Foreword

“AkzoNobel strive for a workplace where managers are enthusiastic about building and sustaining diverse teams and are equipped with the tools to do so. This includes empowering our Talent Acquisition teams to tap into a wide array of talent pools, while also educating hiring managers about the benefits of cultivating diverse teams within a respectful and trustworthy environment. We also included Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a specific driver of our employee engagement platform, Voices. This supports people managers in understanding what requires their attention in their journey towards creating an even more diverse, inclusive and respectful environment for their teams.

We're determined to enhance the diverse representation throughout our organization, particularly at executive and leadership level. For more information on DE&I at executive and leadership level, see our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy for the executive level, Board of Management and Supervisory Board.

We consider that the promotion and mobilization of internal talent are fundamental, which is why we’ve thoroughly assessed the pipeline leading to the executive level and have embarked on a journey that will enable us to provide growth opportunities for identified talent. Gender representation remains at the core of our diversity efforts and we're fully aware of the impact of female representation. We're rigorously working towards improving our gender representation, while offering interesting and challenging prospects to our talent. We acknowledge that diversity goes beyond gender, and we strive for diversity in all its forms.

(excerpt from AkzoNobel Position Statement on ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’)

As in previous years, the historical gender imbalance which exists within some business areas continues to be a key area of focus for all UK Management Teams. The recruitment initiatives implemented over the last few years are now fully embedded but we acknowledge that real and long-term difference to the current gender pay gap will take time and as a company, we remain committed to continuing this journey. 

Approach Taken

Under the requirements specified by UK legislation, we are required to report on the legal entities within our Group which have over 250 ‘UK employees’ (as defined in accordance with that legislation). The data provided in this report is based upon the snapshot date of 5 April 2023, and the 12-month reference period up to 5 April 2023 for the purpose of bonus analysis.

Statutory Disclosure

There are three legal entities within the AkzoNobel Group of companies which have over 250 UK employees (as defined in the legislation). These entities are Imperial Chemical  Industries Limited (trading as ICI Paints AkzoNobel) (ICI), International Paint Limited (IPL) and J.P. McDougall & Co. Limited (JPM). The figures for ICI Limited are as follows:

Mean Gender Pay Gap

ICI -6.16% (2022 :  -5.22%)

Median Gender Pay Gap

ICI -8.7% (2022 :    -11.6%)

Mean Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 23.5% (2022 :  11.2%)

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 44.2% (2022 :  19.8%)

Proportion of employees receiving a bonus payment

Proportion of employees within each pay quartile

Gender Pay Gap – Hourly Rate and Bonus

Across ICI, the gender pay gap remains below 0% and this demonstrates the continued efforts to maintain a gender balanced approach to recruitment and career development.

With regards to the current bonus gender pay gap, as in previous years, it continues to be driven by the increased bonus opportunity as employees move into more senior positions – so as with most gender pay gap challenges the Company face, increasing the number of women in senior management levels will have the most positive impact on reducing the current differential.

As referred to previously, a number of Talent Acquisition initiatives continue to focus on increasing the number of women across all levels of the business, with a specific focus on middle management, senior leaders and executive level positions. The UK HR Leadership Team undertake a quarterly review of both internal and external hiring practices to assess our progress against our gender diversity ambitions.

Whilst we understand that internal and external recruitment remains an important area of focus, alongside this, we also need to develop talent pipelines for the longer term  to ensure that we have strong engagement programs to retain female talent.

Alongside the existing activities, a number of other initiatives have also commenced:

Going Places

Going Places is our strategy to engage and inspire young people, especially young women, to learn more about both AkzoNobel as an employer and the career pathways we offer, especially within STEM.. 

Additionally, as part of our Going Places Strategy, we also engage with educational partners to talk about the skills and capabilities which we see as vital to enable our industry to grow and develop in the long term.

‘Integrate ‘ Engagement Initiatives

These initiatives are targeted at making our Manufacturing Sites more accessible to female colleagues, with investments into areas such as improved female changing rooms as well as focus on female specific protective clothing. 

We fully recognise that we have a much higher proportion of males than females at our Manufacturing Sites and as a result, the Integrate Initiative has been introduced to encourage more females to join our Company and feel more comfortable and confident within their working environment.

Foreword

‘We’re experts in making coatings, although that hardly begins to tell the whole story. We use passion for paint to make a difference – both big and small. The things our products can do may surprise you, whether they’re applied to boats, buildings, cars, planes, phones, walls or wood.’  

