Women in finance

Increasing senior female representation at Nationwide

Inclusion matters at Nationwide. We want our workplace to reflect the communities and cultures our 14 million members come from. Which is why gender is an important focus of our inclusion strategy for 2015-2020.

Targets

Women currently represent 63% of the workforce at Nationwide however, we know this reduces at more senior levels.

We’re committed to increasing the number of women in our senior leadership population and have plans in place to help us achieve this.

As part of our wider inclusion Strategy (2015-2020), we’ve set targets for female representation at all senior management levels. We aim to reach these targets by 31 December 2020 and will be checking our progress regularly to make sure we're on track.

Our progress will be monitored and reported to our Action Group (reporting to our Executive and Nominations Governance Committee) bi-annually and to our Board annually.

Progress

When we signed up to the Charter in 2016, we had 33% female representation in senior management. As of 31 August 2019, we have 35% female representation in senior management. That means we are currently:


  • above target for female representation in our executive committee population (and already above our December 2020 target)
  • above target for female representation at our level 5 (and already above our December 2020 target)
  • below target for female representation in our level 4 which has decreased slightly since 2018
  • slightly below target for female representation at level 3 Senior executive
  • slightly below target for female representation in our level 3 population

We still have work to do to reach our 2020 targets, and we’re taking action to help the progression of women and diversity more broadly in the Society. Our inclusion and diversity page highlights what we are doing to make this progress.

Our job levels 3 and above cover our senior management and executive populations, with those in level 4 and 5 typically being at reporting level ExCo minus 1 or 2.

The chart shows society wide targets for executives and senior managers.

The chart shows society wide targets for executives and senior managers
Society gender targets and progression (August 2019) Gender
Target 2020 Current Actual - Aug 2019
Board 33% total population 36%
Executive Committee 36%
Total 36%
  Target End 2018 Target End 2020  
Level 5 29% 33% 35%
Level 4 28% 35% 21%
Level 3 (senior manager) 33% 35% 31%
Level 3 38% 40% 38%

(Nb. All figures rounded up or down). (Source: Nationwide August 2018 HR People Metrics)

Senior level support

A member of our Executive Committee: Alison Robb is Nationwide's executive sponsor for gender.

Women in Finance Charter HM Treasury Mark

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