Women in Finance

Supporting the progress of women in our organisation

Building an inclusive culture is fundamental to our business. Our future success is built on supporting and empowering all of our people to be the best they can be. We are proud to have signed up to HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter.

The Women in Finance Charter is a pledge for gender balance across financial services. By signing the charter, we pledge to be amongst the best businesses in sector, working to build a more balanced and fair industry in the UK. We believe diversity and inclusion is a simple concept – to have the right people, regardless of background, in the right role. We value individual talent within a team framework and respect that high standards and innovation contribute to our high performance culture. We have set ourselves a target of 45% of women in senior leadership roles by October 2022.

Our progress in 2021

When we signed up to the Charter in September 2019, we had 35% female representation in senior management. As of 1st September 2021, we have 39% female representation in senior management. We believe we can still achieve our Charter target of 45% by October 2022.

While achieving our target may be ambitious, we believe that it remains achievable. We are very proud to say that over the last year, we have further increased female representation on the Executive Committee from 20% to 37.5%.

In order to support our female employees internally, we have 29 female employees currently working towards a qualification in leadership or coaching, with 20 women currently working towards completing their ILM qualification. Additionally, we have a further 9 women working towards completing their professional qualifications in finance or compliance.

More broadly, Chester Royal remains committed to all aspects of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for colleagues from all backgrounds regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, faith or religion and age. It is our intention to be viewed as one of Wales’ most inclusive employer and we are actively undertaking activity for this ambition to become a reality. We have established our own ED&I network with colleagues from across the business and feedback channels to ensure our colleagues are able to share what we’re doing well and areas we need to prioritise. We are continually reviewing our internal processes and practices, including reviewing our parental leave policy to ensure inclusivity for all parents, regardless of gender or circumstance and refreshing our recruitment policies to ensure equitable opportunities for all applicants. Furthermore, we are committed to demonstrating our commitment both internally and externally to all facets of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion by aiming to be a Race at Work Charter signatory and Disability Confident Leader employer.

David Landen CEO: Chester Royal has made progress toward our stated goals for building a diverse and inclusive business; we know we have more work to do to meet to our ambitions but we continue to work to understand, support and drive an organisation that truly wants to be inclusive.

I believe a diverse organisation provides more diverse views; is more representative of our customers and ultimately will be more successful and I and the Board remain committed continuing to ensure Chester Royal is a progressive organisation where anyone can succeed regardless of their background.