Contemporary Case Studies in HRM Report

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Think, Act, Report Two years on

Overview

Ministerial Foreword

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group – Introduction

Progress Update

Women in the Labour Market

Business View

Case Studies

Company Sign-ups

01 Think, Act, Report

01 Overview

Ministerial Foreword We are delighted to introduce the second annual progress report

for Think, Act, Report. This scheme is part of the wide range of work

that the Government is doing to develop a fairer and more flexible

labour market. We want to ensure that all women can fully realise their

potential in the workplace. As this summer’s report of the Women’s

Business Council made clear, this is not just important for women;

it is also vital for building a stronger economy.

We are making good progress: there are

more women working in the UK than ever

before; more of them are working full-time

and the gender pay gap is the lowest it has

ever been. But there is still much more to

do. Full-time male employees are still paid,

on average, nearly 10% more than women.

We need to keep going. Continuing the

economic recovery requires us to draw

on the talents and skills of everyone. The

Coalition Government has given the clearest

possible lead on this. From April 2014, all

employees will have the right to request

flexible working. We are encouraging men to

take advantage of this as well as women, to

ensure that flexible working is seen as part

02 Think, Act, Report Overview

of a modern way of working for everyone.

Likewise, from April 2015, we are introducing

a new system of shared parental leave,

which will make it much easier for men to

be involved in those crucial early weeks and

months of their children’s lives. This will give

parents new options, so they can choose

the best way of doing things for them, and

ensure that it is not always the woman, by

default, who takes a year out when their

child is born.

But the Government can’t do this on its

own. Real change needs to come from

society and employers too. Businesses need

to create working practices and cultures

We are making good progress: there are more women working in the UK than ever before; more of them are working full-time; and the gender pay gap is the lowest it has ever been.

The Rt Hon Maria Miller MP Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport ; and Minister for Women and Equalities (DCMS)

Jo Swinson MP Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs; and Minister for Women and Equalities (BIS)

that ensure they draw on the best talents available, from both men and women. That’s why we are delighted that so many of them are signing up to support Think, Act, Report. In doing so they are signalling their commitment to greater transparency about the position of women within their workforces. This transparency is vital: it helps companies focus on the key issues for them; it helps organisations learn from one another about what works and share best practice; and it helps to ensure that the debate about the role of women in the workplace is well-informed.

Since we published our first annual report, the number of companies supporting

Think, Act, Report has more than doubled.

This is excellent progress. More than 135

companies now support the initiative,

employing nearly 2 million staff, or nearly

1 in 5 people working in medium-sized

or large companies. This shows that

companies are realising the importance

of fully utilising the skills of women, and

the importance of being more transparent

about this. Our survey shows that the

majority of these companies are publishing

more information than previously, and

taking more action on this issue than

previously. Many are also conducting

equal pay audits. We strongly welcome this

voluntary action.

So there is good progress, and Think, Act,

Report is a key part of that. The case studies

and interviews contained here show the

progress that those companies are making.

We’d like to say thank you to The Royal Bank

of Scotland Group who we have worked with

this year to produce and launch Think, Act,

Report – Two Years on.

We urge every company that has signed

up to keep striving to be more transparent,

and to share best practice so that other

companies can learn from you; and we urge

anyone reading this from a company that is

not yet committed to Think, Act, Report to

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Introduction As an active supporter of Think, Act, Report we’ve seen first hand the difference it makes

to our business. Like many companies, RBS is committed to becoming an inclusive

organisation and is taking steps to achieve this at all levels. We want to enable our people

to be their best at work, ensure they know what is expected of them and feel valued for who

they are and the work they do to support our customers.

Think, Act, Report Overview

Elaine Arden Group Human Resources Director The Royal Bank of Scotland Group

At RBS, we’re keen to demonstrate real evidence of progress with our gender agenda, and, for us, this extends beyond doing well in benchmarks and winning awards.

This year we’re pleased to have demonstrated real progress with our gender agenda: achieving a platinum rating from Opportunity Now, and retaining a position in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women and Top 10 Employers for Working Families. However, we still have a long way to go. At RBS, we’re keen to demonstrate real evidence of progress and, for us, this extends beyond doing well in benchmarks and winning awards.

Research shows organisations perform better when they have a good balance of women across teams and in senior roles. Think, Act, Report challenges us to work harder to encourage better gender balance at all levels of our organisation.

It also provides the opportunity to join the debate on real issues including gender targets, effective talent management, agile working and pay. All of these are important as they drive meaningful organisational change. The practical framework, sharing of good practice and transparency that Think, Act, Report brings to this debate is what’s so valuable about being a supporter – our decision to sign up was therefore very simple.

For me, and RBS, Think, Act, Report simply makes good business sense. I urge all UK companies wanting to grow and attract the best talent to compete globally to join us. Become a signatory in 2014 and commit to progressing the Think, Act, Report agenda.

We want to enable our people to be their best at work, ensure they know what is expected of them and feel valued for who they are and the work they do to support our customers.

Progress Update A year of progress for Think, Act, Report. Launched in September 2011, in partnership with business leaders, Think, Act, Report is a voluntary scheme to drive greater transparency about women in the workforce.

