We are committed to continue reducing our gender pay gap and driving a culture in which all colleagues can pursue their careers, unencumbered by biases.
By building a diverse workforce and vibrant culture of inclusion, we create a stronger, high-performing. Through the commitments we have made, and a robust focus on delivering and embedding them, we continue to see meaningful, sustainable progress towards closing the gender pay gap.
We have seen incremental increases in both our mean and median hourly pay gap attributable to organisational change and a deceleration in the representation of women in the upper pay quartile. This has resulted in an overall 0.8% percentage point increase in our gender pay gap.
This is disappointing bearing in mind the significant effort we have put into reducing our gender pay gap. It is imperative to acknowledge that lasting transformation takes time and since we first reported in 2017, we have seen an overall reduction of 16.3 percentage points in our gender pay gap. We also know that our circumstances reflect common trends within the UK financial services sector. Nonetheless we have made substantial strides in addressing areas identified as needing improvement and as a result there has been some growth in our lower-mid and upper-mid pay quartiles, underscoring the efficacy of our initiatives aimed at strengthening our pipeline of women leaders.
We were honoured to receive external recognition at the Women in Insurance Awards, where we won the Contribution to Gender Inclusion award. Furthermore, the commendation of several of our women employees for their outstanding leadership and contributions to the industry underscores our dedication to fostering a culture of diversity and empowerment.
Each year we make commitments to diversity and inclusion that guide our strategies and tactics. While our strategic commitments are broadly similar over multiple years, we constantly evolve the tactics that support their delivery.
- Maintain our focus on equitable recruitment practices
- Ensure that our leadership development programmes target gender balance and diversity
- Bring diversity into the company by working with our external partners
- Grow and evolve all our internal networks including our Gender Matters Network
- Increase data collection on DEI characteristics We are delivering against our commitments through a holistic approach to attracting, developing and retaining our people.