Accountancy giant PwC has banned all-male shortlists for jobs as part of an action plan to address its gender pay gap.
The company reported a 44 per cent pay gap in April, making it the worst of the Big Four financial services firms in terms of equal pay.
In an attempt to narrow the gap, PwC said it would try to make its recruitment process more diverse.
Companies and organisations employing more than 10,000 people were required to disclose their gender pay gap earlier this year, and the data collected revealed that most firms had a pay gap that favoured men.
Many companies said this was because more men held senior positions and therefore earned more money, prompting calls for companies to hire more women into management roles. Research revealed that for financial services workers at senior levels, the gap between what men and women are paid can be as wide as 91 per cent.
Laura Hinton, chief people officer at PwC, said: “Diversity in our recruitment processes is something we’ve been focused on for some time and as part of this we are ensuring we have no all-male shortlists and more diverse interviewing panels.
“We’re also going one step further and setting ourselves a 50/50 shortlist target for all direct recruitment activity. This is part of our wider action plan to promote diversity and inclusion in all forms, including gender, ethnicity and social mobility.”
PwC said it will make changes in other areas, including driving fair allocation of work and opportunities “so that more people get access to career-defining jobs”, and investing in its returnship programme, which helps women coming back to work after a career break.