Of those companies committed to Think, Act, Report which responded to our recent survey:

Based on a simple, step-by-step

framework, Think, Act, Report encourages

companies to think about gender equality

at work around key issues such as

recruitment, retention, promotion and

pay. Companies are encouraged to:

• collect and consider relevant data on

these issues

• take action where a need for action

is identified; and

• publish relevant information, and

share best practice about what they

are doing.

While companies can choose for

themselves what information they

make public, they share a common

commitment to greater transparency.

Publishing case studies and best

practice allows other companies to

learn what works. It also helps to drive

culture change, so that transparency

about the role of women within different

organisations becomes the norm. This

is a key step towards achieving greater

equality at work.

Think, Act, Report is making significant

progress:

• 136 companies, from around 15

different business sectors, publicly

support the initiative. These include a

string of household names, including

Marks & Spencer, Vodafone, Tesco,

BT, Bupa, Allen & Overy, PwC, EDF

Energy, Lloyds Banking Group, BAE

Systems and GlaxoSmithKline

• these companies employ nearly

2 million people in total

• these companies are taking action.

Our recent survey of Think, Act, Report

organisations showed that 66% of

companies had taken more action to

encourage female talent within their

companies since signing up to Think, Act,

Report. Of those 80%, are gathering more

data on gender equality in the workplace,

60% have developed a planned approach

to promoting gender equality and 63%

are measuring the impact of internal

66%34%

Yes No

Two thirds have taken more action since

signing up

3 2

66%34% Two thirds are publishing

more information on gender equality in their

organisations

Yes No

3 2

48%52% Nearly half have done an equal pay audit in the last 12 months

Yes No

2 1

Think, Act, Report Overview

policies and procedures on the

gender balance of their workforce.

The survey also showed that around

half of the companies signed up to

Think, Act, Report have undertaken an

equal pay audit in the last 12 months.

This is a significant finding, and

shows that companies are starting

to look very seriously at the issue

of equal pay. While they are often

reluctant to make the findings from

these audits public, many Think, Act,

Report companies have indicated

an appetite to discuss this issue on

a private basis. We will be inviting all

signed-up companies to a private

roundtable in the spring, under the

Chatham House rule, to discuss

their findings.

The survey shows a significant

increase in activity and reporting

from our survey of last year and

an encouraging sign that more

companies recognise the importance

of transparency as a way of

attracting, recruiting and retaining

talented women. Our continued

goal, through building support and

encouraging more companies to sign

up to Think, Act, Report, is to build a

culture where openly promoting and

reporting on equality for men and

women in the workplace becomes

the norm for all modern businesses.

Number of employees in organisations signed-up to Think, Act, Report

10.3% 11.0% 11.7% 11.8% 12.1% 14.5% 14.7% 16.6% 16.7% 16.9% 16.9% 17.0% 17.1%

1,891,677

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

1,1 30

,8 60

1, 20

8, 47

1, 28

6, 43

1, 29

2, 91

1, 32

6, 42

1, 59

5, 33

1, 61

3, 56

1, 82

6, 66

1, 83

7,6 89

1, 85

7,7 14

1, 85

7,4 94

1, 87

1, 27

1, 89

1, 67

November 2013

136 Number of UK companies

now supporting Think, Act, Report

Over 2.5 times more

than last year

% of the workforce in companies with over 150 staff

02 08

Think, Act, Report

Women in the Labour Market

Think, Act, Report Women in the Labour Market

Changing nature of the labour market

Full-time

355,000 Part-time

91,000

Since May 2010

446,000 more women are employed

13.9million More women in employment in the UK than ever before (November 2013)

The UK has the 8th highest women’s employment rate in the EU Source: Eurostat

But partly because of our high level of women’s employment, the UK has the 6th highest gender pay gap in the EU Source: Eurostat

The average unemployment rate across the UK

7.6%

The average unemployment rate across the Eurozone

12.2% The average unemployment rate

across the European Union

11.0 %

Overall unemployment in the UK is lower than in Europe

The gender pay gap – full time only The gender pay gap in median hourly pay*

16 .4

16 .3

16 .4

15 .5

14 .6

14 .5

13 .0

Working part-time For their main job, women are over three times more likely to be working part-time than men.

Full-time 11,402,000

88.4% Part-time 1,500,000

11.6%

Full-time 7,281,000

58.4% Part-time 5,182,000

41.6% Source: Labour Force Survey (October 2013), ONS

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Think, Act, Report Women in the Labour Market

12 .6

12 .4

12 .6

12 .2

10 .2

10 .5

9 .6

Why it matters: median hourly earnings (excluding overtime).

Full-time workers

£12.56 Per hour

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2012), ONS.

