Fix it
Staff wellbeing
C42. Does the housing provider pay the Real Living Wage?
No colleague is paid less than the Real Living Wage. Salaries are independently benchmarked every three years using the market rates of 15 comparable (mostly local) roles from which we pay the median rate. We also have an annual pay review process with any increases taking place on 1 April each year.
C43. What is the gender pay gap?
We were crowned ‘Employer of the Year’ at the 2022 North East Women in Business Awards (WIN Awards), recognising our progress towards gender equality in the workplace.
| Mean | Gap | Median | Gap | |
| Men | £18.96 | 4.88% | £18.24 | 1.07% |
| Women | £18.43 | £18.04 |
C44. What is the CEO-worker pay ratio?
Our CEO-worker pay ratio is 1:10.3
| Year | 25th percentile pay ratio | 50th percentile pay ration | 75th percentile pay ration |
| 2022/23 | 8.28:1 | 6.34:1 | 5.76:1 |
C45. How does the housing provider support the physical and mental health of their staff?
Wellbeing is hard to capture in one metric but in the workplace, we choose to use the Employer Net Promoter Score (ENPS) as our main indicator. Our staff surveys use the Hive platform to track how much our employees would advocate Karbon as ‘a great place to work’ which is then converted into an eNPS score.
|
Year |
ENPS |
|
2019/20 |
-9 |
|
2020/21 |
+29 |
|
2021/22 |
+27 |
|
2022/23 |
+23 |
HIVE guidance indicates that our eNPS score of +23 is ‘very good’:
- +40 = outstanding
- +20 to +40 = very good
- -10 to +20 = average
- -10 or less = below average
Our strong eNPS result is influenced by a range of factors, not least the wide range of benefits and flexibilities we offer our colleagues, as outlined in the table below:
|
Key Karbon benefits |
|
|
Flexible pot |
Helping colleagues invest in their physical, mental and financial wellbeing |
|
BHSF cash health plan |
Bronze level membership of the health plan, subsidised by Karbon with various options to upgrade and add family members up to £18.99 (platinum level). |
|
Salary exchange |
Salary exchange (often called ‘salary sacrifice’) is offered on all pension schemes. The arrangement is designed to make pension contributions more efficient by reducing the amount of National Insurance payable. |
|
Time away from work |
26 days annual leave on commencement rising to 31 days after three years’ service, accompanied by birthday leave, moving home day, volunteering day, a career break option, and a buy and sell annual leave scheme. |
|
Cycle to work mileage scheme |
Colleagues can claim 20p a mile for miles cycled to work. |
We believe that our approach to staff wellbeing is reflected in our staff turnover figures, which, for the previous three years, have shown employee loyalty well above that among our peers in the sector, particularly during Covid (See chart). This year, our overall staff turnover stands at 11.86%.
Having recently achieved the Gold standard in the Better Health at Work scheme, we are now embarking on the next phase known as ‘continuing excellence’. This includes mentoring smaller organisations on how to become a more thoughtful employer.
C46. Average number of sick days taken per employee
2022/23: 11.09 days (2021/22: 11.26)
Launch of our colleague mental health allies programme
Mental Health Allies
Helping colleagues and customers look after their mental health has always been very important for Karbon, and last year we launched an initiative to help make mental health support even more accessible.
We created the Mental Health Allies programme where colleague volunteers from across the organisation are trained in how to support their fellow colleagues, as well as customers they come into contact with, with their mental wellbeing.
Our mental health allies attended sessions delivered by Mental Health in Business where they learned about the fundamentals of mental health, and how to listen without judgment, recommend the right resources and provide a safe space where people can be heard.
The programme was designed to help make conversations about mental health an everyday part of what colleagues do, cultivating environments, both in-person and remote, where they can be open with one another about how
they’re feeling.
Chris Claytor-Scott is one of the colleague volunteers who completed the mental health allies training. Chris said:
“Having benefitted from counselling and therapy in the past, I wanted to be able to support others who may be struggling themselves and hopefully help them through difficult times. I think having mental health allies at Karbon will be a great way to give staff a positive work environment where they know there is always someone to turn to if they need help.”
