Finance firms are welcome to sign up to the Treasury’s Women in Finance charter, published on the 11th of April 2016.
By signing up to the charter, the government says we will see better gender balance at all levels across the financial services industry. When firms commit to supporting the progression of women into senior roles by signing the charter, they’ll set their own internal targets and publicly report on any progress made.
Specifically, organisations will need to designate a member of their senior executive team to be responsible for gender diversity and inclusion. The wage of the chosen employee should be linked to their delivery of diversity targets.
The new charter is a follow-up of a review that was published last month by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief executive of Virgin Money. The review concluded that a gender balanced workforce in financial services improved employee behaviour, outcomes, profitability, culture and productivity greatly.
Jayne-Anne is an advocate of ‘Responsible Business’, which was an idea she pioneered through her “Everyone’s better off” philosophy. Which is the core component of the Virgin Money approach to both business and culture in January 2014.
But it found that only half of women working in the financial industry believed they had an equal opportunity to advance in their company, this was in comparison to 70% of men working at the same firm.
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Inspirational Woman: Jayne-Anne Gadhia | CEO of Virgin Money
Jayne-Anne Gadhia is the Chief Executive of Virgin Money
This article is accredited to Ellie Bridger