‘We’re developing an increasingly engaged, diverse and capable workforce, with a focus on ensuring that management teams reflect the diversity of our workforce’₁

The historical gender imbalance which exists within some business areas continues to form an area of focus for all UK management teams. We have implemented a number of initiatives to seek to address these imbalances, where they exist. Equally, we acknowledge that real and long-term difference to the current gender pay gap will take time and as a company, we remain committed to continuing this journey.  

Approach Taken 
Under the requirements specified by UK legislation, we are required to report on the legal entities within our Group which have over 250 ‘UK employees’ (as defined in accordance with that legislation). The data provided in this report is based upon the snapshot date of 5 April 2021, and the 12-month reference period up to 5 April 2021 for the purpose of bonus analysis. 

Statutory Disclosure
250 UK employees (as defined in the legislation). These entities are Imperial Chemical  Industries Limited (trading as ICI Paints AkzoNobel) (ICI), International Paint Limited and J.P. McDougall & Co. Limited.  The figures for ICI are as follows: Mean Gender Pay Gap

Mean Gender Pay Gap

ICI 1.36% (2020 : 3.38%)

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI -5.9% (2020 : -4.8%)

Mean Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 31.5% (2020 : 31.4%)

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 25.9% (2020 : 19.8%)

Proportion of employees receiving a bonus payment

      Female Male                 Female Male

ICI  97.8%    97.0%     2020   100%   99%

Proportion of employees within each pay quartile

         Q1    Q1    Q2    Q2    Q3    Q3   Q4     Q4
         F       M      F       M     F      M      F       M
ICI   37% 63%  25% 75% 34% 66% 36% 64%

Gender Pay Gap – Hourly Rate and Bonus

Across ICI, the gender pay gap is now below 1.5% and this demonstrates the continued efforts to maintain a gender balanced approach to recruitment and career development.

With regards to the current bonus gender pay gap, it’s driven by the increased bonus opportunity as employees move into more senior positions – so as with most gender pay gap challenges the Company face, increasing the number of women in executive levels will have the most positive impact on reducing the current differential.

At a corporate level, AkzoNobel has launched a program to strengthen the senior female leadership pipeline with a target of reaching 30% of female leaders by 2025.

At a UK level, we have implemented a number of recruitment practices to support gender diversity including: Female positive wording in our job adverts with a focus on considering flexible working, investing in advertising vacancies on diversity positive job sites and introducing gender balanced interview panels. We continue to regularly review our recruitment and selection practices as a company to assess the impact that these practices are having, with a commitment to adjusting our approach where required.

We have implemented a number of important initiatives such as the ‘Women’s Inspired Network’ which aims to drive awareness, to educate, inspire and connect our colleagues, as well as our Mentorship Scheme for women taking maternity / adoptive leave which continues to have high visibility across the business, and we are hopeful that these types of initiatives have a longer-term impact on both attracting and retaining women as their careers develop.

Taking a holistic view of AkzoNobel across the UK, whilst we have business areas where the gender pay gap is not an issue, we fully acknowledge that this does not justify the differences which exist in other areas, and the local and global management teams will continue to take every opportunity to ensure that gender diversity and the associated pay gaps remains at the forefront of decisions taken within the business. 

Reference

1          Taken from 2020 AkzoNobel Annual Report

I confirm that the gender pay gap calculations for Imperial Chemical Industries Limited are accurate and meet the requirements of the Regulations. 

Foreword

AkzoNobel has a proud legacy of making the paints and coatings that colour and protect our homes, landmarks, vehicles, and more. We use our passion for paint to make a difference: our products touch almost every aspect of our daily lives. We fully recognise that maximising financial performance will only be possible by having a diverse workforce which fully reflects the markets in which we operate.

As with many large Manufacturing organisations, we have a historical gender imbalance which has built up over a number of years and will not be easily addressed – but we remain fully committed to building a culture in which everyone, irrespective of gender or race, has the same opportunities to build a long and mutually fulfilling career – whilst remaining flexible enough to enable as many possible lifestyle decisions to be incorporated into each employee’s career with AkzoNobel.

The historical gender imbalance which exists within some business areas continues to form an area of focus for all UK management teams. We have implemented a number of initiatives to seek to address these imbalances, where they exist. Equally, we acknowledge that real and long-term difference to the current gender pay gap will take time and as a company, we remain committed to continuing this journey.  

Approach Taken 
Under the requirements specified by UK legislation, we are required to report on the legal entities within our Group which have over 250 ‘UK employees’ (as defined in accordance with that legislation). The data provided in this report is based upon the snapshot date of 5 April 2019, and the 12-month reference period up to 5 April 2020 for the purpose of bonus analysis.