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2012), ONS *Excluding overtime

Men Women

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Part-time workers

£8.01 Per hour

The gender pay gap How much men and women get paid for selected jobs – gaps in full-time median hourly pay*

3 6

.5 %

2 3

.2 %

P ro

fe ssio

n H

o u

rly p

a y

P a

y g

a p

£11.00 £33.60

£6.99

2 1.9

£19.75

£15.42£25.82

12 .7

£24.63

£21.50

3 2

.0 %

£44.22

£30.09

Metal forming, welding and related

trades

Chief executives and senior

officials

Medical practitioners

Finance and investment

analysts and advisers

Legal professionals

Think, Act, Report Women in the Labour Market

9 .6

4 .5

3 .3

1.4 %

£13.27 £22.69 £17.14 £9.49

£12.00 £21.68 £16.57

4 .1

£17.23

£16.53 £9.36

Men Women

Average of all full-time jobs

Secondary school

teachers

Social workers

Journalists and editors

Secretarial and related

occupations

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2012), ONS. * Excluding overtime.

Em ploym

ent rate

Years until or since birth of first child

Before the birth of the first child, the employment rate of women is similar to that of men...

...but, after the birth of the first child, it drops off very quickly to almost half that of men.

1 2 3

Employment rates The impact of having children on the employment rates of men and women

Think, Act, Report Women in the Labour Market

Despite a steady recovery over the ten years post birth...

...women’s employment rate never recovers to the same rate as men’s, even after 30 years.

■ Men ■ Women

Source: Brewer & Paull (2006)

Think, Act, Report 18

Business View 03

Think, Act, Report Business View

Organisations sign-up to Think, Act, Report voluntarily, to empower their businesses to do more to

promote equality in the workplace and report progress openly. It’s a great platform for companies to

share best practice and information about targets, policies, metrics, pay and benefits. Making public

the work organisations are undertaking to support and promote female employees helps to recruit,

retain and develop talented female members of staff.

To get a deeper insight into current business thinking, challenges and approaches we interviewed

Anne Richards, Chief Investment Officer, Aberdeen Asset Management Plc; Tyrone Jones,

Head of Values & Corporate Responsibility at DWF; and Chris Pilgrim, HR Director, RWE npower.

Anne Richards Chief Investment Officer Aberdeen Asset Management PLC Anne is the Global Chief Investment Officer, board director and head of EMEA region for Aberdeen Asset Management. She began her career as a research fellow at CERN, moving into the investment world in 1992. Her career has included research analysis, portfolio management and global asset allocation. Anne also holds a number of non-executive positions.

Tyrone Jones Head of Values & Corporate Responsibility, DWF Ty has worked in both the public and private sectors building up a substantial track record of senior leadership engagement. As Head of Values & Corporate Responsibility at national business law firm DWF, he operates at both a strategic and operational level, formulating and implementing corporate responsibility and diversity approaches to effect positive changes to workplace culture and business decision making.

Having worked in a broad range of businesses and sectors, the exposure and experience gained has proved invaluable in selling the business case for diversity and corporate responsibility.

Chris Pilgrim HR Director npower Chris Pilgrim is passionate about RWE npower’s commitment to diversity. RWE npower is a leading UK energy company and is part of the RWE Group, one of Europe’s leading electricity and gas companies, serving around 6.5 million customer accounts and producing over 10% of the electricity used in Great Britain.

Business View

Why do you think improving gender equality is important? Anne: We are an international company with a global client base so we are by definition diverse. It makes good business sense for our business to be made up of people from all backgrounds and races, and both sexes. In the UK, women represent over half the population, outnumber and outperform males educationally at all levels and comprise almost half of the workforce. Therefore the gender gap that exists, both in terms of representation at senior levels and pay, makes no sense and must change.

Ty: The principle of meritocracy is central to our business and culture.

Gender equality is not a minority issue – it matters to everyone. At some point in our lives, all of us are likely to face barriers that may prevent us from fulfilling our potential, or participating fully in work and indeed in society.

DWF Partner and Chair of the Women Lawyers Division of The Law Society, Mary Ann Wright sums up the challenges within our industry. “The legal profession is notoriously bad at retaining and developing female talent and producing a ‘talent pipeline’ for future leaders. Notwithstanding that more women enter the profession at the junior level than men, women still have to be exceptional to achieve leadership positions, rather than simply being good enough, like their male counterparts.”

Attracting, developing and retaining talent is vital to the sustainability of any business. 64% of DWF’s workforce is female and we are not going to risk losing our talent pipeline because we are not able to ensure our people experience an equal sense of value.

We have the opportunity to act decisively and seize the opportunities that a visible gender agenda presents. We have the people, desire and line of sight to ensure gender equality is evidenced in the way we think and behave every day.

Chris: It is important to npower to have a diverse mix of people from a variety of different backgrounds and cultures to ensure that we have a broad array of skills and experiences. We recognise that a balanced gender mix can bring a equilibrium of opinion and perspective, which is of paramount importance when we are making both important strategic and daily decisions throughout the organisation.

We want to achieve internal diversity that reflects the community we serve, so that we can respond positively, flexibly and appropriately to deliver the highest quality service to our customers. At the same time we also want to make sure we understand the needs of our employees, increase engagement, and maximise their contribution to the business, to drive competitive advantage.

What do you think the biggest barriers are to making progress? Anne: A lot of attention has been placed on the under representation of women in UK boardrooms. However, not addressing the executive pipeline at the same time poses a significant barrier to sustainable progress. The most recent Cranfield report on gender diversity showed that there has been a fall in the percentage of women on executive committees since 2009 and therefore it is not surprising that progress is not being made in the number of women holding executive directorships.

