GroupM agencies gain GenderTick Accreditation in New Zealand

GroupM New Zealand, and its agencies EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker, have become one of only 38 organisations to gain the GenderTick Accreditation, endorsing its commitment and progress in gender equity in the workplace.

Achieving the accreditation saw GroupM and EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker, independently evaluated on six key indicators of gender equality; Equal Pay, Leadership Representation, Flexible Work & Leave, Gender Safe Workplace, Gender Inclusive Culture and Supporting the Menopausal Transition.

GroupM’s policies around Gender Neutral Parental Leave, Menopause Policy, a soon to launch Gender Affirmation Policy and its future of work and flexibility policy Thrive, played a huge role and demonstrate GroupM’s ongoing and broad-ranging commitment to gender equality.

Says John Halpin (picture above right), CEO, GroupM New Zealand: “As part of our ongoing commitment to ensure fairness and equality within GroupM and all our agencies we have invested significant time and effort in ensuring we support our workforce with training, initiatives and policies that enable everyone to thrive and continue their career with us whatever their life stage. We’re thrilled to see our efforts so far independently recognized and endorsed by Gender at Work.”

GroupM is also voluntarily reporting its gender pay gap in for the first time in New Zealand.  The analysis was carried out independently by Strategic Pay which uses recommended best practice methodology to calculate an average.

Importantly, the Gender Pay Gap is not the same as equal pay.

The report revealed that GroupM New Zealand had an overall median gender pay gap of -15.93%, which is in favour of women. This is opposite to the trend in New Zealand, where the national pay gap is 8.6%, in favour of men. (As of June 2024).  

Says Aimee Buchanan (above left), CEO, GroupM Australia & New Zealand: “Transparency and accountability is critically important to continue to drive the change needed in diversity and equality.  It’s important to note that any pay gap, regardless of which gender it favours, indicates an imbalance that we need to address. Measuring it is the first step, and from here we will use the findings and recommendations to ensure that we have equitable frameworks, policies and practices in place across the entire employee lifecycle, to reduce the gap.”

The Gender Pay Gap will be reported publicly and will be registered on The Pay Gap Registry. GroupM is also committing to monitoring and reporting annually.

Want to leave a comment? Share your thoughts below, making sure to include your full name and email address. If you have a news tip or story idea, please feel free to email ricki@campaignbrief.com.