Statutory Disclosure
Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (trading as ICI Paints AkzoNobel) (ICI), and the figures for the statutory reporting requirements are as follows:

Mean Gender Pay Gap

ICI 3.38% (2018 : 9.3%)

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI -4.8% (2018 : 0.5%) 

Mean Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 31.4% (2018 : 38.6%)

Median Gender Bonus Pay Gap

ICI 19.8% (2018 : 25.4%)

Proportion of employees receiving a bonus payment

      Female Male                 Female Male

ICI  100%    99.0%     2018   97.5%   96.8%

2020 Gender Pay Report – FINAL

Proportion of employees within each pay quartile

         Q1    Q1    Q2    Q2    Q3    Q3   Q4     Q4
         F       M      F       M     F      M      F       M
ICI   38% 62%  24% 76% 38% 62% 22% 67%

Gender Pay Gap – Hourly Rate and Bonus

There has been continued improvement in both the overall mean and median gender pay gap.

The primary driver of the reduction for ICI has been structural changes to the core business model impacting senior employees, leading to a higher proportion of male employees leaving.

Given the recruitment restrictions across AkzoNobel globally created by the global pandemic, there has been little opportunity to address the current imbalance at the more senior levels of the organisation. However, the issue has been highlighted at senior levels of the business, and there is a concerted effort to address the issue in the longer term through the promotion of more cross-functional moves and increased career development opportunities.

Taking a holistic view, the main structural issues identified previously remain a key driver of the gender imbalance under review. These remain:

•  A much higher historical proportion of men across both executive and senior management positions
•  The link between increased bonus opportunity and increased seniority

Building upon the initiatives outlined in previous years, the following activities are now fully consolidated into normal business operations. There is real desire to ensure that all employees across AkzoNobel, irrespective of gender, have an equal opportunity to both develop in role and have opportunities to move into more senior roles

Women’s Inspired Network

The ‘Women’s Inspired Network’ is a collaboration of employees globally across AkzoNobel that provides a platform for primarily women to celebrate their differences and increase their understanding of how personal & professional lives are made richer by embracing diversity. The Network is an enabler to empower, inspire and connect women in support of AkzoNobel’s diversity & inclusion ambitions and it widens access to networking for all employees irrespective of gender.

The feedback from participants has been excellent, and group speakers have included members of the global AkzoNobel Executive Committee and the Creative Director for Dulux. Mentorship scheme for women taking maternity and adoption leave The Mentorship Scheme, previously managed as a pilot scheme, has now been fully implemented at both the Decorative Paints Head Office (Slough). It aims to provide support prior to, during and on return from maternity/adoption leave, to ensure that we give women every reason to come back to us and maintain their confidence levels and personal development.

AkzoNobel have facilitated a number of workshops so far, and has a panel of mentors who have a wide range of skills and personal experiences, with the aim of matching each participant 2020 Gender Pay Report – FINAL with a mentor who has a similar background and has encountered similar challenges, both personally and professionally.

Structured / Unstructured flexible working

Allowing all employees the ability to work flexibly in a professional and respectful manner has been identified as one of the key drivers to addressing the current gender pay gap, as it allows both men and women to continue to develop their career whilst respecting the non-work priorities which they also need to balance.

Flexible working awareness is being rolled out across all UK locations, and feedback from the business is that, whether driven through a formal or informal approach, the new initiative is viewed positively and aims to allow all employees to achieve a more balanced work-life balance without impacting business operations.

Outside of the formal / informal Schemes, local initiatives such as senior management ‘leaving loudly’ and being open and transparent about working flexibly have also helped to drive a more open environment in which flexible working is viewed as driving benefits for both AkzoNobel and our employees.

Improvements to recruitment processes

As outlined in previous years, we have made changes to our recruitment processes to ensure we attract a diverse population of candidates for all advertised roles. The key achievements are as follows:

• Whenever feasible, all internal and external recruitment advertisements state that flexible working will be considered
• All Hiring Managers have an intake call with the Talent Acquisition team to ensure that they are approaching each vacancy in a consistent manner, and without any form of gender specific bias
• All adverts are ‘gender decoded’ to ensure that the terminology used to attract candidates is gender-neutral and not inadvertently driving gender bias
• An active log is maintained of all senior managers recruited to allow an on-going review of gender split to be reviewed and to assess the effectiveness of the recruitment policies.

I confirm that the gender pay gap calculations for Imperial Chemical Industries are accurate and meet the requirements of the Regulations.