Ty: The slow creep up the ladder for

women demonstrates the extent to which many diversity initiatives have, by and large, failed to make a visible difference to the progression of women. The business case for gender diversity does not appear to be clearly understood, or its importance fully factored into the business model. As a consequence, the extent to which the gender agenda consciously impacts a business varies enormously.

Diversity training is still viewed as a panacea to address the pace of change but rarely does diversity training alone go beyond raising awareness of gender equality, and it has little impact in motivating changes in attitude and behaviour. The focus on unconscious bias, as the key to unlocking and capitalising on female talent, is starting to have an impact.

Leaders also still lack the confidence and competence to articulate the business case for gender equality, which could either positively enhance the employment experience for women or close aspirations down to the point that female talent walks out the door.

Chris: Rather than a barrier, our biggest challenge at the moment is around our business transformation, where we need to ensure that we retain a balanced mix of people, including women, during a period of immense change. The transformation will reduce our headcount and thus we need to ensure that we retain the right balance of people with a broad mix of skills and capabilities to help achieve our overall vision of being number one in the customer experience.

What is your company doing to promote gender equality? Anne: We have always been committed

Think, Act, Report Business View

to championing gender equality, both in our own business and also in our investee companies, and are working to improve the data we collect, our communications and our training on this matter.

Following Lord Davies’ first review into female representation in the boardroom, we launched the Backroom to Boardroom initiative to provide an opportunity for senior female members of the investment community, and organisations which are crucial to the wider economy, to come together and connect with women who are still building their careers.

In 2012, we also launched a maternity coaching programme. Employees are offered three sessions – pre, during and post leave, which offer advice and support on subjects including assertiveness, managing work-life balance, career development and maintaining a strategic focus at work. We recognise the importance of not just offering coaching to women on, or about to go on, maternity leave, but also ensuring that our managers are fully equipped to provide the support needed during this time. The aim is to make the process for mothers returning to the business from maternity leave a smooth one and provide the support they need to help them progress in their career.

At an entry level, we strive to achieve a gender balance for our apprenticeship, intern and graduate programmes, recognising that, to achieve a sustainable pipeline, focus must be placed on each level of the business. We do this by closely monitoring the gender split of the number of young people who apply, are asked for interview and who are offered jobs at Aberdeen.

This year, we also formed our first women’s working group to discuss matters which are pertinent to the business and identify areas where there is still work to do. In addition, we offer flexible working patterns to employees and have held seminars on the support that is available to carers and working parents.

We support many external initiatives too, including Women on Boards UK, the Women’s Business Forum, the investor group of the 30% club, the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation and the Breaking the Mould and Asian Women of Achievement awards.

Ty: At DWF, we are determined to create a workplace that capitalises on gender equality to achieve leading edge status both as an employer of choice and as a legal service provider.

We are focusing on our talent agenda, career structures, unconscious bias, mentoring, the scope and number of flexible working arrangements and agile workers in place, maternity returners and equal pay. The impact of this will undoubtedly be positive for women and will ensure, where action is taken, that we stimulate further activity to speed up the cultural shift.

There is an increased willingness to talk about diversity as part of the way we do business, as a vehicle for engaging our people and our clients. Developing socially and commercially relevant programmes such as “What Matters To Professional Women in 2013” is starting to make a visible impact. This interactive roadshow was launched to coincide with International Women’s Day and is being followed up by a series of solution-based focus groups involving both women and men to address the feedback and barriers (perceived and real) identified.

In terms of continuing to engage our people, we once again promoted National Worklife Week, established a Working Families network and reviewed and enhanced our flexible working policy. We have also welcomed opportunities to promote and advance the gender agenda across the legal profession and beyond.

In 2013, DWF partner Mary Ann Wright was appointed Chair of the Women’s Division of The Law Society which is helping to position us at the centre of the debate surrounding issues affecting women in the legal profession, tackling

key issues including progression and retention. We are currently collaborating with the Leasing Foundation on the development of a Gender Diversity Scorecard for the leasing and asset finance industry.

Chris: The success of our business depends on the ability, commitment and dedication of our people. We want to attract and retain talented people, so we recognise that to do that we have to provide a diverse and inclusive culture, where individuals feel that they can develop and reach their full potential.

We know it is important to get a balanced mix, both across the organisation and within our leadership team, so we have set ourselves a target to increase the number of women within our leadership population to 25% by 2018. We have also shared our progress in our Corporate Responsibility report and with our own people on our intranet. We recognise that there is more that we can do to be as transparent an organisation as we can be externally and this is on our agenda for the foreseeable future.

What effect is it having? What do you consider to be the biggest achievement? Anne: At Aberdeen, women represent 47% of our workforce and 36% of managers. This number has remained fairly consistent over the past three years. Our current board is made up of 14 directors of whom four are women and two women sit on our Group Management Board of 13.

We are working to improve the ways in which we measure and monitor progress in the area of gender balance and the introduction of our first employee survey this year, together with feedback received from employees after attending specific courses, are key components of this.

