N E W S
www.engineeringnews.co.nz 13
REN189
A different future
thanks to WSP
Opus
Graduate electrical engineer Cara
Berghan says that while gender
inequality does exist within the
engineering industry, there are
companies clearly looking to
change this.
“I’ve encountered sexism when
applying for jobs – comments on
my appearance and questioning
my abilities, that type of thing –
and so did a number of my female
friends from uni. But I did end up
applying for roles with companies
that were committed to gender
equality,” she says.
Cara says that working for an
organisation like WSP Opus that
is strongly focused on diversity is
empowering.
“The concept that I’m not equal
because I’m female – that doesn’t
make any sense to me. It doesn’t
change the quality of the technical
advice or design solutions I work
on and it certainly doesn’t make
me any less passionate about
what I do.”
WSP Opus closes gender pay gap
In an industry-leading move, WSP Opus
has closed a 7.5% pay gap for people
in similar roles within the organisation.
WSP Opus is the New Zealand operation of
WSP, one of the world’s leading engineering
professional services consulting firms,
Ian Blair, managing director of WSP Opus,
describes the move as a no brainer.
“It’s 2018 and we should be rewarding
people fairly for doing the same work at
the same level of performance in like-forlike
roles. To do otherwise just isn’t right.”
Mr Blair says unequal pay was unpalatable
to him on a personal as well as
professional level.
“I have two sons and two daughters
and cannot imagine living in a world – or
being part of a leadership team of an
organisation – where I have to tell my
daughters that they get paid less than
their brothers because of their gender.
That’s unacceptable.”
This milestone achievement sets WSP
Opus apart in the industry, says Mr Blair,
demonstrating that the company openly
values its people and their expertise
regardless of gender.
“It’s something our whole organisation
can be proud of and I hope the rest of our
industry shortly follows suit. WSP Opus
is one of the founding partners of The
Diversity Agenda and I’m really heartened
by the changes this initiative will deliver,
particularly around gender balance.”
Methodology
Earlier in the year Blair instigated a programme
of work to understand and
address any pay gaps within WSP Opus.
Early analysis showed the pay gap within
WSP Opus is approximately 20% between
female and male employees.
Drilling down, comparisons between female
and male employees in similar roles
showed the pay gap was approximately
7.5% - and this was the area that WSP
Opus focused on.
Mr Blair says that where a pay gap existed
- and the cause of the pay gap was
not readily apparent, such as part-time
hours – they worked with the manager
to identify the reasons for this. In the
majority of cases there was a reasonable
explanation for this and could be attributed
to causal factors.
“We also found cases where a portion of
the gap was not explainable and this portion
of the gap was deemed unreasonable. Where
an unreasonable gap was identified we have
corrected the gap through a remuneration
adjustment.”
All up 60 employees – 3% of the organisation
- were identified in this analysis as
being underpaid; 55 females and 5 males.
Where next?
For Mr Blair, closing the pay gap is only the
first step in moving WSP Opus towards a
more gender diverse and inclusive organisation
in an industry where women are
the minority.
“We are not a diverse industry and we’re not
a diverse organisation. We’re representative
of the engineering industry; 12% of the
members of Engineering NZ are women
and 9% are technical leaders, so it’s not
surprising that our frontline workforce is
only 26% female.”
As such, WSP Opus’ leadership team has
established a Diversity & Inclusion Plan to
Action to focus on initiatives to support
opportunities for women, Māori and Pasifka,
and appointed an Advisory Group to drive
the initiatives forward.
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