Our people

• Internal targets

  In 2021 we set targets for female, ethnic minority and Black representation, for both our senior and mid-level populations. We aim to achieve these targets by June 2026.

  Targets for senior women and ethnic minority colleagues are embedded into our organisational Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) when help focus the organisation on making progress.

  Our targets, and recent progress against them are outlined below:

  Population	June 2026 Target	Position on 30 June 2024
  Senior women	36 – 40%	34%
  Senior colleagues from ethnic minority groups	6-10%	7.9%
  Senior Black colleagues	2-4%	1.4%
  Mid-level women	36 – 40%	35.7%
  Mid-level colleagues from ethnic minority groups	8 – 12%	9.8%
  Mid-level Black colleagues	2 – 4%	1.5%

• External commitments

  Women in Finance Charter

  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. It is the right thing to do and we believe it will lead to better outcomes for clients, colleagues and our business and help enable sustainable growth.

  Our commitment to diversity and supporting the progression of women into senior roles aligns with the aims of the Women in Finance Charter, a government initiative which promotes diversity and inclusion.

  When we signed up to the Charter in 2018, we had 26.6% female representation, and our target was 25-30% by 30 August 2021. As we met this initial target, we updated our target to 36–40% by 2025. As of 31 August 2023, we have 34.5% female representation in senior management.

  We are on track to meet our Charter target of 36-40% and to align with our internal performance process, our deadline has been extended to 30 June 2026.

  Aug-18	Aug-19	Aug-20	Aug-21	Aug-22	Aug-23
  26.6%	27.9%	30.4%	31.5%	31.6%	34.5%

  We are pleased to see improvement in our diversity this year and continue to be committed to hire more, promote more, and lose fewer women at mid to senior level. Our commitment to build an inclusive culture will create a workplace where everyone can flourish.

  50:50 The Equality Project

  Hargreaves Lansdown is delighted to be part of 50:50 The Equality Project.

  Hargreaves Lansdown is delighted to be part of 50:50 The Equality Project, an initiative committed to inspiring and supporting organisations around the globe to consistently create journalism and media content that fairly represents our world. It started in the BBC’s London newsroom and aims to fundamentally shift representation within the media and has since been taken up across the BBC and has also been adopted by a global network of more than 130 partners in 26 countries.

  We will be using 50:50’s core principles to help improve diversity – including gender, disability and ethnicity representation through our editorial content and spokespeople. We’re part of this project as we care about diversity and recognise the importance of role models.

  Bristol Women in Business Charter

  We are proud to be signatories of the Women in Business Charter which supports businesses in and around Bristol that are making progress towards gender equality and aims to accelerate the pace of change for the benefit of women, the businesses they work in and the communities they live in by driving action around their seven goals.

  Race at Work Charter

  We are signatories of the Race at Work Charter which is designed to improve the outcomes of ethnic minority people in the workplace. The five ‘calls to action’ outlined in the charter have helped shape many of the actions in our action plan, such as implementing targets, voluntarily publishing our Ethnicity Pay Gap and doing more to support career progression. Alongside the activity mentioned above this will be a visible commitment that helps hold us to account on our actions.

  Stonewall Diversity Champions

  We are one of a growing number of leading organisations who with the specialist support of Stonewall are creating LGBTQ-inclusive workplaces. We are proud to have become Stonewall Diversity Champions. This partnership enables us to access the tools, resources, expertise and best practice so that we can better support our colleagues and ensure all LGBTQ+ colleagues can be themselves at work.

  Bristol Equality Charter

  The Bristol Equality Charter has been set up to help improve equality, diversity and inclusion across Bristol. We have been involved from the outset in this important initiative and were one of the first signatories.

  Age-friendly Employer Pledge

  HL have signed the Age-friendly Employer Pledge and are proudly committed to ensuring our recruitment processes, working practices, and training and development opportunities are all inclusive and accessible to workers over the age of 50.

  Living Wage Accreditation

  Hargreaves Lansdown is proud to be accredited by the Living Wage Foundation as one of the 7,000 businesses nationwide recognised for being a living wage employer, paying a real Living Wage based on the cost of living, not just the government minimum.

  Business Disability Forum

  We are a member of the Business Disability Forum (BDF). The BDF is a leading, non-profit organisation that promotes disability inclusion in the workplace. As a member, we have access to a wealth of resources, expertise, and best practices to enhance our efforts in creating an inclusive environment for colleagues with disabilities.

• Taking Action

  We are focusing our action plan on three priority areas that help us to reach our goals of increasing diverse representation and embedding an inclusive culture at HL.

  Recruitment

  • We are piloting changes to our recruitment process to better embed diversity in our candidate shortlists through a check and challenge approach.
  • We continue to offer a variety of early careers programmes (such as apprenticeships and internships) that grow the pipeline of talented individuals who want to learn and grow their careers with HL.

  Progression

  • We have launched the Ascent Programme in partnership with diversity-specialists Talking Talent to support mid-level talent to build their confidence and skills to progress their careers.
  • We are proud participants in the EPOC Board Fellowship Programme, which aims to increase ethnic minority representation on Boards
  • We continue to participate in the 30% Club’s Moving Ahead cross-company mentoring programme which focuses on the progression of diverse talent into more senior roles.
  • We run an internal mentoring and coaching programmes, open to all HL colleagues, with a focus on building confidence and helping colleagues fulfil their potential.
  • #iamremarkable – delivered by internal colleagues, this global movement empowers everyone to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.

  Functional approach

  • We are working closely with the leadership teams of different business areas within HL to help implement function-specific goals and action plans.

Colleague Support and Community Groups

To provide colleague-to-colleague support we have Mental Health First Aiders, Menopause Champions and Endometriosis Champions.

We also have various community groups covering interests such as sports, board gaming, working parents, carers, religion and politics.

Colleague engagement and listening

We believe it is important to listen to and understand our colleagues’ views and motivation as their honest feedback is crucial to our continued success as a business. As well as our regular engagement surveys we have also run post-event pulse surveys and colleague listening sessions to keep a constant monitor on colleague sentiment and respond to the insights.

We also have the HL Colleague Forum. The Forum was set up in October 2022 in line with the UK Corporate Governance Code. Elected colleagues represent their different business areas and the Forum is chaired by Colleague Representatives. The Forum is important for obtaining and discussing colleagues’ views on key matters affecting HL. It provides a two-way feedback channel on our strategic priorities and a route for colleagues to raise their own topics for debate.