We collate data on diversity by department, age and level within the business and disclose statistics in our annual corporate responsibility report.

Ty: A visible gender agenda is providing us with the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with our people and our clients, which is shaped by doing the right thing. It is helping to change the way we do things. Gender equality and reporting is now integral to our approach. Based upon mutual respect, it is helping to ensure DWF is, and is seen to be, a great place to work and do business.

Our biggest achievement has been the launch and growth of our female network to over 420 members. The focus of the network is on the development and mentoring of DWF women. It focusses on their career advancement, and client engagement opportunities aligned to women in business. It also involves the support and mentoring of girls in the community, to raise their aspirations and life chances.

The network:

• Helps talented women achieve their career potential

• Provides access and visibility to positive role models

• Shares knowledge across the business in a way that supports the development of female colleagues

• Provides the opportunity to feed ideas and knowledge into firm-wide initiatives

• Exposes women to inspirational leaders from a range of business sectors.

The visibility and impact of the network created the impetus for the delivery of our roadshows across the business asking, “What Matters To Professional Women in 2013?” The events involved over 250 women and debated what women want, what ambition looks like for them, what is aspirational, what is unappealing. It questioned whether women believe they hold themselves back and, if so, to what extent. It also focused on solutions, based upon networking, politics in navigating business, and choices.

Chris: We have a relatively balanced workforce across a variety of different characteristics and our male/female balance is relatively stable throughout the organisation.

We have made in-roads within our leadership population where we have shifted the balance from 16% to 22% over the past 18 months; however we recognise that we have a way to go. We have recently taken part in the benchmarking report with Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity, for the second year, to see how we have progressed as an organisation over the past twelve months. This report will show us how we fare with our competitors and the external market, and help us to drive the agenda forwards in a continued, focussed way.

Why did you sign up to Think, Act, Report?

Anne: By signing up to the Think, Act, Report initiative, we are publicly demonstrating our commitment to promoting gender equality in the workplace.

Ty: A visible commitment to diversity and inclusion has to be about more than just complying with a policy. Ultimately, it is

about what we display through the way we think and behave and is shaped by doing the right thing. Across DWF we want to be, and be seen to be, a great place to work. In order to achieve this, we have to ensure that we are not unintentionally preventing our people from experiencing an equal sense of value and ability to contribute.

Our commitment to Think, Act, Report is consistent with our desire to continue to deal openly, fairly and honestly with our people and to measure and publish our progress against key performance indicators that meet and hopefully exceed the expectations of all our stakeholders.

Chris: Our commitment to diversity and inclusion means that we continually seek to improve our policies, procedures and codes of practice to ensure that our employees, potential employees and other workers are treated equally, fairly and on merit.

We recognise that our people are our most valuable asset and we are therefore keen to understand the potential barriers, to help us break those barriers down, ensuring our people feel valued and included.

We would like to share our experiences with others and be transparent about our progress and success as much as possible. We are also keen to learn from other organisations as to how best we can drive and increase the number of talented women both coming to and remaining within the organisation. So signing up to Think, Act, Report is important to us. We believe that the support, learning and networking opportunities it could provide will be of paramount importance to our commitment in increasing the number of women within the organisation and driving their progression/development.

Making public the work organisations are undertaking to support and promote female employees helps make them a more attractive place to work, helping them to recruit, retain and develop talented female members of staff.

Think, Act, Report Case Studies

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC Backroom to Boardroom (B2B)

Established in 1983, Aberdeen Asset Management Plc is a global investment management group, managing assets for both institutional and retail clients. With 900 staff, its mission is to deliver strong fund performance across diverse asset classes.

Backroom to Boardroom (“B2B”) is the vision of Anne Richards, Aberdeen’s Chief Investment Officer, to bring together senior women with women who are still building their careers.

Female representation in the boardroom of UK companies and organisations has been a subject that has grown in visibility and importance since Lord Davies’ first review in 2011. While progress has been made, with greater female representation on UK Boards and a growing recognition that diversity at all levels of an organisation makes good business sense, women are still underrepresented at senior levels.

In 2011, Anne Richards launched the B2B initiative to provide an opportunity for senior female members of the investment community, and organisations which are crucial to the wider economy, to come together. The events showcase how wide the talent pool of women who are board- ready really is, as well as encouraging women on their way to the boardroom by sharing experiences, networking and supporting executive development.

To date, there have been eleven B2B events,

held both in the UK and internationally.

By connecting women from a range of different

backgrounds, including academia, media and

the not for profit sector, and at different stages

of their careers, B2B is helping to create a

strong professional network which inspires

a future generation of business leaders and

helps to build a sustainable executive pipeline.

The aims behind the B2B events are to:

• hear from accomplished and entertaining

experts in their field

• provide a forum in which women with

boardroom experience today can offer

the benefit of that experience to women

who may gain it in the future, so helping to

create a sustainable executive pipeline

• contribute in a small way to a stronger

business environment, by providing

a forum for dialogue between female

members of the investment community

and the organisations which are crucial to

the wider economy.

