Reporting period: 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023
Our diversity commitment
As an organisation with a high proportion of female employees (including our executive leadership, CEO and Board composition), Gender Equality is a critical driver in the success of Online Education Services (OES), and we are committed to supporting diversity within our business.
Optimising gender equality promotes a fair and inclusive workplace that ensures all employees have equal access to professional growth, leadership opportunities and recognition. This equity supports an environment of inclusivity and belonging where all people can perform their best and feel truly supported and engaged.
We recognise that it is this diversity in perspective that enriches the organisations innovation and problem-solving capability, enabling OES to continue to deliver exceptional education opportunities for students both domestically and globally.
Understanding our gender pay gap
OES is an online education provider and currently has a workforce that is 68% female across a broad spectrum of role types. The data is based on the reporting period April 2022 to March 2023. The industry comparison group consists of Education and Training organisations of a similar size (500-999).
Table 1 below shows the median gender pay gap for total remuneration and base salary against our industry comparison group.
Table 1. Median gender pay gap 2022-23
The median total remuneration gender pay gap is higher for OES than that of the industry comparison group, however, is below that of the Education and Training sector for organisations of all sizes.
Our median total remuneration gender pay gap at 1.1% is primarily driven by higher paying roles in specific departments (technology team and strategy team) that are traditionally occupied by males and have a general underrepresentation of females in these areas, as well as having predominantly females occupying other role types (some of which are lower paying roles).
OES is an organisation comprised of many different role types, and where we have males and females in like for like positions, our data demonstrates that we do have pay equity in these roles. As a predominantly female oriented organisation (68%), many entry level roles are occupied by females and as such the impact of females in higher earning roles on the data is less impactful due to the large sample size. In contrast, the males occupying higher paying roles have a more significant impact due to the smaller sample size that males represent within OES (32%).
When we compare OES performance to the broader Education and Training sector in organisations of all sizes, OES compares favourably in relation to both median total remuneration and base salary (Table 1.).
Leveraging our existing strengths to support our workforce
OES is committed to reducing our gender pay gap and optimising gender diversity in underrepresented areas of the organisation. This is a key focus in our diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan.
We are proud that over the past 12 months we have made significant inroads towards achieving key objectives including;
- Optimised female recruitment into underrepresented areas of the business by 37%
- Facilitated female leader networking and development opportunities for female talent
What are we doing next to work toward closing the gender pay gap?
Working toward closing the gender pay gap is a key focus and we have set a clear road map to enable us to achieve our goals.
Implementing measurable targets is a key step and one where we have already been able to make strong progress. Our focus areas are designed to support us in closing our gender pay gap and continuing to enhance an environment of belonging, equity and inclusion.
Optimise female talent
As part of our talent management and succession planning, we review the gender diversity of our pipelines, identifying opportunities to increase female representation at all levels of the business through attraction, development and retention initiatives. This is a particular focus in underrepresented areas of the business (i.e. Technology).
Flexible and family friendly policies to encourage equal participation
Ensuring equal participation of both men and women in the workforce is an important component in reducing the gender pay gap.
OES has policies which support all employees to participate in caregiving responsibilities including our Blended (Hybrid) Policy which enables employees to work flexibly from home as well as our discretionary Personal Leave policy which allows all employees to take the time they require for critical care giving.
A culture of belonging and inclusion is critical in the success of any policies, and this is a core focus of OES. We conduct a full engagement survey annually with a pulse engagement survey in-between to ensure that we are on track with our initiatives and providing the support and environment our employees are seeking.
To further imbed our initiatives and policies, we have a dedicated team who leverage our key pillars of belonging, wellbeing and community to apply this lens to all that we do. We utilise this group to champion initiatives as well as gain feedback and share thoughts to ensure continuous improvement.
Remuneration framework and annual gender pay audits
OES conducts an annual talent and remuneration review, and to ensure a continued focus on equity, external benchmarking data is utilised to map each role within the organisation. Having this clear framework mitigates potential for gender bias in the awarding of salary.
An annual gender pay gap audit has been implemented to enable a thorough analysis of employee’s remuneration in conjunction with gender pay gap analysis to remain abreast of focus areas of the gender pay gap and make adjustments where required.
