This is a commitment by HM Treasury and signatory firms to work together to build a more balanced and fair industry. Firms that sign up to this Charter are pledging to be the best businesses in the sector.
The Charter reflects the government’s aspiration to see gender balance at all levels across financial services firms. A balanced workforce is good for business – it is good for customers, for profitability and workplace culture, and is increasingly attractive for investors.
The Charter commits firms to supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services sector by focusing on the executive pipeline and the mid-tier level; recognises the diversity of the sector and that firms will have different starting points – each firm should therefore set its own targets and implement the right strategy for their organisation; requires firms to publicly report on progress to deliver against these internal targets to support the transparency and accountability needed to drive change.
In 2019 Pepper UK Limited pledged to promote gender diversity by:
- having one member of our senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion – this was achieved.
- setting internal targets for gender diversity in our senior management – this was achieved.
- publishing progress annually against these targets in reports on our website – this was achieved.
- having an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity – this is in progress due to limited attrition during Covid-19 response.
Our commitment in 2019 was to maintain 50% or more women in senior management by December 2020 in relation to our Executive Leadership Team – in 2022 this has been exceeded, and we now have 60% representation.
We have also built out the representation of women at the group level with four senior women hires in the period.
Our target is to maintain this diverse leadership quota permanently through 2022 and on to 2023.
Our overall diversity in the business as of 2019 saw 12% males and 8% females in management positions and is fairly well reflective of a business that had 47% women in the workforce. In 2022 this figure is increased for females to 22% and is very much reflective of internal growth opportunities.
Our target is to continue to focus on diverse representation in our recruitment with a minimum of 50% of female candidates shortlisted for interview.
In the last year we have significantly enhanced our family friendly policies, which have a clear focus on making it financially easy to commit to family, but also advantageous to return to a career in finance, including but not limited to maternity, paternity and miscarriage.
We continue to have an apprentice intake programme, which is equally diverse (shortlisted for awards with both CIPD and Personnel today in 2022), as we focus on growing talent and future leaders, and addressing the issue of NEETs (not in education, employment or training) in the local community.
We will continue to offer executive coaching to female leaders in the business as we explore opportunities for diverse and forward-thinking leadership led by an already diverse executive team. We look forward to continuing growth as a diverse and inclusive business through 2023.
