Many employers ask new starters to complete several documents at the beginning of their employment, the majority of which are required for HR and payroll purposes. This commonly includes the question of defining their gender.
There is currently no legal requirement for an employer to ask about an employee’s gender and while this information is gathered by the majority of employers for a range of reasons, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and administrative purposes, there is no requirement on the employee to disclose information of this nature. For some companies of a certain size there is however mandatory diversity and inclusion reporting, which relates specifically to the companies’ diversity policies and gender pay gap.
There is a greater awareness of employers ensuring that their policies and procedures are as inclusive as possible and this is likely to extend to ensure that questions on gender do incorporate all types of gender identity.
Having a gender policy in place, whilst ensuring that employers are being as inclusive as possible, may also go some way to helping employers in approaching discrimination issues, by clearly identifying their approach to gender identity and gender reassignment, which are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
To check whether your business is subject to mandatory reporting in relation to diversity policies and/or gender pay gap, or alternatively if you would like to know more about gender policies please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the employment team.
