Responding to the home secretary's challenge for the City to adopt Think, Act, Report principles, Maria Bentley, senior MD at Nomura International, said her organisation is already supporting the initiative.
This is the culmination of focused gender diversity work undertaken internally which includes parental support, emergency back-up care arrangements, senior management sponsorship of Female Directors and pro-active engagement and development of emerging female talent. Bentley noted that the emergency back-up programme alone had saved Nomura 100 business days in the past year.
Featherstone said: "I am delighted that Nomura has joined a number of the UK's leading companies and signed up to voluntarily report on gender equality.
"We abandoned the last government's approach to equality, which was based on excessive legislation and trying to dictate how people should behave.
"Our voluntary approach is reaping rewards, as more firms are realising the business benefits of using women's talents. It's not just about fairness; it makes economic sense."
Think, Act, Report is a voluntary framework designed to help firms to promote gender equality and to demonstrate greater transparency on this issue. The Minister was also pleased to hear of the significant initiatives being undertaken by other leading City institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Lloyd's of London and Credit Suisse all of whom shared innovative case studies on their progress in this field.
Whilst significant in-roads are being made by individual firms, there is also a collective effort being spear-headed by the City HR Association. The Association produced support materials to assist its financial service members irrespective of where they are on their journey.
This includes detailed guides and research on best practice, case studies and opinion surveys on this important topic. The Association is also developing a Diversity Toolkit to ensure that firms without their own diversity resources can leverage the experience and progress of their larger counterparts.
The City also has a representative on the Government's recently-formed Women's Business Council, Alderman Fiona Woolf CBE, who in turn is working with City HR, Academics, Liverymen and HR and Diversity Specialists to maintain progress on the female talent pipeline.
The City HR Association is the UK Industry association, founded in 1973, which promotes HR best practice within the financial services sector and amongst organisations who support this sector. City HR currently represents 200 employers drawn from banking, insurance, asset management, employment law and professional services.
