Women in Finance Charter
Our commitment to diversity and inclusion
We are committed to diversity and inclusion because it’s good for our employees, for our business, and for society.
We want all our great people to bring all of themselves to work, so that they can liberate the best in themselves. We know that diversity fosters innovation, which is part of our DNA. And we believe that inclusive diversity promotes social cohesion, which benefits society.
Diversity and inclusion chime with our core purpose, our values, and our shared value model, which make us great and set us apart.
Vitality is a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter. We have committed to gender parity at senior management levels by 2025. Currently (August 2023) 45.9% of our senior managers are women (compared with 42.7% in 2019).
To help us achieve this target, we have implemented a raft of initiatives:
- Set a target of 60% female appointments into £50k plus roles
- Added this target to our corporate scorecard, which is linked to our bonus scheme for all employees
- Enhanced our recruitment and selection practices to source more talented women
- Consulted our Women’s Forum on gender-related initiatives
- Continued an annual mentoring programme for high performing, high potential employees (at least half of them female or from an ethnic minority background)
- Applied a gender lens to succession planning and talent management
- Introduced progressive parental leave (equal entitlements for both parents) and flexible working policies
- Delivered unconscious bias training to all managers
- Rolled out diversity and inclusion training for all employees
- Completed an audit which confirmed that equivalent work attracts equivalent pay at Vitality
- Participated in the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Insuring Women’s Futures initiatives
- Showcased women’s achievements via internal communications platforms
- Appointed and trained diversity and inclusion champions
- Launched the second round of a leadership development programme in partnership with everywoman
- Introduced childminding, menopause, parenthood, and fertility support services for employees
- Launched a parent support buddy scheme
- Signed up to the Association of British Insurers’ transparent parental leave and pay initiative
- Introduced leadership competency assessments for senior roles to reduce unconscious bias in the selection process
- Introduced a flexible retirement benefit.
Gender inclusivity has been core to Vitality’s brand from the outset. Our sports ambassadors include eminent women, and our advertising promotes women as role models. We sponsor the Women’s FA Cup, and we have headlined the Vitality Netball World Cup, and the Sports Women of the Year Awards. Vitality also fosters participation by “everyday” female athletes in multiple sports events.
Many of Vitality’s diversity and inclusion initiatives also focus on black, Asian and minority ethnic employees. We are Race at Work Charter signatories. In consultation with our forum for ethnic minority employees, we have designed and rolled out a race fluency training programme to all employees. We also participate in the national 10,000 black interns programme.
Judy Parfitt, Chief People Officer