The Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality 2023 is
the UK’s most eminent and well-established collection of employers whose policies and best practice strive for an inclusive and responsive workplace. Compiled in collaboration with Business in the Community since 2011, this list celebrates progress from flexible working patterns
to redressing gender pay disparity; it also commits to the further work that needs to be done at a point where women remain disproportionately impacted by professional and socio-economic challenges.
Proactive values are key here; 86 per cent of Top 50 applicants feel that the in-depth assessment process has encouraged and empowered them to be bolder, braver
and faster in taking action to forge genuinely gender-inclusive workplaces.
Here are the Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality 2023 –
All of the organisations are recognised equally and are listed in alphabetical order, describing in their own words why achieving gender equality in the workplace is important to them.
Our ambition is to be the most inclusive company in the world, and we are accelerating a culture of equality to ensure all our people feel they belong. Our culture of equality is an innovation multiplier; it creates better solutions for our clients and inspires their own inclusion and diversity efforts.
Accenture
Addleshaw Goddard LLP
Gender equality is important to us because we strive to create a culture of belonging and gender balance that recognises and celebrating colleagues’ intersectionality as well as allowing them to be their authentic self, thrive and feel supported fairly at work to achieve their desired career goals.
Anglian Water Services Ltd
We are committed to building an inclusive workforce that is representative of our community. Our organisation, and the wider utilities sector, has traditionally been male dominated. We are working to change that and shift the dial, creating an organisation that is inclusive and has gender equality at all levels.
Anglo American PLC
Mining is historically known for the underrepresentation of women across all areas and levels. It is vital we improve female representation across the board to ensure we have diverse thinkers and experience to reimagine mining and drive its future sustainability. Without removing barriers to underrepresentation, we will not be able to achieve this.
Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group
To meet the challenges of creating a better future for the planet, we must attract the best talent from a diverse range of backgrounds to promote innovation. It is also the right thing to do. We call on the industry to work together to achieve gender equality.
Aviva PLC
All our people are supported to achieve their potential, regardless of background, location or role. We promote progression and retention of talented women through an inclusive culture, organisational support and professional development. We focus on addressing the barriers and societal benefits of a gender-balanced organisation.
Bain & Company
Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is key to building extraordinary teams. Central to that is our ambition to achieve gender equality. We aim to reflect UK society and create equitable outcomes for all employees while fostering an inclusive culture.
Burges Salmon LLP
Our Gender Action Plan was developed through consultation with hundreds of our people, more than half of our workforce. The objectives cover key areas such as progression, accountability, flexibility and visibility. Leaders are accountable through performance objectives, and our board-led gender taskforce works hand in hand with our people-led gender network on delivery.
Centrica
Gender equality is key because it is not just the right thing to do, it is essential for achieving a better mix of people and skills that will help us build a more sustainable future, from boardroom to engineer.
CMS
Gender equality is at the heart of our modern, progressive, dynamic and supportive culture. Embracing a commitment to all D&I affects every level of the firm. It is essential for a successful business, reflective of the clients we work for and the society in which we live.
Deloitte
We want our people at all levels to reflect society, creating diversity of thought and high performing teams to deliver the best solutions for our clients. It has been an executive priority since 2014, and we maintain our unwavering commitment to gender equality – ensuring our people can succeed, thrive and be their authentic selves.
Deutsche Bank
We see better gender balance as a business imperative. We articulate our gender-specific ambitions and measure our progress because we know that a more gender-balanced workforce enables sustainable growth. These efforts, sponsored and actively supported by senior management, affect the full employee lifecycle spanning talent attraction, development and promotion.
DWF
Our purpose is to deliver positive outcomes for colleagues, clients and communities. After reviewing business processes, behaviours and an independent materiality assessment, we’re aiming higher through more ambitious gender-equality targets in our board-endorsed ESG strategy, committing the group to accelerating improvements in gender representation and diverse talent pipelines.
Eversheds Sutherland
Our purpose is to help our clients, our people and our communities thrive. We commit to building a diverse team and inclusive culture that places respect and support for everyone at its core, and empowers all our people to fulfil their potential. Achieving gender equality is integral to this.
Fidelity International
We are proud to offer a diverse, inclusive culture where everyone feels they belong. Our inclusive family-friendly policies and dynamic working enable all our people to thrive in their careers. We have taken bold steps and challenged industry norms to drive gender parity internally and champion financial wellbeing for women.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
As with many law firms, women have historically been underrepresented in senior positions at our company, so we want to ensure we support our talented women to see them thrive and progress. Gender equity is part of our global strategy and is essential to the success of our firm.
