Brickendon's senior management to be 50% female by end of 2021

11 October 2017 Consultancy.uk

Transformational management consultancy Brickendon has pledged that half of its senior management will be female by the end of 2021. The goal cements the firm’s vision that women have an important part to play in the future of the financial services industry.

Following years of sustained pressure, working toward gender parity in the workplace has increasingly become a priority for businesses around the world. Following the annual release of their salary information, the BBC exemplified this, coming in for substantial criticism for its own sizable disparity, which saw top male staffer Chris Evans earn a huge £2 million per year, compared to top female earner Claudia Winkelman, who picked up a much smaller £500,000 cheque. The BBC had previously committed to ending its gender pay gap by 2020. However, following the publication of salary information, 40 women working at the BBC penned an open letter to Director General Tony Hall, criticising the fact that “women at the BBC are being paid less than men for the same work,” and calling for immediate and transparent action.

Brickendon's senior management to be 50% female by end of 2019PwC report earlier in the year contended that female workers were paid as much as 17% less than male counterparts, costing women in the UK a total of £85 billion per year in lost wages. As businesses look increasingly to oblige calls for parity, the consulting industry is likewise taking steps to demonstrate its own egalitarian credentials, as firms vie for contracts advising clients on how to improve their own practices. Therefore, a number of major consultancies have released their pay data in order to transparently show their efforts to address a wage gap, while a number of firms have also joined Club 30%, an organisation aimed at bringing female board representation in the UK, and the US, up to 30%.

Now, London-headquartered Brickendon Consulting have gone a step further, pledging to deliver a 50% female representation among the company’s senior management. The goal was accompanied by a number of other assurances, including a vow that the firm will have at least one female non-executive director on its board by the end of 2021, alongside the provision of support and mentoring for at least one woman to strive higher and take on a more senior position. The consultancy confirmed that it will publish its progress against the targets annually.

The emergent management and technology consultancy were among four professional service firms to sign the Women in Finance Charter back in July, alongside Mercer and Big Four firms EY and PwC. Speaking at the time, Brickendon CEO Christopher Burke said, “We are proud and delighted to align ourselves with this initiative and to publicly state our commitment to a diverse and inclusive environment for all our employees… I have said on many occasions that we are in no doubt that failing to take advantage of the skills of highly-qualified women constitutes a waste of talent and a loss of economic growth potential.”

The London and New York-based firm, which is seeking to increase the number of women in all roles and at all levels of the organisation, joined more than 140 financial institutions in signing the charter earlier this year, in an effort to demonstrate their commitment to building a balanced and fair industry. It is widely acknowledged that a diverse workforce is more productive and successful, and Brickendon has found that providing a flexible working culture for its people increases productivity, well-being, and aids with the attraction and retention of talent across the board. Various studies now highlight a business case for improved gender diversity, while for the market as a whole, change in this regard could see $12 trillion added to the global economy.

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