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DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

In support of our wider responsibility aims, our goal is to be an employer of choice and deliver Sustainable Wealth Creation for our clients.

We have a long-standing commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion in our business and acknowledge that we need to make further progress.

Mission

Our mission is clear. It is to foster and promote a culture of inclusion which celebrates all forms of diversity.

We aim to appeal to, and retain, a diverse workforce. We encourage innovation and creativity, with a view to helping our employees maximise their potential.

Equal opportunities policy

We believe in equal opportunities for all.  No current or prospective employee is treated less favourably on the basis of:

  • Gender identity or expression
  • Race or ethnicity
  • Religion or belief
  • Marital or civil partnership status
  • Maternity or pregnancy
  • Age
  • Sexual orientation
  • Disability status.

Gender diversity

We are committed to supporting a fair and ethical workplace for all our colleagues. We welcome the attention that the gender pay gap reporting regulations have given to gender and wider DEI agendas, and we will continue to report annually on our mean and median pay and bonus gaps.

In doing so, we will analyse the data to better understand the factors causing our pay gap, as well as what needs to be done to close it. For more information, including this year's Gender Pay Report, please click here.


Source: Federated Hermes Limited

Women in Finance Charter

Federated Hermes remains fully committed to supporting the Women in Finance Charter and its objective of attaining gender balance across all levels of financial services.

Having achieved our original 2018 targets which we set in 2016, we did miss our 2021 target. A contributory factor was the acquisition in 2021 of two business areas. We, nonetheless, remain committed to our 2025 targets of 50% across the firm, including Senior Management and the Board.

For more information on the work we’re doing please click below:

Recruitment

  • We have stipulated to recruitment firms on our supplier list they must increase the number of female candidates being put forward for roles. Vivienne Aiyela, our Head of Inclusion, has set out our diversity, equity and inclusion expectations to those agencies we work with and HR and the Inclusion Committee will monitor and review progress every six months.
  • We are facilitating additional learning and development for all managers including mandatory recruitment and selection training for anyone involved in recruiting.
  • Where possible we will add under-represented groups to sit on interview panels.

Retention and Development

  • We are committed to ensuring managers have productive career development conversations with all team members. Through this process we can build a clearer picture of how our population is progressing and evolving across a range of metrics – including gender diversity – and allows us to react accordingly.  These discussions also strengthen our succession plans which will be an area of focus throughout the year.
  • Participation in the Target Gender Equality Programme, backed by the UN Global Compact, which gives us access to tools that identify strengths, gaps and opportunities to improve gender equality.

Engagement

  • Along with the measures outlined above, the appointment in February last year of Vivienne as Head of Inclusion was to ensure Diversity, Equity & Inclusion remained firmly on our agenda. In relation to gender diversity her role, working with HR, is to generate ideas and provide support that enhances the attraction of female candidates as well as monitor the success of these initiatives reporting to the Inclusion Committee and the senior management team.
  • Our Gender, Families and Returners Employee Networks, set up in 2021, will help drive forward actions supported by the Head of Inclusion and the Senior Management Team.
  • Finally, Ursula Henry, Head of International Decision Support, and Vivienne, have developed listening circles to understand the issues and concerns of female colleagues and provide anonymous quarterly reports back to the Senior Management Team and the Inclusion Committee

Advocating D&I in the asset management industry

We are members of a number of networks and forums – including the Diversity Project, the 30% Club, InterInvest, and Business Disability Forum, City Hive, Change the Race Ratio, BITC (Business in the Community). We seek further opportunities to improve diversity and inclusion; working in this industry should be attractive and accessible for all.

Inclusion Strategy

We recognise that a diverse and inclusive workplace provides real benefits to employees and supports stronger long-term business performance. As well as doing the right thing for its own sake, we believe DEI to be business critical. Diverse perspectives and an inclusive environment promote creativity and innovation, better decision making, adaptability, and problem solving. This helps make Federated Hermes a great place to work.

Although we have a long-standing commitment to these agendas, we acknowledge that we need to make further progress. In response, our Executive Committee (ExCo) and Board have endorsed the below DEI strategy and a three-year action plan to help us achieve our mission.

The strategy is focused on several key themes: leadership, practices, people and the environment. These themes encompass all areas of our business, enabling greater diversity and inclusion integration.

The following activities have been undertaken:

  • We have established an Inclusion Committee, comprised of diverse members of staff at different levels across the firm – a representation of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010. The Committee is responsible for the inclusion agenda and holding us all, including ExCo, to account through reporting and progress updates.
  • In 2021, we launched seven employee-led networks: gender, disability, mental wellness, race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+, families and returners. Each network has a minimum of three senior leadership sponsors and a number of SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound) actions they will focus on during the next 12 months.
  • To understand our current culture of inclusion and any gaps, we recognise that we need to create a safe space in which the voices of our colleagues can be heard. We now seek input from our employees through a new monthly engagement survey and quarterly listening groups, the first two of which will focus on disability and menopause. Through this initiative, our colleagues will contribute to new policies and/or guidance.
  • We are undertaking a mental health audit, which is centered upon the individual. Our strategy is to support and enable people to establish and maintain control over their lives. We endeavour to build a healthy workplace environment through the protection, promotion, and support of better mental health and wellbeing.
  • Members of our Executive Office and Management Committee – as well as directors and associate directors from across the business – are undertaking an ‘Understanding and Modelling Inclusive Leadership’ workshop. Through this, leaders learn of the importance of inclusion, as well as their role as ‘culture carriers’ in creating inclusive environments. This is part of our strategy to ensure ALL leaders and middle managers are aware of DEI issues (including gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation), equipped with the necessary skills to achieve lasting behavioural change, and able to model inclusive leadership in their daily interactions.
  • It is important that we support colleagues with disabilities by removing any barriers to their career development. We have launched a Disability Awareness Campaign, which includes a ‘lunch and learn’ from our disability partner, Business Disability Forum. We also have a Disability Awareness Working Group.
  • We have launched an educational DEI communication portal, which will equip staff with a better understanding of DEI’s importance.
  • At the end of 2020, Saker Nusseibeh, CEO of Federated Hermes Limited, detailed additional commitments for the firm around ethnic diversity. To read his statement please click here.

Looking beyond our own DEI practices, we advocate throughout the asset management industry, and more broadly, seeking further opportunities to improve diversity and inclusion.

We understand that our work in this area will take time, but we are committed to ensuring it is seen as a priority, every step of the way.