Inclusion and Diversity Action highlights

The plan builds on the strong foundations established and focuses on the key areas that require improvement and actions required to prompt change. Quilter is unwavering in its commitment to taking clear and impactful action, fostering a culture where diversity thrives and drives innovation.

The Action Plan is endorsed by the Quilter plc Board and delivery is overseen by the Inclusion and Diversity Executive Committee, chaired by Quilter’s Chief Executive Officer.

Key successes from the plan include:

• increased representation of women and ethnically diverse colleagues in senior management roles, but our impact goes beyond that, we’ve made progress at all levels and across underrepresented groups more broadly;
• a significant increase in data disclosure among colleagues with several demographic areas exceeding industry peers; and
• the establishment of employee networks including the launch the I&D forum, and a Disability and Neurodiversity support group (Diverse Abilities). The I&D forum is open to all colleagues and continues to play an active role, giving colleagues the opportunity to deepen their understanding and empathy.

Our ambition is to build on our progress and reach a more advanced stage of diversity, equity and inclusion maturity by 2027. To achieve this, we will prioritise initiatives that foster inclusive leadership, strengthen management information systems, and enhance reporting on diversity and inclusion metrics. Additionally, we will invest in talent management and learning programmes to support growth and development at all levels.

Our early careers programme will continue to nurture emerging talent, while targeted training and coaching initiatives will be expanded to drive high performance and empower individuals to reach their full potential. Together, these efforts will ensure a diverse, inclusive, and high performing organisation.

Quilter’s I&D Action Plan has 3 core goals, specifically:

1. To evolve our culture and bridge the gap between minority and majority groups by focusing on the differing needs of all our people.
2. To grow our reputation as a responsible employer that attracts, develops, retains, and fully engages all of the diverse talent across our organisation.
3. To increase the representation of underrepresented groups at all levels and meet the targets set for our Senior Leadership team.

We continue to track positively against the 5 strategic areas which underpin our I&D Action Plan and continue to make progress in diversity data disclosure with strong completion rates, exceeding industry norms across many areas. We also continue to meet Board and senior leader diversity targets in line with the Listing Rules, Parker Review and FTSE Women Leaders Review.

Our goals

As at 31 December 2024 the proportion of females in senior management roles was 41% and the proportion of ethnic minorities was 6%, a fall from 43% and 9% respectively, against prior year. We are pleased that we continue to exceed our gender diversity target of 40% by the end of 2025, and are mindful of the need for sustained focus, as progress toward our long-term inclusion and diversity commitments will take time and may not always be linear. The senior management population is relatively small, making representation sensitive to even modest changes in year. To further reinforce our long-term goals, we have set out a new minimum target for the end of 2027 to have 13% of our senior management population from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Endorsed by the Board and led by the Chief Executive Officer, the I&D Action Plan sets out our belief in the importance of data in order to provide deeper insight into Quilter’s progress. Having data provides a firm foundation to identify areas for improvement and shape the strategy and action needed to achieve our goals.

We set an ambitious target to achieve an 80% completion rate across seven areas including gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and socio-economic background (SEB). We have achieved positive completion rates that exceed industry norms across all areas, though our disability disclosure rate remains lower than desired relative to other categories and we have put in place the necessary steps to support an increase over the next year.  We have achieved particularly high data completion rates for new starters (98 – 99%) as a result of changes we have made to the hiring process.

Our diversity dashboard informs our activity and allows us to monitor progress achieved. Whilst we have been voluntarily reporting on ethnicity pay gaps for over three years, our data is now more robust, allowing us to assess pay and performance outcomes in greater detail. Where appropriate, we share insights with managers to drive meaningful action.

We are proud of these levels of disclosure and the trust our people place in us to use this information in building and retaining a diverse workforce.

Data disclosure responses rates

The data above is as at 31 December 2024 and staff are asked to contribute their data via an electronic portal. For detail on the diversity of our Board directors see page 62 of the 2024 Report & Accounts.