Aldermore has published its second report revealing progress against the targets it committed to when signing the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter in 2016.
The report reveals an increase in female representation in senior leadership roles, achieving its 30% target ahead of the announced 2020 goal.
Aldermore committed to the Charter in 2016 and provided its first update on progress last September, ahead of the official deadline from HM Treasury.
Since 2017, Aldermore has continued to deliver against all of the Charter targets, with activities including the establishment of working groups to help drive forward a number of initiatives intended to create an inclusive working environment.
It has regular steering committee meetings intended to focus specifically on gender, reviewing a range of initiatives including flexible working, mentoring, training and development.
Aldermore has also undertaken a refresh of key behavioural guidelines existing within the organisation and plans to embed these further within management processes.
Further details of these initiatives and others can be found in the report here.
Phillip Monks, CEO of Aldermore, said: “Gender representation is an integral part of our Diversity and Inclusion agenda at Aldermore, creating the most supportive environment possible for colleagues to achieve their goals and serve our customers.
“Therefore, I am very pleased to report that we have met one of our Charter targets of increasing female representation across the senior leadership to 30% by 2020. However, our ambition now is to work towards exceeding this target and turning our attentions to our wider goal of seeing an equal gender balance across all levels within the bank.”
Christine Palmer, chief risk officer at Aldermore, added: “Since joining Aldermore, I’ve seen some significant steps taken across our Women in Finance initiatives, as well as across our Diversity and Inclusion ambitions and I’m proud of everything we have achieved so far.
“We’re pleased to have hit the target set ahead of the deadline, and to have improved countless policies which means more of our employees are able to work more flexibly than ever before. Whilst we still have much to do, we are building an organisation where our colleagues have the freedom to voice what they need to succeed”.
Aldermore has also published its Gender Pay Gap figures for the second year, ahead of the April 2019 deadline for reporting this year’s data. As of April 2018, the bank’s mean gap stood at 29%, representing a slight improvement in this figure during the past year and as a result of a change in gender representation across the business.
The bank has also reported an increase in its bonus pay gap figure, which has occurred primarily as a result of Aldermore’s acquisition by FirstRand Group in March 2018.