Fujitsu
As a global tech business, we know that to our people creativity is richer and more compelling when informed by different perspectives that inspire innovative solutions. Our approach to gender equality is aligned to our commitment to achieve the UN sustainable development goals for reduced inequalities and gender equality.
Goldman Sachs International
Our commitment to gender equality and all aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion is absolute. We believe that gender equality is an economic imperative and through supporting women‚ economic empowerment and leadership opportunities will drive growth for our clients, our communities and our people.
Grant Thornton UK LLP
We want to create the very best environment for all our people; achieving gender equality is essential to this. Only by removing the barriers to success that our people tell us exist will all our people be empowered to reach their full potential and bring their whole selves to work.
Hachette UK
Equality is embedded in our business strategy, and we are determined to continue attracting and retaining the very best talent in the industry. We recognise that our success depends on creating a supportive, dynamic and rewarding environment
for everyone to thrive, and where their potential is fully realised.
Jacobs
Inclusion is one of our core values and a foundation of our culture. It is non-negotiable. We understand the value that having an inclusive, diverse talent pool brings to an organisation: innovation, attraction and a sense of belonging. We want to create a company where all genders can thrive.
Lendlease
To deliver on our vision to create places where communities thrive, we need a workforce that represents our customers and communities. To achieve this, we need diversity, especially in senior positions. If we don’t tackle gender equity, we will stop being relevant and fail to deliver on our purpose.
KPMG UK LLP
We are proud of our gender targets and strategy, published in February 2022, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity. We are also proud to have achieved gender parity on our executive committee, ensuring leadership reflects society. We believe achieving gender equality is fundamental to our success
as a business.
Linklaters
Diversity, equity and inclusion are the pulse of our firm, and our ambition is to achieve gender balance at all career levels. We support the retention and progression of our talented women through a focus on inclusion, sponsorship, fair work allocation, development programmes, agile working and market-leading, family-friendly policies.
Lloyds Banking Group
We are committed to becoming a leader in gender diversity, and our goal is to be truly representative of modern Britain. We recognise that companies with proportionate gender diversity see increased performance and make better decisions, and we are working to create a fully inclusive environment for our colleagues, customers and communities.
London Stock Exchange Group
We are committed to embedding a culture that values diverse perspectives and embraces diversity of every kind. We are focused on increasing the number of women in senior leadership roles and have set ambitious targets to achieve greater gender balance across several levels of leadership.
Morgan Stanley International
Our values and strong, inclusive culture set us apart from our competitors, enabling us to attract and retain exceptional talent of all genders. We are proud to have a female CEO, as well as a board that reflects 44 per cent gender diversity. We remain committed to accelerating gender balance at all levels.
National Grid
We champion and continuously work to improve gender diversity, equity and inclusion – these are grounded in our organisation’s values and essential to achieving net zero. Our gender pay gap is -1.6 per cent, and 37.4 per cent of our senior leaders are women. We are powered by our people and committed to continue improving.
NatWest Group
A diverse, equitable, inclusive and gender-equal culture is integral to fulfilling our purpose. It enables us to connect and serve our diverse customers and communities with the products and services they need. We are committed to achieving full gender balance in the top three levels of our organisation by 2030.
Network Rail
Our D&I strategy sets out our ambition to be an open, diverse and inclusive organisation that better reflects the communities we serve. Part of this strategy is our Gender Matters programme, which aims to remove barriers we know female candidates and employees face.
Ofcom
We have a clear business case for embedding and promoting gender diversity across our organisation: our decisions affect all members of the UK public and consumers. To do our jobs well, it is vital we attract a diverse gender workforce that know they are vital to our successes.
PepsiCo UK & Ireland
We are committed to building a gender-inclusive workspace and creating equal opportunities for all to grow and succeed. Focusing on talent development, the way we educate and inspire, and role-model advocacy helps us foster a collaborative, equitable and inclusive workplace and achieve our gender 2025 parity goals.
PwC UK LLP
Focusing on our five point plan for diversity and inclusion, we are making progress in committing to and driving real change for gender equality. This includes ensuring our partners are specifically responsible and accountable for gender diversity goals and for taking action to deliver on our published gender targets.
Sainsbury’s PLC
All equality matters. We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer where every single one of our colleagues is treated fairly and with respect, with diverse representation at all levels. We want our colleagues to fulfil their potential and our customers to feel welcome when they shop with us.
Santander UK
Our purpose is to help people and businesses prosper, and we are committed to creating a thriving workplace where everyone feels like they can belong and succeed. Gender balance remains a key priority in our everyday inclusion strategy, so we have signed the HM Treasury Women in Finance charter.
Shell UK
Gender equality is fundamental to our success in the energy transition, as attracting and retaining a broad range of talent will provide the diversity of thought required to devise innovative solutions, make bold decisions and lead change. Be the difference, close the gender gap, make the future.
