7% increase

Why we’re reporting on gender pay...

Companies with over 250 employees are required by law to report the difference in the average hourly earnings between men and women, regardless of the job they do.

We believe this is a key step in encouraging businesses, particularly in our sector, to face up to many important issues.

At Novus we know that the biggest single reason for our gender pay gap is that women currently represent only 20% of our workforce and in this regard, we must work harder to improve the gender balance at all levels within our company.

When considering gender pay it is important to understand that a high gender pay gap doesn’t mean that we’re not paying men and women equally for the same roles. We carry out regular reviews, benchmark salaries and have a grading structure to ensure that any differences are justified by qualifications and experience and not by gender.

A message from our CEO

Throughout 2021, companies continued to face significant challenges and like many, we had to adapt and future proof our business. Last year we launched our ambitious five-year business growth plan, based on driving profitability, building revenue, developing our people, and developing our culture.

In conjunction with our growth ambitions, we also created a people-specific plan to support our business strategy. The plan ensures we are developing our colleagues to deal with the demands of a growing business and enables us to create an inclusive culture where all our colleagues can thrive. We have invested in our People team to ensure we have the skills and abilities to lead on this agenda and create a robust strategy for the longer term. Our figures for the past twelve months reflect that our plan is yielding successful results across the board, with our current gender pay gap reduced from our 2019 figures (the last comparable trading year pre Covid-19 pandemic) by 2% across the mean and 10% across the median averages.

Our goal is to create a workforce that truly represents the customers that we serve and the communities in which we operate. As a business, we are committed to putting the right measures in place to ensure we have inclusive processes and procedures that will allow us to achieve this. One of the first steps in achieving this saw the launch of our Women in Novus network in 2021 to create a discussion space for women and allies across the business.

Looking ahead there are three key priorities that will form part of our strategy, namely reducing our Gender Pay Gap, increasing the diversity within our senior leadership roles, and increasing our belonging score within our business.

Under my leadership, I pledge to do all I can to ensure that all our colleagues are given an equal opportunity to thrive and achieve their career aspirations at Novus.

Steve Davies

Chief Executive Officer