The B2B initiative provides an opportunity for senior female members of the investment community, and organisations which are crucial to the wider economy, to come together.

Think, Act, Report Case Studies

DWF Finding out what matters to professional women

Established in 1977, DWF believes in combining excellent commercial guidance with a straightforward, approachable style. Supporting its people, its clients and the communities where they live and work is at the heart of the company and reinforces the company’s commitment to its values. DWF employs over 1500 staff in the UK.

At DWF, the principle of meritocracy is central to our business and culture. We are determined to create a workplace that capitalises on gender equality to achieve leading edge status, both as an employer of choice and as a legal service provider.

We wanted to identify any barriers, perceived or real, that impact on the progression of women at DWF, and to engage in meaningful dialogue to help women navigate a career in line with aspirations and ability.

64% of our workforce is female, yet we have only 23% female representation at partnership.

We are aiming to:

• Increase the percentage of female representation at partner level

• Increase the visibility of DWF women

• Increase the proportion of women mentoring and being mentored

• Carry out an equal pay audit

• Communicate findings (internally and externally)

• Launch an equal pay policy statement

• Equality impact assess all our employment policies

• Showcase flexible working throughout the business

• Introduce unconscious bias training as part of our learning and development portfolio and talent development programme.

To coincide with International Women’s Day, we launched our female network which aims to:

• Help talented women fulfil their career potential

• Provide access and visibility to positive role models

• Knowledge share across the business in a way that supports the development of female colleagues

• Support the business to capitalise on the full potential of gender diversity

• Provide the opportunity to feed ideas and knowledge into firm-wide initiatives

• Expose women to inspirational leaders from a range of business sectors

• Demonstrate DWF’s commitment to gender diversity.

We continued to fuel the dialogue on gender equality by signing up to Think, Act, Report and sponsoring the launch of The Law Society’s Flexible Working Protocol. We promoted case studies about female mentoring, and hosted Women on Board Events and Women in Business events.

This was followed by the launch of our gender roadshow, “What matters to professional women in 2013?” We asked our female colleagues what they considered to be the main issues facing their personal career progression currently; what ambition looks like for them; what is aspirational; and what is unappealing. It questioned whether women believe they hold themselves back and, if so, to what extent. It also focused on solutions, based upon networking, politics in navigating business, and choices.

Our successes include:

• Our women’s network has grown in membership to 423 members

• Seven roadshows delivered, to over 250 women

• Three agile working projects launched

• Celebrated National Worklife Week

• Reviewed and enhanced our flexible working policy

• Launched a Working Families network

• Provided mentoring opportunities for women on our leadership development and talent development programmes

• Started a roll out of unconscious bias training sessions

• Commenced first equal pay audit.

The feedback from our gender roadshows is being presented to the DWF board and a series of solution-based focus groups launched to engage both men and women about the findings. We will also launch our new DWF Savvy programme to support and enable women to navigate their career.

Following completion of our equal pay audit, the findings will be communicated and will inform our People Investment strategy. We are also continuing to increase the opportunities to mentor and be mentored.

One of the unintended consequences of our merger and acquisition activity over the last 12-18 months has been an impact on female representation at partner level, which fell from 27% pre-merger activity to our current level of 23%. However, this is simply due to a significantly higher proportion of male partners from within our merged businesses, rather than women leaving the business.

Think, Act, Report Case Studies

RWE npower Launching a new leadership framework

RWE npower is a leading UK energy company. It is part of the RWE Group, one of Europe’s leading electricity and gas companies, serving around 6.5 million residential and business customers with electricity, gas and energy services. Established in 2000 as Innogy PLC, before changing to RWE npower in 2002, the company now employs 9,000 staff in the UK.

Our 2012 employee survey results informed us that to become a high performing organisation we needed to focus on five key areas to improve employee engagement – leadership, communications, people development, customer focus and strategy. We created an engagement steering committee, sponsored by our CEO, to focus on these key areas. We also held local focus groups and team away days across multiple sites to look at the survey results and formulate actions plans.

As a result, our leaders have increased their visibility and are communicating more effectively across the broader organisation, using a variety of different channels. This has been welcomed by our people as they are keen to understand better their role in delivering the strategy.

Other initiatives include leadership focus groups to understand what our people want and expect from their leaders; a new employee value proposition to clarify what we expect of our people and what they can expect from us; and our critical

behaviours, a consistent framework to support our people in driving their own development and performance.

We developed a new leadership framework to ensure we have the right skills, knowledge and experience for the future. It maps levels within the organisation to appropriate development, providing clarity and visibility of the journey for those who want to learn and grow and those who aspire to be a senior leader.

Our recruitment partners are made aware of our gender target to ensure they attract diverse candidates by highlighting the benefits of our culture and working environment, such as our flexible working policies, inclusive practices and corporate responsibility.

Our hiring managers toolkit gives our line managers guidance and tools when recruiting, which are linked to our critical behaviours. Where feasible we ensure a woman is on the interview panel for all senior roles and recruiting managers

are trained to assess against skills to ensure that they are fair, consistent and not unconsciously biased toward any candidates.