Tesco
We work hard to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to get on and all colleague touchpoints are inclusive, which supports a gender diverse workforce. The networks help us listen to colleagues’ diverse voices across our business, generate new ways of thinking and identify opportunities for change.
Three UK
We want our people to feel comfortable being their authentic selves at work. We believe that an inclusive culture that is underpinned by respect is the foundation of a diverse organisation. We want to make our organisation a place where women feel supported: where they can grow, develop and flourish.
Vodafone UK
We aim to empower women, promote gender equality and ensure everyone can thrive in our organisation, and are inclusive of gender fluid and non-binary people. We are committed to attracting, developing and engaging with women at every stage of their working lives, across all business levels.
Wates Group
Investment in women’s careers with targeted support such as mentoring circles, Stem returners and internal mobility complemented by a progressive policies framework enabling colleagues to take an equal role at work/home (52 weeks’ paid maternity leave, eight weeks’ paid paternity/partner leave, enhanced shared parental leave, adoption leave and four weeks’ carer leave).
Worldline IT Services UK Limited
We are proud to foster a culture of trust and belonging where everybody has equal opportunity and support to flourish, and is respected and valued for embracing what makes them unique. We encourage a spirit of boldness and empowerment. Dare to come forward; you have the right to speak up!
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Recognising and celebrating the employers taking action to drive gender equality at work
Atos IT Services
We want to reflect the communities we serve, and we are glad that a strong commitment to gender equality has been established and is being continually advanced. The cost of living crisis and the pandemic provided increased impetus to our gender balancing mission. Our We Are Together mantra is incorporated in a multi-tiered programme that assists women in reaching their full potential.
IRIS Software Group
Not only is it the right and fair thing to do, but it benefits companies. Businesses that are diverse, focus on equality and share different viewpoints are more innovative, profitable and successful because diversity brings better collaboration, retention and decision making.
Ipsos
We believe diverse experiences create a richer working environment, and that achieving gender equality enables everyone to thrive and reach their potential. Our ambition is to be as diverse as the people and issues we research, to better reflect and understand the world, and ultimately deliver better research.
Morgan Sindall Infrastructure
By ensuring we have an inclusive culture, our people are empowered to think differently, share their diverse experiences and perspectives, to challenge each other, and inspire colleagues to be at their best. This drives innovation, creativity and better solutions for our customers and our family and friends as users of the infrastructure we build.
Nestlé UK & Ireland
Achieving gender equality in the workplace is important to achieving gender equality in society. We benefit commercially from different perspectives – our culture is built on respect and we contribute to a fairer future.
Royal Mail Group Ltd
We are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone is valued, feels they belong and can develop their potential. We also aim to ensuring our people policies, processes and ways of working are designed to enable opportunity, access, participation and contributions that are fair and inclusive.
We are committed to an inclusive workforce that fully represents the world we work in. That starts with breaking down the barriers of gender equity in our own teams. We know this is the right thing to do, and that having varied perspectives fuels our innovation to generate better ideas to serve our customers.
Sage UK Ltd
Eradicating gender inequality and achieving greater diversity across all levels is best for our people, our clients and key to our success. We aspire to be a firm of opportunity, so gender equality is a strategic pillar and inclusion a key component of our brand values.
TLT
Mercer
When women thrive, businesses and societies thrive. Diverse, high-performing teams generate richer discussions, more innovative ideas and make a bigger impact. Nurturing a culture where everyone can be themselves and feel they belong leads to more engagement, retains the best talent and is, simply, the right thing to do.
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Business in the Community is the UK’s largest and most influential responsible business network dedicated to building a fairer and greener world together, supported by His Majesty The King for over 40 years. It inspires, engages and challenges purposeful leaders to take practical action to mobilise their collective strength as a force for good in society.
Through connecting with BITC’s collaborative network and far-ranging events and support, employers can make a public commitment to being a purpose-led business and to leverage the power of working together to deliver positive economic, social and environmental change.
To find out more and become a BITC member, visit bitc.org.uk
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top 50 employers for GENDER EQUALITY
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Business in the Community is the UK’s
most expansive and influential network of responsible businesses, established more than 40 years ago with the support of Royal Founding Patron HM King Charles. It inspires, engages and challenges purposeful leaders to take practical action to mobilise their collective strength
as a force for good in society.
Through connecting with BITC’s collaborative network and far-ranging events and support, employers can make a public commitment to being a purpose-led business and to leverage the power of working together to deliver positive economic, social and environmental change.
To find out more and become a BITC member, visit bitc.org.uk
Join Business in the Community to create a world that is fairer and greener for everyone
Join us