GroupM Denmark Closes the Wage Gap

A couple of months ago, GroupM Denmark sought to look into equal pay and whether there was an unidentified wage gap between women and men in their organization. They initiated an internal study, carried out by Mercer, which unfortunately concluded that there was indeed a wage gap and not enough women in management positions. GroupM has now closed that wage gap.

“We thought that we were in line with the rest of the industry and society in general, so it was a huge eye-opener for our management teamwhen the results of the survey came back,” says Karen Hyldegaard, Nordic Chief People Officer at GroupM.

At the beginning of the year, GroupM initiated an internal study of the organization’s working conditions, focusing specifically on pay and gender.

“We especially wanted to know if there were any issues with regard to providing equal pay for equal work,” says Karen Hyldegaard about the reason fbehind the study.

The study showed that 18 percent of women in the group received less pay than men in similar positions. It also showed that the average wage gap for the aforementioned female employees was 15 percent. The agency group therefore had a wage gap that was two percent higher than the average wage gap between men and women in Denmark, which, according to a Mercer survey from 2020, is at 13 percent.

“A huge problem”

Isn’t it a big problem that there’s been such a marked imbalance between men and women in your group up until now? “Yes, it’s a huge problem. We want to be an inclusive, non-discriminatory workplace that ensures that everyone has equal opportunities, which we haven’t been,” says Karen Hyldegaard and adds, “It wasn’t our intention, and it’s really good that this came to light, so we’ve been able to change it. And we are very transparent about that process.”

Karen Hyldegaard believes that employees working for an agency without equal opportunities will lead to insecurity and frustration.

GroupM’s employees have generally reacted positively to the study despite the unsatisfactory results.

But Karen Hyldegaard is also aware that pay is a sensitive issue for many people, not least of all to those who have been directly affected by the wage gap. “As an employee, you may have been under the impression that you were receiving fair pay, why it can be surprising to discover that others have been paid more for doing the same job. For the individual in question, it can have a big impact on them that they’ve been affected by such inequality.”

Wage gap closed

Following the surprising results of the study, GroupM has now closed the wage gap between men and women and has launched a number of new initiatives. “We are changing the processes, focusing more on pay when we hire new talent and on working with employees development,  how we reward and promote them, etc.” she says.

But how will you ensure that employees get equal pay in the future? “We have set several goals that we need to achieve both locally in specific departments and as a group overall. We will carry out the same study every year, and this will  force us to remain focused on the issue and hold each other accountable.”

Barriers need to be removed

However, according to Karen Hyldegaard, the group’s focus on equal pay is only one element in an overall effort within GroupM to remove both obvious and overlooked barriers that prevent equal access to employment, personal development, and career opportunities.

It is a lengthy process that the group has undertaken, she acknowledges.

“In the long haul, we want to change the mindset, behaviour, and culture of all our organization – including management – and that’s why we need to incorporate this into our leadership development training as well,” she says. 

Now that you are aware of the inequality, will you also start to focus on other imbalances, for example, ethnic or sexual minorities? “We began this journey by focusing on gender, because we know that there are a lot of challenges in this area. Empirical studies have shown, that if we solve disparities in regard to gender challenges first, then you will naturally move more in the right direction when it comes to other minority groups that may have been experiencing disparities.”

Inequality at management level

Another conclusion from the study that was carried out among the 414 employees at GroupM in Denmark, was that women are underrepresented at management level. This is despite the fact that there are more women than men employed at the group.

“We can see a pattern, where we lose women when they reach senior levels and this is another challenge we are trying to solve,” says Karen Hyldegaard, who points out that this challenge is unfortunately not unique to GroupM, but also applies to other agencies and consultancy companies.

“Part of this imbalance is difficult to explain and we’re looking for the underlying causes. One of the things we do to make up for this imbalance is, among other things, to work with more inclusive and beneficial family policies, talent development, and ensuring transparent career paths,” she says and adds, “But this is not done to just accommodate the women in our organization. We’ve introduced an inclusive family policy to ensure that our employees are able to have a balanced life, whether they’re a new mother or father.”

About the study

The study was conducted by Mercer in January 2022 and was based on pay data from GroupM. As part of the study, Mercer mapped all of GroupM’s 414 Danish employees and divided them into 27 comparable job categories and levels.