EQ's People Strategy
Culture and leadership
We believe that engaged people all working towards a common, purposeful goal will help us to reinforce an inclusive culture. This enables innovation, sustains high performance and, most importantly, allows our colleagues to thrive. The culture is underpinned by our values.
We encourage all colleagues to have their voice heard at our Global Colleague Forum and have an established wellbeing agenda to support this, including 60+ Mental Health First Aiders and our Colleague Assistance Programme.
Engagement and experience
We value how our employees experience EQ. We seek feedback through our annual survey and have seen experience improve year on year.
Examples of actions taken to date include:
- The introduction of several internal award schemes to recognise great work.
- Recognising our colleague’s contribution during the pandemic by making an award of shares worth £300 to every colleague
- Improved Group-wide communications by hosting monthly briefings with our CEO.
Learning and talent
We are committed to helping our colleagues grow and learn. We have online learning programmes and partner with Gartner and the Financial Times for digital training resources. Our flexible benefits allow colleagues access to matched funding for assisted learning.
With COVID-19 currently preventing classroom-based learning, we have moved all of our learning and development collateral online. Our flexible benefits programme also allows colleagues to draw down matched funding for assisted learning programmes. This enables them to take appropriate courses at local colleges, which EQ will fund or part-fund.
Diversity and inclusion
EQ seeks to achieve a diverse, open and inclusive culture, which represents the society in which we all live and work. We take a ‘top-down, bottom-up’ approach to diversity and inclusion, with direction set at the executive level and implementation led by four employee-led networks: gender; disability and mental health; multicultural; and LGBT+.
EQ’s LGBT+ Network supports colleagues who identify as lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, non-binary and all other sexual and gender identities, aiming to increase LGBT+ visibility and to ensure that all colleagues are included and accepted without exception.
Connecting, supporting and sharing at their friendly Equali-teas, the LGBT+ Network reached a new global audience in 2020, helping colleagues to learn from each other and tackle important issues, for example using gender pronouns to make it easier for people to be accepted as themselves at work.
In line with the UN Sustainable Global Development Goals, we recognise that gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. We agree with Equiniti's Gender Pay Gap Disclosure that creating an organisation with a diverse representation of genders across all roles and salaries will improve our prospects and create long-term shareholder value. The Gender Network is here to support this vision.
EQ’s Multicultural Network loves to bring colleagues together to celebrate different cultural and religious festivals throughout the year, and supports our pledge to drive black inclusion, as well as the inclusion of all ethnic minority groups, and celebrate strong role models from all backgrounds.
EQ’s Disability & Mental Health Network exists to raise awareness of issues around disability and mental health, reduce stigma, and to create safe and supportive spaces for colleagues. The network creates opportunities for colleagues to connect and to learn, and 60+ Mental Health First Aiders help colleagues to access support when needed.
We are pleased to confirm our commitment to becoming a disability confident employer, inspired by our colleagues on the Disability and Mental Health network. There are many initiatives in discussion that will move us closer to our goal, but as a minimum, we will guarantee to interview all applicants living with disabilities, providing they meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy/ies.
The table below shows Equiniti’s gender diversity at the year end:
| 2019 | 2018 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
  |
MEN | WOMEN | MEN | WOMEN |
| Board | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| Senior Management | 77 | 51 | 71 | 44 |
| Other employees | 2,646 | 2,491 | 2,613 | 2,442 |
| Total | 2,729 | 2,545 | 2,690 | 2,489 |
Performance and reward
We want our colleagues to feel rewarded for the work that they do at EQ and to know expectations of them whilst they are here. We have committed to delivering a more transparent framework and we are on a journey to share this with our colleagues.
Our colleagues all have the opportunity to have conversations to discuss their progress, career aspirations and any associated development opportunities at multiple points throughout the year.
Our Company Values
