Inclusion and diversity

Gender

We've made good progress this year in strengthening our pipeline of female talent and were delighted that women made up 40% of internal partner admissions overall. And where we do see any gaps emerging, we're taking action with, for example, targeted recruitment campaigns to attract women - especially into Audit and technology roles. 

We launched our In Audit She campaign, encouraging more women into the sector and showcasing just how unique a career in Audit can be. Our video series profiled women sharing their experiences of working in Audit touching on a number of themes; making a difference in your role, balancing an Audit career with children and international Audit.

To build the future female tech talent pipeline, our Tech We Can Champions network has delivered lessons in schools, helping to educate and inspire children into the possibilities of a tech career.

Our work to advance gender equality this year has also included expanding our private medical cover to support women going through the menopause and expanding support for those planning or trying for a family. 

By listening to our people we're confident that we're taking the right steps to achieve our gender targets across all grades by July 2025. 

You can use the data explorer below to find out more about our progress against our gender targets and the Diversity Pay Report for details of all our gender pay/bonus gaps.

Ethnicity

Throughout the financial year, we continued our actions to improve the representation of ethnic minority talent. 

At partner level, 14% of new internal admissions came from an ethnic minority background, and we are on track to achieve our ethnicity targets across all grades by July 2025.  We have also taken specific action to ensure we meet our targets for the better representation of Black talent in our student recruitment activity (4% in FY22) and the partnership (nine partners compared to four in FY20). This reflects the focused interventions we have made including support for the 10,000 Black Interns programme and Black Young Professionals, as well as our work with our 25 Colourbrave charities. 

You can use the data explorers below to find out more about our progress against our ethnicity targets, and the Diversity Pay Report to review the details of our ethnicity pay/bonus gaps.

Socio-economic background (SEB)

Social mobility is a top priority for our firm, so we've continued to focus on attracting and recruiting talented individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds and ensuring they’ve the appropriate support to progress their careers with us. We're delighted to have been recognised as a top 10 UK employer for social mobility in the Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index and to have won the Leadership of the Year Award in the UK Social Mobility Awards in 2021, but we know we've more work to do. 

To maintain momentum, we're once again publishing our socio-economic background (SEB) pay and bonus gaps. Our pay gap analysis is based on parental occupation information shared with us by 82% of our people, of whom 16% (up 2% on the previous year) come from a lower socio-economic background. Closing these pay and bonus gaps and increasing the representation of staff from a lower socio-economic background, especially at the more senior levels, will continue to be a key priority for us.

You can use the data explorers below to find out more about SEB representation across the grades and further details of our SEB pay gaps can be found in our Diversity Pay Report.

Disability

We're creating a workplace where people who have a disability, long-term or neurodiverse condition feel empowered and are enabled to fulfil their potential. During the last financial year, we collaborated with external advisers and our Disability Awareness Network (DAWN) to research our people’s understanding and experiences of disability and neurodiversity in the workplace. Over 600 partners and staff attended focus groups or completed a detailed survey, which has helped us develop a robust action plan focusing on the areas that matter most to our people. 

Detailed work has already commenced and will continue in the year ahead to improve our approach to workplace adjustments, develop and deliver training and other interventions to improve disability awareness, enablement and confidence among all our people. 

We’re signatories of the Business Disability Forum’s Accessible Technology Charter and the Valuable 500, demonstrating our commitment to providing assistive technology and improving disability awareness and inclusion for our people. We’re also proud to have achieved Level 2 of the Government's Disability Confident Scheme.

In total, 90% of our people have told us if they do (4%) or do not (86%) have a disability, long-term/recurring or neurodiverse condition but we know this 4% reflects under-reporting. By working closely with our disability awareness network DAWN, we anticipate the actions planned for this year will help our people feel more comfortable sharing this personal information with us.

Sexual orientation

During the year, we worked closely with our LGBTQ+ and ally network SHINE to plan a programme of work to better understand how our LGBTQ+ colleagues experience our culture. It also focused on what more we can do to attract and progress LGBTQ+ talent, and how we can improve our people’s awareness of and access to related client and community events. We were delighted to be the main supporter of Pride House up to and throughout the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ athletes, volunteers and spectators.

In total, 90% of our workforce shared information with us about their sexual orientation but we know the 4% disclosure rate for lesbian, gay or bisexual partners and staff is under-reported. Creating the conditions in which our people are more likely to share their personal details with us is therefore a priority for the year ahead and beyond. Despite this low level of disclosure, for the first time this year, we're also publishing our Sexual Orientation pay gap. This provides a base line against which to measure progress, especially in ensuring higher representation of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in our more senior grades.