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 the Equality Act 2010 Protected Characteristics:

  • age
  • disability
  • gender reassignment
  • marriage and civil partnership
  • pregnancy and maternity
  • race
  • religion or belief
  • sex
  • sexual orientation

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

We were pleased to see an uptick in our overall representation of women to 42 percent in 2022, following a decline in 2021 after the acquisition of two businesses. We also saw an increase in women at the senior level to 32 percent. Our Board numbers did fall to 25 percent in 2022, though this has subsequently increased to 40 percent following changes to our Board membership.

With these figures we remain on target to achieve 50 percent representation of women at the Board and overall as a firm. We also expect to achieve our 50 percent target for senior women but accept that this is currently more of a stretch compared to the other two metrics. We will continue to review this target, particularly, through 2023 to monitor progress and take necessary measures where possible to close in on the overall target.

The following actions have been put in place to support greater gender diversity in the workplace and support our 2025 commitments to achieve equal gender balance across our workforce.

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.
  • We have seven employee-led networks: gender, disability, mental wellness, race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+, families and returners and multi-generation. Each network has a minimum of three senior leadership sponsors and develop a yearly business plan with focus on what they want to achieve during the year.
  • To understand our current culture of inclusion and any gaps, we recognise that we need to create psychological safe space in which the voices of our colleagues can be heard. We now seek input from our employees through a new quarterly engagement survey and quarterly listening groups, which includes disability and menopause. Through this initiative, it enables us to listen to our colleagues and make the necessary changes including to policies and/or guidance.
  • We have undertaken a mental health audit, which is centred upon the individual. Our strategy is to support and enable people to establish and maintain control over their lives. We have a number of Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) and endeavour to build a healthy workplace environment through the protection, promotion, and support of better mental health and wellbeing.
  • Nearly 300 members of our Executive Office and Management Committee – as well as directors, associate directors and line managers from across the business – have undertaken ‘Understanding and Modelling Inclusive Leadership’ workshop. Through this, leaders learn of the importance of inclusion, as well as their role as ‘culture ambassadors’ 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. Our next focus will be on junior to mid level staff who will be undertaking a similar workshop.
  • 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.
  • We have launched a Count me In Campaign, an Equality Data Campaign to collect data on our employees using categories from the Equality Act 2010 Protected Characteristics to understand the make up of the our workforce.

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.