Gender Pay Gap Report 2023

Founded in 1961, the Higgins Group is a family run Group of Companies, with values focussed on the needs of Clients and the well-being of staff. We have built a reputation as one of the most forward thinking construction companies in the UK. Recruiting and retaining good people has been central to Higgins’ success for 60 years. We understand the importance of career development and training for every individual at every level and are continuously investing in new training and development initiatives.

We believe creating an environment where people can work, grow and succeed is vital to our success, regardless of their gender.

The Higgins Group is an equal Opportunities employer and strives to pay employees equally for the same, or equivalent, work.

It should be highlighted that we acknowledge we have a gender pay gap however we operate in the construction industry which has historically been male dominated. The roles in which men and women work within the industry and the salaries that these roles attract, leads to this gap.

The Board Directors of all Group companies are no longer male only, we now have our first women Director who has been promoted to board level. The Directors are incentivised with a bonus structure that forms a significant part of their remuneration package. Furthermore, the working shareholders, who are also Directors, have previously elected to receive bonus in lieu of dividend return on their investment. This can have a significant impact on the mean gender ‘bonus’ gap.

The major contributory factor to our current pay gap is the under representation of women in senior management roles and we still have more women in our lower pay quartile than there are in both the upper middle and the upper quartiles combined. This gender imbalance continues to significantly contribute to our current gender pay gap. The Company continues to look at ways to attract and select more women into senior roles to gain a higher percentage of female representation into both management level and senior management roles across the business. The Company are redesigning their Management Development Programme, which employees will be able to directly apply for. This will enhance and strengthen the selected employee’s leadership capabilities, enabling them a pathway into senior management roles within the business. There are currently two females at Director level within the Group.

Historically the construction industry attracts a higher proportion of males into the workplace. The site-based construction roles, which range from site management, to a wide range of weekly paid skilled and non-skilled operative roles, are dominated by men. However, Higgins are committed to supporting women into the workplace and addressing gender representation across the roles. We are silver members of “Women into Construction”, an organisation that provides bespoke support to women and helps contracts to recruit highly motivated, trained women, wishing to work in this industry. This helps to reduce the skills gap and promotes gender equality within the construction industry.

We welcome Management Trainees onto our successful ‘Building your Future’ Scheme. They spend four months in four different departments before selecting one area of the business they wish to specialise in. As well as ‘hands on’ experience they are working towards either a RICS or CIOB accredited degree at University. We hope to continue receiving equal interest from both males and females of school leaving age, considering a long-term career in the construction industry

Furthermore, the Company are looking in to enhancing their maternity scheme to assist with the engagement of working women.

Higgins Group PLC has calculated its gender pay gap report at April 2022 and the results are as follows:

We confirm that the gender pay gap data for Higgins Group PLC is accurate and has been produced in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.

Mark Francis - Group Finance Director