Our new performance management and supporting reward processes and systems link to our critical behaviours and help create a high performance, customer-orientated culture.

We run annual talent and succession processes and seek to ensure we have a broad, diverse mix of people with a range of skills, experiences, behaviours, backgrounds and capabilities.

We now conduct a quarterly ‘temperature check’ survey to gauge how our people are feeling on a more frequent basis.

Our Executive team has become increasingly diverse and international with 22% of posts being filled by women, an increase of 7% over the past 18 months.

Four cohorts have undergone our management development programme, of whom 41% were women.

Our coaching and graduate pools have 43% and 40% of women respectively.

During a period of large scale transformational change, we will ensure continued focus on the number of women within Executive roles, by setting ourselves a target of 25% by 2018.

We recognise that encouraging more women to think more broadly about their careers is a long-term strategy and the work we do in schools and universities will help improve awareness of what we have to offer.

We recognise that encouraging more women to think more broadly about their careers is a long term strategy and the work we do in schools and universities will help improve awareness of what we have to offer.

Think, Act, Report Case Studies

Post Office Ltd Understanding Diverse Customer Needs

The Post Office has 11,780 branches, at the heart of communities across the UK. The Post Office employs 8,000 staff and is focused on growing as a business and modernising its network, complemented by a growing digital presence.

The Post Office plays a unique role in the heart of communities across the UK. We serve 18 million customers each week and 99.7% of the population lives within 3 miles of one of our branches. It is therefore a strategic imperative that we understand and reflect our diverse customer base.

In 2012, an independent review suggested that a more proactive approach was needed to raise awareness and build diversity into the way we do things. In particular, we were faced with declining female representation. Although 62% of our frontline managers were women, they made up only 25% of our top 60 leaders.

In response to this we have developed a three-year diversity strategy, the initial stage of which is focused on raising awareness of our diversity business case. Stage two is about embedding diversity into our culture and systems; and stage three is about creating external product offerings based on diversity as a market force.

Although we are still at the start of our journey, the results are already starting to become evident. Led by an Executive Committee that is 50% female, we have achieved:

• Senior sponsorship in the form of Alice Perkins, the Post Office Chairman, who leads a board subgroup that reviews diversity on a bi-annual basis; and Paula Vennells (Chief Executive) who provides sponsorship to building gender equality

• Introduction of senior management gender and BME appointment targets in our core business scorecard (two of the ten measures reviewed quarterly by BIS as our shareholder)

• Established a representative diversity forum to ensure business ownership of the diversity agenda

• Signed up as member to the Government-backed Think, Act, Report initiative

• Launched an unconscious bias training programme that has been completed by over 70 senior managers, including our full Executive team

• Launched a ‘Women in Leadership’ programme that has profiled female role models and provided networking opportunities for 60 of our female leaders

• Launched a female mentoring scheme that enabled 40 existing senior role models to support and build our female talent pipeline.

Our recruitment data has showed us that this financial year we have appointed women to 52.3% of senior management

roles (significantly above our target of 40%, which was based on recent historical trends).

We also track the engagement of diverse groups through our employee survey – where our female engagement index, at 58, is 3% above our organisational norm.

While results like these are encouraging, we fully recognise there is still a lot to do. In our annual employee survey we ask if our staff agree that ‘Post Office values the diversity of its workforce’ and our most recent results (April 2013) highlighted that almost half our employees (47%) do not believe this to be the case. This clearly outlines the challenges that remain.

This is just the beginning of our diversity journey.

Our recruitment data has showed us that this financial year we have appointed women to 52.3% of senior management roles (significantly above our target of 40% which was based on recent historical trends).

Think, Act, Report Case Studies

PwC Female Partner Sponsorship Programme

PwC is founded on a culture of partnership with a strong commercial focus reflecting its vision: ‘One firm – a powerhouse of a commercial enterprise that does the right thing for our clients, our people and our communities’. Established in 1998, PwC employs over 15,000 staff, providing professional services to a wide range of clients.

For the past 10 years, PwC has used a range of tools to bring women through to partnership. But the firm recognises those tools are not producing results fast enough and is seeking to accelerate the pace of change, to reach its goal of having at least 20% female partners.

Internal research conducted in 2009 highlighted some of the underlying issues, which were verified through focus groups and interviews with senior women. Key findings included:

• A lack of pro-active consideration of women for major assignments

• A lack of gender consideration in succession planning

• A reticence amongst senior men to mentor women at the leadership level.

These factors were contributing to the lack of senior women in the firm, which in turn exacerbated the perception amongst junior women that advancement opportunities were limited.

To tackle this, in June 2010 PwC launched its Female Partner Sponsorship Programme, with the full support of all ten male executive board members.

This programme includes changes in recruitment/promotion practises, the creation of women’s leadership programme, and greater flexible working opportunities. The executive board embarked on creating the right conditions for progression, including talent nurturing, transparency, challenging behaviour and target setting. Each board member developed a tailored personal development and career plan for two or three female partners, and took active steps to cultivate the qualities that are essential for leadership appointments. This included identifying opportunities for profile raising, network expansion, involvement in key/high-profile projects, and more.

