<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>Lindsey Rix-Broom, our CEO, was listed in the HERoes Role Models List for the third year running in 2023. This acknowledges her passionate advocacy for women’s inclusion.</li> <li>In 2023 we created internal career opportunities. For example, 33% of promotions in senior manager roles were female, and 55.5% of all promotions went to women. Three senior female leaders took lateral career moves to broaden their experiences.</li> <li>We launched several development programmes, including a leadership development programme and a mentoring scheme for talented women. We also created several Board Director positions – many of which were filled by senior female talent.</li> <li>The theme for International Women’s Day was Embrace Equity. In 2023, we showcased colleague support, using personal interviews to broaden perceptions, challenge stereotypes and celebrate women’s achievements. We also used this as a call to action to establish female involvement in our Balance network.</li> <li>We became members of the charity <em>Working Families</em>, signalling a clear commitment to being an inclusive, family friendly employer – recognising that for many women, they are juggling more than one ‘hat’.</li> </ul>

The Women in Finance Charter

We believe that nurturing an inclusive culture is vital to our success, both now and in the future.

Gender balance and inclusivity

As a Women in Finance Charter signatory, we’ve pledged to build a fairer and more balanced workplace. While a balanced workforce is good for our business, customers, and workplace culture, it’s also simply the right thing to do.

Advancing gender balance at all levels

"We want to enable our female colleagues to reach their full potential, providing them with what they need to progress into senior roles at Canada Life. But our focus extends beyond this. We aim to advance gender balance at all levels of our business.”

Lindsey Rix-Broom, CEO Canada Life UK

Creating a culture of support

Today, there are still too many obstacles facing women in the workplace – especially within financial services. But by fostering a culture of flexibility, shared vulnerability, active listening, and supportive leadership, we can make an impact.

From beginning a career, to gaining confidence and progressing to roles with greater responsibility, our goal is to remove barriers and empower women through setting well-defined internal targets, providing mentorship, and welcoming mothers back into the workforce.

Our target

In 2018, we set a target of having women in 35% of our senior leadership roles by December 2023. At the end of August 2023, we had women in 27% of our senior leadership roles.

This is an increase from 24% when we first signed the Charter but below our target. With change only happening when we act, gender – along with social mobility and ethnicity – has been set as a strategic priority in 2024.

Where we are in our journey

We’ve set clear actions to reduce the gender and ethnicity pay gap. This has helped us identify where progressive action needs to be taken. And while we’ve achieved a lot in a short space of time, we recognise that there’s more to be done.

To create sustainable change, we’ve invested in our inclusion team and are actively reviewing our policies to ensure that they are competitive, clear, and fully inclusive.

We also continue to champion flexibility and new ways of working. We trust our colleagues to make the right choice in where, when, and how they work – collaborating with others and servicing clients in a way that is determined by each team.

Some key initiatives include:

Our Balance Network

Our new Balance network is a visible collective of colleagues who act as a passionate voice, ensuring tangible change happens.

Mentorship

Our CEO, Lindsey Rix-Broom mentors five aspiring female colleagues, with a further 20 being mentored by other senior leaders, including our COO, Caroline Dibbs.

Returnship

Tapping in to the returnship talent pool, we’re working towards the launch of our first Returnship programme, attracting women back into the finance industry.

Our work in 2024

With female development and retention being a strategic interest, in 2024, we’ll maintain our efforts to develop a programme which will help advance women below senior manager level. The average length of service of a female senior manager is seven years.

Building on previous years’ work, we’ll continue to draw up diverse-candidate shortlists for roles and encourage candidates to talk with us about flexible working. This opens opportunities to women who otherwise may not be able to work.

Our plans to increase female representation in senior roles this year also extend to:

Continuing to track and report on the success of diverse candidates through our selection process
Introducing an additional talent development scheme after the successful launch of our Orbit programme in 2023
Participating in International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day in 2024, as well as other relevant awareness days, such as World Menopause Day and Baby Loss Awareness Week. However, our wellbeing and DEI focus is all year round

Boosting support for our Gender Balance Network, with quarterly network ‘lifting the lid’ conversations scheduled
Establishing a Family Network, which provides support to those with parental and caring responsibilities
Introducing back-to-work maternity return mentors, supporting colleagues during their first 12 to 18 months back at work after maternity and adoption

Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap

Read our latest reports to see how we’re tackling gender and ethnicity pay gaps.

Our progress so far

- Lindsey Rix-Broom, our CEO, was listed in the HERoes Role Models List for the third year running in 2023. This acknowledges her passionate advocacy for women’s inclusion.
- In 2023 we created internal career opportunities. For example, 33% of promotions in senior manager roles were female, and 55.5% of all promotions went to women. Three senior female leaders took lateral career moves to broaden their experiences.
- We launched several development programmes, including a leadership development programme and a mentoring scheme for talented women. We also created several Board Director positions – many of which were filled by senior female talent.
- The theme for International Women’s Day was Embrace Equity. In 2023, we showcased colleague support, using personal interviews to broaden perceptions, challenge stereotypes and celebrate women’s achievements. We also used this as a call to action to establish female involvement in our Balance network.
- We became members of the charity Working Families, signalling a clear commitment to being an inclusive, family friendly employer – recognising that for many women, they are juggling more than one ‘hat’.

Supporting colleagues through the menopause

We are committed to supporting women and talking openly, positively, and respectfully about the menopause. We’ve signed the UK Workplace Menopause pledge, created a menopause toolkit for leaders and colleagues, and we launched Peppy – a dedicated menopause app service offering free and confidential support.

International Women's Day

We spoke to some of our colleagues on driving positive change for gender diversity within Canada Life and the wider industry.

Find out more here.

The Women in Finance Charter

Gender balance and inclusivity

Advancing gender balance at all levels

Creating a culture of support

Our target