Research: Changing the default: a field trial with Zurich Insurance to advertise all jobs as part-time
Research, undertaken by the Behavioural Insights Team in conjunction with Zurich Insurance UK and funded by the Government Equalities Office, found that applications from women for management roles jumps 20% following shake-up to tackle gender pay gap.
A key change was to advertise all vacancies with the option of part-time, full-time, job share or flexible working. This was coupled with the use of gender-neutral language in every job advertisement.
Key findings
- Zurich has seen a 16% rise in women applying for jobs and a near 20% jump in female applications for management roles.
- The number of women hired for senior roles as a direct result of the initiative has leapt by 33%. This is a separate Zurich finding reported after the conclusion of the study, although covering the same period.
- Between March 2019 and February this year, Zurich advertised four out of five vacancies using the new part-time wording. Across the board, the adverts attracted more than double the number of applications across males and females for every role. This could indicate that flexible working options are just as important to men as they are to women in today’s society.
- The change not only encouraged more applications but achieved a near 10% (8%) improvement in the feeling of ‘belonging’ among existing part-time employees across the UK business.
Steve Collinson, Zurich’s head of HR, said: “Flexible working can help tackle diversity and inclusion issues we’ve all been battling with for many years. Embracing part-time and flexible work is not a silver bullet. But we’ve seen hugely encouraging results, simply by adding six words to our job adverts. By offering roles that fit flexibly around family life, employers could open the floodgates to a much wider pool of untapped talent.”
In partnership with Zurich
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