Gender equality - driving further progress

External recognition for the actions we’re taking to grow an inclusive culture helps us to benchmark against our peers – and importantly it drives us to do more. In the first few months of 2021, initiatives that seek to improve gender equality have been helping us to keep moving forward. 

At the end of February the latest Equileap report on gender equality in the corporate sector was published. Designed to enable investors to make more informed decisions, Equileap’s Gender Equality Scorecard™ researches and ranks over 3,500 public companies around the world. Our business was ranked in the top ten for gender diversity in the UK, and 72nd overall.

The scorecard’s 19 criteria include the gender balance of the workforce, senior management and board of directors, the pay gap, and the policies we have in place – and we received particular recognition as a global leader for our parent leave policy. With our policy being in place for just over a year now, we asked some of our colleagues about their experiences as parents and the difference that the policy has made to them. Watch our video below to hear more:

The Equileap report followed the results from the UK government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review, which seeks to increase the representation of women in senior leadership positions and on boards. We’re ranked 13th in this year’s report, one of 43 FTSE 100 companies who have met or exceeded the targets set. The results from the report show that the number of women on FTSE 350 boards is up by 50 per cent in just five years.

For the third year running, we were also delighted to be included in the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index – one of 380 companies from 44 countries and regions around the world, across 11 sectors. Another useful tool for investors, the Index aims to track the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting. Areas where we scored particularly well reflect the targets that we had achieved by 2020, as well as the transparency of our gender pay data and our gender inclusive policies.

Commenting on the results, Lynne Connolly, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, said:

> Read about the gender diversity targets we’ve set for 2021-2025