the YWCA Equal Pay Awards: “By entering the YWCA Equal Pay Awards for two years running, SKYCITY Entertainment Group has been willing to share its learnings and position itself as a thought leader for other organisations willing to tackle equal pay and get on the journey. The YWCA Auckland is delighted to welcome SKYCITY Entertainment Group as an Awards sponsor in 2016.”