Twenty-six female partners were selected and they meet every quarter to work

directly with board members on a specific current business challenge. This has allowed the group to get to know each other better and for the board to get a different perspective. Twenty-six women started the programme in 2010 and since then seven more have joined. The programme has delivered real results - just under 60% of participants were appointed to leadership roles and 90% have had a role level increase within the partnership. This programme won the prestigious Opportunity Now Advancing Women in the Workplace award for 2013.

At the most recent group session, the female partners met with three board members to discuss these achievements and it was decided to cascade the sponsorship programme to the next level. PwC is therefore extending it to cover female and black, asian and minority ethnic directors and senior managers who have potential to make partner, all of whom will be sponsored by a line of service leader/executive board member.

For the past 10 years, PwC has used a range of tools to bring women through to partnership. But the firm recognises they are not producing results fast enough and is seeking to accelerate the pace of change to reach its goal of at least 20% female partners.

Think, Act, Report Case Studies

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Building strong gender balance at all levels

Think: The inclusion agenda is more important to RBS than it’s ever been. This year we’ve taken time to refresh our focus, step back and think about how we support women to reach their full potential. We recognised early on, when shaping our agenda, that we didn’t want to simply focus on the women that work for us; we wanted to support our female customers, too.

We know that setting targets alone won’t deliver change, nor will it get us to the key issues. Instead, we’ve moved our focus to delivering a systemic ‘joined up’ approach which identifies and influences the key organisational processes and practices that help to deliver better gender balance and build sustainable progress.

56% of our global workforce is female. Whilst we’ve met the Davies report commitments, our focus has shifted to building strong gender balance at all levels. To help achieve this we have agreed some aspirational commitments with our Board, to increase the number of female graduates and the number of women in senior manager and executive roles.

Act: For our colleagues we’ve focussed on the things we know work well. These include sponsorship of talented women

The RBS Group (RBS) is a UK-based banking and financial services company. Headquartered in Edinburgh, the Group serves over 30 million customers worldwide. RBS is focused on serving its customers and communities well, that means putting them at the heart of everything they do.

throughout their career, role modelling at all levels and mentoring. We’ve also threaded an inclusion optic through our human capital processes, including:

• RBS’ purpose, vision and values

• leadership development - some of which will include positive action programmes for women

• our competency framework and leadership standards

• talent management processes, e.g. stewardship

• ensuring we have at least one woman on shortlists and on the selection panel for senior roles

• ensuring our colleagues have access to agile working through the RBS ‘Choice Programme’.

We’ve encouraged more women to start up in business by launching Inspiring Women in Enterprise. Over the next three years, this programme will provide £1.5m of funding to a range of organisations, which will focus on inspiring and enabling more women to unlock their enterprise potential. Similarly, by developing a Supplier Diversity and Inclusion Programme and Code of Conduct, we’ve supported the recovery of local economies by helping to create sustainable supply chains.

We’re supporting women across the globe by helping girls out of poverty through our international community campaign Women of Tomorrow. The campaign invites colleagues to donate to programmes to tackle poverty by investing in girls from underprivileged backgrounds.

Report: We know we still have a lot to do but it’s encouraging to see some definite signs of progress.

We’ve seen a year on year improvement in the number of women in senior roles and an improved graduate gender balance. Our people rated us 83% favourable (+2% above the Global Financial Services norm) in the ‘Respect & Diversity’ category in this year’s Employee Opinion Survey. We’re pleased that we’ve achieved a platinum rating from Opportunity Now in recognition of our systemic approach to gender equality; we’re listed in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women and we’re a Top 10 Employer for Working Families. This year, membership of our internal employee-led Women’s Network has grown to over 11,000.

We have 202 Women in Business Specialists accredited by the Chartered Banker Institute and certified by Everywoman, who offer mentoring, networking and professional business advice to women-led and women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises.

To date, our Inspiring Women in Enterprise programme has enabled more than 3,000 women to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence in enterprise, prompting them to consider setting up a business. By the end of 2015, we want to have inspired and enabled 20,000 women to explore and unlock their enterprise potential.

We’ve raised over half a million pounds for our partner charities Barnardo’s, Oxfam, Plan International, Room to Read and the World Association of Girls Guides and Girl Scouts to support the Women of Tomorrow to access the education they need.

It’s a journey: RBS recognises that we must sustain and build on this progress. We’ll maintain our focus by continuing to push for change. As opposed to one-off initiatives, we’ll continue to facilitate connectivity across our organisation, ensuring that catalysts, like sponsorship, are cascaded through the organisation, so that over time they are recognised simply as a way of working.

We’ll increase the visibility of authentic female leaders and support them to cast their shadow internally and externally, helping to attract and champion women into senior roles.

Finally, we’re in the process of rolling out open-mindedness training for our people that will help to target gender stereotypes as well as eliminating other biases.

It’s all part of our journey to becoming a really good bank, where our people are able to bring the best of themselves to work. That’s how we will ensure we serve our customers well.

We’ll continue to facilitate connectivity across our organisation, ensuring that catalysts, like sponsorship, are cascaded through the organisation, so that over time they are recognised simply as a way of working.

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