As Post has reported no gender pay gap for the second year in a row after becoming Ireland's first major employer to achieve a "zero gender pay gap".

The postal service has delivered on efforts to achieve gender parity since 2019, with a 50:50 gender balance on its management board. There company's senior management group is now 41% female, up from 33% last year.

Female representation in the firm's postal sorting, collecting and delivery operations remains very low at 13%.

An Post, which employs over 9,000 people, says it had agreed a clear strategy to increase gender representation in frontline positions and redesigned its recruitment process.

The strategy includes targeted advertising campaigns, a revision of the company's inclusion statement on job adverts, and training for operational managers on inclusive recruitment.

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"I’m immensely proud of all the great work across the business to make sure that we are a more equal company but also a much better company," said David McRedmond, CEO of An Post.

“We know that we have a lot of work still to do in some areas and we have got to work harder to attract more women to work in postal sorting and delivery.

"While we don’t have a gender quota, we have introduced 50:50 gender balanced shortlisting for senior management jobs and removing any opportunity for unconscious bias so that the best person is always appointed to the role.”

An Post recently conducted a survey of all female employees who have been with the company for more than three years, with 61% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the firm has made solid progress on gender representation since 2019.

 Those surveyed reported seeing women progress through the organisation, an increase in female representation, women being more visible, a culture of women supporting women,  as well as women finding their voices and speaking up more.

More than 70 women engaged in development opportunities through the An Post Green Institute, the company's further education, training and development programme, last year.

Programmes they completed included, Aspire, a female talent acceleration programme; Advance, a Mentoring programme, Elevate, a frontline manager programme and the Strategic Leadership Programme.

Overall, there has been a 36% increase year-on-year in female applications for education support.

 “Our Aspire programme has had a powerful multiplier effect across the business, as women share their stories of having increased confidence and taking on new opportunities," said Eleanor Nash, chief people officer at An Post.

"We are now seeing more and more colleagues contacting  our learning and development team or having open conversations with their line managers about  the development options available to them and how we can support their careers at An Post. 

"A recent survey of Aspire participants found that 89% of participants were more confident in their role and 19% have changed role while three in four participants are availing of further development opportunities.”

Nash said area of improvement for An Post, include improvements in women's health and wellbeing, representation of women, creating more development opportunities, and greater respect for everyone in the workplace.

Heather Lowry, head of talent, diversity & organisation development at An Post, added: “We are equally committed to a broader inclusion agenda and this year launched our first inclusion survey to learn more about our workplace and our people.

"We have an agreed action plan sponsored by the Management Board to promote a positive work environment for all employees through new and existing policies, introducing a Reasonable Accommodation Passport to support those with disabilities and we’re developing a career support framework to enable employee promotion and succession.”

Minister of State at the Department of Transport Hildegarde Naughton commended An Post leadership for eliminating the organisation's gender pay gap.

Photo: (l-r). David McRedmond, CEO at An Post; Sonya Lennon, entrepreneur and equality advocate, and Eleanor Nash, chief people officer at An Post. (Pic: Maxwells)