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.

Measures

Women currently represent 61.7% 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 32.55% female representation. As of 31st August 2020, we have 34.50% female representation in senior management. 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
  • Slightly below target for female representation at level 3 Senior executive
  • Slightly below target for female representation in our Level 3 population, which has decreased slightly since 2019.

We acknowledge that we still have work to do to reach our gender measures. Our focus is on accelerating and amplifying delivery This means taking bolder, more targeted action to ensure that inclusion and diversity is truly embedded in what we do and how we do it. Focusing on actions that have a positive and tangible impact short, medium and long terms. Our Inclusion and diversity page highlights the activities we are taking to make 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 2020) Gender
Target 2020 Current Actual - Aug 2020
Board 33% total population 36.4%
Executive Committee 50%
Total 43.5%
  Target End 2020  
Level 5 33% 47.6%
Level 4 35% 22.1%
Level 3 (senior manager) 35% 32.2%
Level 3 40% 36.2%

(Nb. All figures rounded up or down). (Source: Nationwide August 2020 HR People Metrics)

Senior level support

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

Women in Finance Charter HM Treasury Mark

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