Gender Representation
Enabling Equality
We want to create a bank that is more representative of the communities we serve and we are working hard to attract and retain talent that will enable us to achieve this. We are really proud of the progress we have made in advancing gender representation at Virgin Money at all levels of the organisation. We have already achieved our Women in Finance Target and in 2024 Virgin Money was recognised as one of the top 10 performers in the @FTSE Women Leaders Review. We achieved third place in the overall table for representation of women in FTSE 250 and number one in our sector. We know it is important that we are able to sustain this progress and advance and maintain our position.
Accelerating progress
Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) strategy has four pillars that are central to our plans:
- Attracting, retaining and advancing talent
- Creating equity in the colleague experience
- Creating strong leadership accountability
- Building BRAVER (our allyship framework) into our Culture
The first two pillars within our strategy will enable the maintenance of gender balance longer term and promote Virgin Money as an employer of choice for a wide variety of people.
Our goal is to create a culture at Virgin Money where people can bring their whole selves to work and feel valued and respected. To do this successfully, the additional two pillars within our strategy target cultural change.
Firstly, we have a strategic focus on creating leadership accountability, this is critical for us at Virgin Money and we know it will drive clear action and better outcomes for colleagues, customers and our business.
The second strategic cultural focus, and our final pillar, is building BRAVER (our allyship framework) into our culture. During National Inclusion Week 2023, we successfully launched our brand-new enterprise-wide allyship framework BRAVER. In November 2024, we will launch our BRAVER Connections Reciprocal Mentoring Programme which has been designed to connect colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds with senior leaders across the business. The aim of this programme is to create partners in progress who can learn from one another and develop BRAVER skills with the long-term aim of creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture at Virgin Money.
Our goal in designing BRAVER was to create a sustainable way to drive a consciously inclusive and connected culture across our organisation and to support colleagues and leaders to feel empowered (and BRAVER) through a deeper understanding of DE&I, which will ultimately accelerate the pace of progress for Virgin Money.
Our commitment doesn't end here
We want to create a bank that is more representative of the communities we serve and we are working hard to attract and retain talent that will enable us to achieve this. Initiatives that are central to this objective are;
Our action plan
We're striving for gender equity, recognising that individuals will face different barriers when working towards the same goals. We want to break down these barriers and give everyone a fair chance to thrive, both personally and professionally.
By focusing on improving gender diversity, we are creating a sustainable and BRAVER way to drive a consciously inclusive and connected culture across our organisation.
We’ve introduced bold commitments for recruitment suppliers requiring them to include representative candidates on all selection lists. We also conducted a full review of our supplier base to ensure we are working only with suppliers who share the same ambition and passion for the topic of DE&I that we do.
We launched our Springboard programme which is designed for female colleagues to provide tailored support and take control of their own career journey. We’ve also introduced our Welcome Back programme to support colleagues returning to work after a period out of business.
We are a proud signatory of the Women in Finance Charter and have pledged to contribute towards creating a gender balance across financial services. We're committed to creating more female representation particularly at mid and higher levels across the bank.
Our Family leave policy is available to all colleagues and from day one of their employment. The flexibility and depth of our policy enables expecting parents, parents and carers to manage their personal life without impacting their professional career.
Signing the pledge underlines our commitment to recognising the potential issues for colleagues affected by menopause at work, actively supporting those affected and encouraging open, positive and respectful discussion about menopause. Menopause and perimenopause can affect people of all genders, whether directly or indirectly. Which is why we’re doing our best to demystify the topic and provide support where it’s needed most with our Menopause Guidance and Masterclasses.
We've joined the Reed women in technology community to support women in technology and transformation is a to achieve their goals and ambitions. By providing access to mentoring, development and networking opportunities we are creating better pathways in to technology careers.
Balance
Our Balance Network develops the insights, confidence and frameworks to support driving forward a balanced, representative workforce where people from all genders can thrive. Where gender isn’t an issue. As well as providing a platform for learning and development, our Balance community supports colleagues through early parenthood to the menopause. Key dates are celebrated such as International Women's Day, International Men's Day and topics such as Men's Mental Health and Women in Tech are discussed, to continue driving the conversation on gender equality.
A Life More Virgin
A Life More Virgin is designed to help us all thrive at work. The proposition also enables us to remove constraints on hiring into specific locations which has enabled us to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences. We know from a gender perspective the proposition has enabled us to attract a more balanced and representative gender profile at all levels and this has enabled us to have greater balance in our recruitment shortlisting.
Gender pay reporting
At Virgin Money, inclusion is central to our purpose, and that’s why we have been focused on tackling barriers to address the gender pay gap. We are pleased to share that year-on-year we have seen a reduction in our mean pay gap and an increase in the proportion of females receiving bonus in 2024.
The majority of our colleagues are women, and we are delighted to have strong female representation within our senior levels of leadership across the organisation and to have seen a slight increase in the proportion of female colleagues in the upper quartile band. We know we’ve got more to do to help colleagues progress their careers and to close the gender pay gap. While we recognise this will take time, it’s the right thing to do and we’re committed to doing this.
We’ve continued to gather insight and experience from our workforce to understand what the barriers are and how we can tackle them. As a result, we’ve introduced a number of initiatives, which you’ll be able to read more about in our Gender Pay report below.
When we first started publishing our Gender Pay Gap report eight years ago, we said at the time this was not the work of a moment. This remains true today. We are committed to maintaining gender balance at senior levels of Virgin Money, supporting careers, and removing barriers to equity and advancement.