Driving a groundbreaking initiative for this leading industrial software firm. The publication of its first ethnicity pay gap report fostered trust, set a new standard for transparency, and drove meaningful progress in workplace equity.
This case study relates to Inclusioneering founder Jo Stansfield’s tenure as Director of People Data and Insights while employed by AVEVA. AVEVA is a leading provider of industrial software.
Introduction
Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, AVEVA’s then CEO committed that the organisation would strengthen support for its Black and ethnic minority employees. This included reporting its ethnicity pay gap to increase transparency and accountability for change.
Jo was asked to lead this substantial project, from a starting point that ethnicity data was not even yet collected by the organisation in the UK.
Approach
Jo convened diverse stakeholders from across the organisation who played a vital role in the project implementation, including:
- The diversity and inclusion team
- Legal
- HR systems
- IT
- Employee and external communications
- Reward
- HR business partners
- Country leaders.
By collaborating closely with employee groups and the executive team, she invited their input, clarified the reporting rationale and process, and built the trust needed for employees to share sensitive information. This approach also assured the executive team that risks were carefully managed, ultimately securing their approval to publish this groundbreaking report.
Outcomes
As a global enterprise with presence in over 40 countries, and 7000 employees, the first ethnicity data and pay project was scoped to the largest countries, UK and USA. During the project’s execution, there was a change in leadership with the appointment of a new CEO. Jo worked closely with him to address his concerns and questions, reaffirming the case for publication and ensuring continued support for the initiative.
A key part of a pay gap report is the action plan for change. Alongside data collection and analysis for the pay gap, Jo established demographic data collection and additional questions in the employee engagement survey, that provided a new depth of insight into the differential experiences of employees based on their identity. Coupled with engagement with AVEVA’s employee groups, this directly informed the diversity and inclusion team’s strategic action plan.

Impact
AVEVA’s first ethnicity pay gap report was published in 2021, with over 85% of UK employees having disclosed their ethnicity. AVEVA became only the 13th FTSE 100 firm to have published, and won a Global Equality and Diversity Award for transparency for this work.
Following publication, led by AVEVA’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, AVEVA brought together the other FTSE 100 firms that had reported, and Jo led research to identify the approaches each had taken to achieve reporting.
The group coined themselves the “Mind the Gap” group. It convened an event at the Houses of Parliament, hosting UK business leaders, MPs and peers, to encourage organisations to voluntarily report their ethnicity pay gaps, and for the government to make this mandatory. Jo was invited to present the research findings of how to execute ethnicity pay gap reporting, and why this is important for organisations.
”The actionable insights and the clarity of your thinking were outstanding.
Helen Lamprell OBE, General Counsel and Company Secretary at AVEVA
Read more about the Mind the Gap research of approaches to ethnicity pay gap reporting at https://www.ethnicitypaygapreport.com/