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The CEC is committed to being a great place to work and our corporate values are a strong impetus for all that we do.

We regularly survey staff to establish what’s going well and where we need to improve. We use a baseline score to measure the level of employee engagement in our organisation. The results for 2024 are show below.

Employee engagement score

Ìý	How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work	I feel proud to work for this organisation
2024*	83%**	86%**

*Data August 2024

**Low engagement: 0–29%, Moderate Engagement: 30–69%, High Engagement: 70-100%

The rest of this section gives more information about our people, our commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing, our approach to remuneration and commitment to the skills agenda.

Staffing analysis

Ìý	Average Annual Headcount*	Ìý Gender**	Ìý Ethnicity**
2024	110	Ìý 60% female 40% male Ìý	24% minority ethnic 76% white

* During the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024

**Data only includes information that has been provided anonymously directly by individuals as of May 2024

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are central aspects of our work as both an employer and as a leader of careers education. At the heart of our strategy is the notion of ‘belonging’. We want all staff to feel they belong, for our Network to feel they belong, and for all young people to feel they belong in pursuing their best next step. Ìý

We understand that building equitable, diverse and inclusive teams is essential for innovative careers education and is central to our values, mission and impact. CEC’s EDI committee is staff-led, raising awareness of important issues and supporting strategic initiatives such as our Disability Confident Accreditation.

We use Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) to provide an evidence-based approach, so all policies, practices and decision-making processes are fair and do not present barriers. The EqIAs undertaken extend to factors that have a direct impact on the work of the organisation, for example, social mobility, geography and representation of different sectors.

The process has been positively and pro-actively adopted by all teams across the organisation. Between April 2023 and March 2024, we carried out nine EqIAs on both internal policies and two of the of the leading frameworks driving the work of the organisation, the Employer Standards and the ÌúÅ£ÊÓƵ Impact System.

We use diversity data to identify any existing biases, gaps or challenges and work towards improving them. CEC values the visible and invisible qualities that make each member of our team who they are. Watch our recent recording on our culture and values

Commitment to staff wellbeing

The CEC is committed to staff wellbeing and has a vibrant Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee, whose purpose is to ensure all employees thrive at work.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee takes a preventative approach to mental ill health by taking embedded, holistic, and quality actions. Their work is informed by staff feedback from our annual Mental Health and Well Being Survey which is underpinned by ‘The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale’.

Mental Health and Well Being Score

Ìý	% of staff completing survey Ìý	Current MHWB Score
2024*	65%	44 out of 60

*Data April 2024

CEC's approach to remuneration

The CEC’s approach to remuneration ensures objectivity, openness, and accountability, recognising the importance of having a fair, equitable, transparent and affordable policy. All decisions take account of the relevant conditions of service and statutory requirements. The CEC’s remuneration principles are:

• The pay for each employee is determined with reference to the individual role and responsibilities, a view of the relevant market rate, individual performance, and overall affordability.
• Equal pay for equal work, by ensuring that pay systems meet legislative requirements and actively work towards reducing any unjustified pay gaps.
• Salary bands and pay setting arrangements are informed by the Civil Service guidance and - in particular – the Department for Education.
• Pay decisions including any Cost of Living (CoL) award are moderated across the organisation to ensure equity and affordability, with additional scrutiny and sign off by both the Audit Committee for our main employees and the Nominations Committee for executive pay.
• Staff benefits are also benchmarked against the non-profit sector.

Pay analysis

Ìý	Fair pay ratio*	Gender pay gap**
5 April 2023	2.68	10.9% (median)

*Fair pay ratio: highest paid staff member salary band as a multiple of median salary.

**Gender pay gap: average variances from reference group, based on male: female comparison.

Comparison to the median UK gender pay gap shows our median pay gap of 10.9% is below the overall UK figure of 14.3%. We want to further reduce our gender pay gap.

Gender pay gap, UK 2023

Sector	Median
CEC	10.9%
UK Average	14.3%
Public sector	14.0%
Private sector	18.9%
Non-profit body or mutual association	17.3%

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2023, Office for National Statistics (latest available)

Senior staff salaries

Salary Band	2023/24
£70,000-79,999	8
£80,000-89,999	1
£90,000-99,999	1
£100,000-109,999	1
£110,000-119,999	0
£120,000-129,999	1
£130,000-139,999	0
£140,000 - 149,999	1

Our commitment to young people and skills development

Our mission to support every young person to find their best next step means we care deeply about doing the right thing as an employer. There are clear links between learning, engaged employees and ultimately, productivity.

The CEC offers apprentice, industry placements (including T-Levels), internship and work experience opportunities to enable people to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to be successful in the workforce. Ìý

In 2023/24 we employed 5 apprentices, meeting our aspiration of having 5% of our workforce on an apprenticeship or continuing in full time employment with us after completing their course. Our apprentices cover a broad range of business operations, financial and technical roles.

Our work experience programme offers both in person and virtual opportunities for young people, providing opportunities for students to engage in a range of real work projects. These exist across all functions of the organisation and are designed with The CEC’s 'equalex' framework in mind.

Our paid volunteering policy also means staff can take up to 5 days a year to give their time to a variety of activities outside of CEC to support young people and their skills development. We are constantly evolving our commitment to skills development. We have undertaken self-evaluation against the Employer Standards framework to ensure that we fulfil our responsibilities as an employer in driving high quality careers education.