We’re pleased to report that our Gender Pay Gap narrowed in 2019 from 19% to 17%, but we recognise that there is further opportunity to do more. This report outlines our plans for how we will continue to support gender equality.
On the 22nd September 2019 we provided an opportunity for all our colleagues across the globe to show their commitment to making an impact in our local communities. Over 100 colleagues were involved and throughout 2020 opportunities are being created as all colleagues at Emerald are entitled to 2 volunteering days per year.
Emerald Group has introduced a new policy for parents, which grants paid, extra time off to any employee whose baby is born prematurely and commits to support them on their return to work.
In the UK, one in eight babies are born prematurely which means that many parents spend a significant amount of their parental leave time at hospital with their babies in a neonatal unit. This leaves mothers and fathers losing out on the time to bond with their babies once they are home, or potentially struggling financially to try to extend their planned parental leave.
Under current UK law, maternity/paternity leave begins the day after birth, regardless of whether the baby is premature.
Emerald Group has introduced a new policy which sees the company paying parents full pay between the date of babies born before 37 weeks and their due date.
Mandi Viqueira, People Operations Manager at Emerald Group said, “parents facing the worry and uncertainty of visiting their premature babies in hospital should not spend that time as maternity or paternity leave. We know that premature babies need more time to develop, grow and time for parents and babies to bond at home after neonatal intensive care. That’s why we’ve signed up to The Smallest Things Best Employer Charter – supporting parents of premature babies”.
When parents are then planning on coming back to work, Mandi further commented, “we understand that returning to work can be a difficult time for parents of premature babies and that babies born too soon can have ongoing medical needs, requiring regular hospital appointments and check-ups. So, we want to make sure that they feel supported at work by considering formal and informal flexible working patterns and offering additional paid or unpaid leave”.
Emerald Group already has a flexible working policy available to everyone, to allow employees to balance their home life and work life in a way that suits each person best.
Welcoming the news, Catriona Ogilvy, founder of The Smallest Things, said: “We are delighted that Emerald Group has signed up to our Employer with Heart charter and will give parents of babies born prematurely the extra time they need. Visiting a fragile baby on a neonatal unit for weeks, sometimes months, is terrifying and shouldn’t be counted as maternity or paternity leave. We know that health issues – for babies and parents – often last long after leaving hospital so we’re pleased to hear employees will be supported on their return to work at Emerald Group too”.
Effective from 13th March, Emerald Group has acquired Mind Tools, a leading digital learning and performance support company that helps users to build their management, leadership and personal effectiveness skills.
Mind Tools reaches millions of learners in more than 180 countries worldwide and this business will now sit alongside GoodPractice and Towards Maturity as market-facing brands within Emerald Learning.
This marks a significant milestone for the Emerald Group, and we are excited to make this important step forward in delivering our vision of bridging research and practice.
Emerald Open Research – the first Open Research Publishing platform for impactful social sciences research – has launched with its first six gateways, which tackle critical world issues linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Designed in partnership with F1000, Emerald also becomes the first publisher to adopt their pioneering Open Research Publishing model, enabling rapid publication followed by transparent expert peer review, helping to maximise impact and reproducibility of a much broader range of research outputs.
Emerald Publishing is delighted to sign up to DORA, the Declaration on Research Assessment, supporting its vision to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment globally and across all scholarly disciplines.
This aligns with Emerald’s Impact Manifesto, launched by Vicky Williams, Emerald Publishing’s CEO in March 2018. The manifesto called for change across the whole academic ecosystem, recognising that the traditional markers of influence such as citations were not sufficient to tell the full story of impact.
One in a Million School in Bradford is one of our partner charities for this year.
Pupils from the school joined us for a session with local author Daniel Ingram-Brown (Firebird Chronicles Trilogy). During their visit they took part in a creative writing session, in which they were given the chance to enter our writing competition, judged by Emerald owner, Keith Howard.
We also opened the competition up to Emerald staff, so we’ll be selecting two winners; one a pupil from the school and the other, an Emerald employee. Each will either receive a £20 Amazon voucher or a book of their choice!
