Double win for Hachette UK recognising its commitment to gender equality

30^th July 2020, London – Hachette UK has been selected as one of The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2020, while its Gender Balance Network has won Employee Network Group of the Year (Private Sector) at the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (ENEI) Awards 2020.

Both awards are in recognition of Hachette UK’s commitment to gender equality in the workplace and form part of its wider mission to be the publisher and employer of choice for all people, through a programme of policies and initiatives collectively known as Changing the Story.

The Times Top 50 Employers for Women is the longest-running and most widely respected award for employers committed to achieving gender equality. Hachette UK has been commended for equalising shared parental leave pay for all parents*, its approach to pay transparency – including the publication of salary ranges – and its commitment to flexible working, which includes waiving the six-month statutory period before applying for flexible working. Last year, Hachette UK also announced changes to the make-up of its board, which is now in favour of women.

The ENEI Awards acknowledge the commitment of organisations to achieving diverse and inclusive workplaces. The Hachette UK Gender Balance Network has won the Employee Network Group of the Year (Private Sector) award in 2020 for its work on equalising shared parental leave and its campaigning on the gender pay gap. The latter included a movement to mark Equal Pay Day, which involved staff setting their ‘out of office’ message to include statistics on how the pay gap differs for women from different ethnic backgrounds, and facilitating conversations around the pay gap with a series of companywide workshops.

Melanie Tansey, Group HR Director at Hachette UK, commented: “We are delighted to be recognised in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2020 and for our Gender Balance Network to win at the ENEI Awards 2020. Both awards demonstrate that we are making positive change and show what we can achieve when our leadership and our incredible employee networks work together.

“We are only at the beginning of our journey to ‘change the story’ and make inclusivity an integral part of our publishing and staff identity. We will be going so much further to improve representation of all people at all levels of our business; to improve pay and bonus transparency; to close pay gaps and to continue to cultivate our special culture to ensure everyone thrives and achieves their full potential at Hachette UK.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

* In 2019, Hachette UK announced that it would help narrow the gender pay gap by equalising Shared Parental Leave pay for all parents. Under this change, both parents can take 20 weeks of fully paid leave at any point in the 37-week eligibility period.

About Hachette UK:

Our mission at Hachette UK is to make it easy for all people, everywhere to access new worlds of learning, entertainment and opportunity.

We are one of the UK’s largest publishing groups, with 10 autonomous publishing divisions and over 50 imprints with a rich and diverse history. We are also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.

We publish thousands of new books across the group every year and our authors include Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Nelson Mandela, Stephenie Meyer, Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling and Malala Yousafzai.

Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Little, Brown, Orion, John Murray Press, Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, Quercus, Bookouture and Octopus. Hachette Children’s Group publishes a diverse range of books for children of all ages and Hodder Education is a market leader in resources for both primary and secondary schools.

We have offices around the UK, including our headquarters in London and the Hely Hutchinson Centre (HHC) for distribution in Didcot. We have subsidiaries in several other regions, including Australia, India, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jamaica and New Zealand.