This organisation recognises that by building their pipeline of future women leaders, they will in time close their gender pay gap. This is the right approach for a leadership structure and system that is long established (they are over 200 years old). In recent years their investment in this area has seen some healthy results: in 2021 75% of people in the UK in the lowest pay quartiles were women, and more than 40% of their hires at the mid-level were women. But, the challenge is and always has been, retaining women at the mid-level and above. They came to us in 2018 looking for ways to ensure this talent didn’t drop out of their system.
Within a year, over 70% of senior women within the organisation had taken part in the Shine For Women programme. Its success meant it was extended to include all senior women, and to date, all newlypromoted and recruited women at Assistant Director level, as a way to target high-potential talent before they face what we at Shine call ‘the endless juggle’ – the typical moment that women’s careers stall. In late 2022, we have also worked with the Women’s ERG and the leadership team, leading a session for women and men at their Women’s Leadership Forum, and we are running a French version of the core programme.
Since we started working with this organisation, whilst maintaining a higher proportion of women in the lowest pay levels, they have also increased the percentage of women in the Upper Middle (23 to 30%) and Upper (10 to 14%) levels, meaning that their goal of retaining and developing women talent upwards through the pipeline is working. By 2024, they have committed via the UK Women in Finance Charter to reaching 30% women in senior leadership positions.
Schedule a 20 minute call to discover how Shine can help you and your organisation to reach gender parity and achieve better business results.
