Women in Finance Charter
In 2016 we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter and are committed to increasing the presence of all under-represented groups in our senior leadership positions. Our CEO, Julie-Ann Haines, and the rest of our Executive team are instrumental in role-modelling and sponsoring women in leadership positions from the top down, one of our key commitments as signatories.
We originally set a target of 33% of women in senior positions by 2021 and made good progress towards achieving this target. One of our strategic goals is being part of a “Fairer Society”, with diversity and inclusion integral to our ways of working here at Principality. The Women in Finance Charter is vital in providing focus and measuring our progress. With that in mind we decided to stretch our goal and to provide even more focus and vigour in achieving what we firmly believe is the right thing to do. As a result, we have extended our target to be at least 40% of women in senior roles, with a further commitment to a minimum of 40% of either gender by 2030.
When we signed up to the Charter in July 2016, we had 23% female representation. As of September 2024, we had 42% female representation in senior leadership roles which represents the achievement of our target for 2030, ahead of schedule. We recognise that we still have work to do, both to maintain this percentage and to ensure this is distributed across the different grades of our senior leaders. We will continue to review and evolve the actions we have already put in place and are confident we will achieve this.
*rounded up from 41.94%
2024 onwards
We have implemented a number of actions, which include broadening our application reach to attract the best talent available, enhancing our Paid Parental Leave Policy, and seeking specialist external developmental support for our colleagues. These steps are part of our broader Diversity and Inclusion strategy designed and taken to accelerate and improve our focus on under-representation across our organisation. We are confident that they will contribute to the continued improvement of our Women in Finance Reporting over the coming years. We are developing our external networks to learn from others, and share best practise. Our progress in becoming a more inclusive place to work is starting to be recognised, and we will continue to strive towards our ambition of having impact beyond our scale.
Tony Smith
Chief Impact and Governance Officer