Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Bringing together many different journeys to achieve our shared goals
At BW, we develop teams who give – and welcome – different opinions, views and cultural perspectives, bringing a real richness to our day-to-day activities.
We believe a diversity of thought achieves better business results, for both our clients and for ourselves.
Building on our culture of doing the right thing, we want everyone at BW to feel they can bring their whole self to work, confident they are included and respected. We value access to a wide talent pool, without any boundaries or bias.
Our DEI networks
Diversity today means more than race and gender. This is why we provide an environment where different voices are encouraged and heard through our internal networks. Our networks work together to build an inclusive and diverse place for us all to work.
Click on a network to find out more
Early Careers Network
Our Early Careers Network’s aim is to promote awareness of, and champion, engagement in early careers.
BW regularly supports a wide variety of graduate roles, summer internships, apprenticeships and work experience placements, ensuring those at the beginnings of their careers have the foundations to build their confidence, knowledge and input as they develop.
I’m passionate about ensuring all have equal opportunity to fulfil their potential – and that these opportunities aren’t just down to luck!
Gender Equality Network
The Gender Equality Network’s role is to promote and champion awareness of, and engagement in gender equality.
Our work in this area has been recognised by the Women in Pensions Awards, which recently saw 22 individual nominations from across the firm and BW nominated in the organisational category.
Read our latest Gender Pay Gap report
We’re proud to be the sponsoring partners of our Gender Equality Network. Our aims are to support people across the company in all issues affecting gender inequality, educate everyone and raise awareness at BW on gender-related topics and, in partnership with our other DEI groups, work to create a fully inclusive workplace for everyone.
Inter-Faith Network
BW is a great place to work, in a country with a high level of religious tolerance, but inclusion goes beyond merely tolerating others.
Real inclusion is wanting the best for each other, and encouraging each other to thrive, even though our backgrounds and beliefs may be different. Our Inter-Faith Network helps to promote this understanding.
Through sharing personal experiences and understanding, I hope we can encourage others to feel comfortable in freely expressing themselves in relation to their faith while at work.
Pride Network
Our Pride Network is committed to joining with colleagues and friends to raise awareness, share experiences and work together to provide a safe, open work environment where everyone can thrive and be their best, authentic self regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Being a Pride Network Lead is all about joining with colleagues in order to raise awareness, share experiences and work together.
Multicultural Network
Our Multicultural Network demonstrates we can achieve more by working together. Cultural inclusiveness doesn’t mean blending everyone into one, it means respecting and celebrating our differences in order to thrive as a team.
We promote and champion the many different cultures that are shared across our colleagues at BW and beyond.
Diversity means having the opportunity to learn, grow and prosper together by ensuring our thoughts, ideas and perspectives all have a chance to be heard.
Wellness+ Network
Our approach to wellness at BW is to create an environment where all individuals will be engaged at work, successful at what they do, and able to achieve their full potential, benefiting both their self and their colleagues.
Our Wellness+ Network’s role is to promote and champion awareness of, and engagement in wellness and related areas, from mental health and financial wellbeing to accessibility and inclusion. The value of happiness cannot be underestimated.
We also provide wellbeing consulting services to our clients, including our wellbeing analysis survey.
Our aim is to ensure we are all as equipped and supported as possible to deal with life’s challenges. We recognise that there is so much untapped potential in everyone. We aim to enable individuals to release their hidden capabilities, reduce stigma, making sure the Wellness+ network works for all. We are stronger together.
"Diversity, equity and inclusion are not just buzzwords; they are integral to our culture of doing the right thing. I believe that true progress and innovation thrive when every individual is empowered to bring their authentic self to work and I am personally committed to helping create a workplace where diversity is celebrated, equity is the foundation, and inclusion is the heartbeat that connects us all. As a partnership, we want to forge a path where every voice is heard, every idea is valued, and every dream is within reach."
How we support DEI
Our business
Our community
Our thinking
Our partnerships
In our business
Our DEI steering group reports directly to our Management Board. The steering group has a focus on improving inclusion and bringing greater diversity to the firm. Our current initiatives include:
- Embedding our diversity networks to create spaces for colleagues to share, support and develop, as well as build an inclusive and diverse work environment
- Increasing engagement with our colleagues, and sparking conversations and thinking about different perspectives through events, discussions and social media
- Actively tackling the possibility of unconscious bias with measures like our new applicant tracking system, which helps our talent acquisition team reduce and challenge preconceptions
In our community
We support our wider community with our professional skills and expertise. Our colleagues:
- Volunteer our time as trustees on boards to support charity finance and governance
- Use our IT skills to support charities set up computer equipment
- Use our marketing talent to help charities with branding
- Support students with maths tutoring
- Provide industry and workplace experience for people to help them get an understanding of our industry and a foot in the door
In our thinking
During the spread of Covid-19 in 2020, we recognised how the recent gains made in many sectors on gender equality began to be undermined, with job losses and caring responsibilities falling disproportionately on women, and gender-based violence increasing exponentially.
In this context, we work to bring focus and attention to the gender pensions gap. We go further than simply telling women to save more – we know the pension system is intrinsically biased towards men, creating stark disparities in wealth at retirement that need to be addressed at its core.
We considered fiscal, behavioural, and societal issues collectively, and set out actions for individuals, employers and policy-makers to create a more robust and inclusive pensions framework offering fairer solutions for all. As we start to ‘build back better’, women’s financial futures must be a core part of our agenda.
Our dedication to gender equality extends to our work in the wider industry, with our gender pay gap analysis and our pay gap analytics service.
In our partnerships
We also look to advance inclusion and diversity through collaboration, joining with others in our industry and challenging ourselves and others to go further, faster.
We are members and co-organisers of the pensions industry LGBT+ network group, O:pen, an inclusive organisation for professionals working in pensions who believe in the importance of promoting and celebrating LGBT+ diversity and inclusion within the industry. We’ve also partnered with LGBT Great, which provides innovative insights, visibility and outreach solutions for the financial and professional services community.
We are a Disability Confident Employer, part of a government scheme designed to help employers to recruit and retain talent - regardless of accessibility needs - and increase understanding of disability, widen recruiting pools, and improve inclusion and diversity. We are continually working towards improved employment practices and are committed to building on our inclusive and diverse culture to create a place where we all can thrive, without any boundaries or bias.
We partner with the 10,000 Interns Foundation to transform horizons and prospects by providing paid work experience, training and mentorship to help provide the foundation for young people to pursue careers in business.
In August 2021, we partnered with Diversity Project, which is cross-company initiative championing a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture within the UK investment and savings industry. We hold representation on their Advisory board, Steering Group and various DEI Workstreams. We value the ability to draw experiences and best practice from a wide peer group network, as well as the opportunities for shared learning and best practice, along with access to new DEI initiatives.
We are signatories to several charters, including the Asset Owner's Diversity Charter, committing us to helping to build an investment industry which represents a more balanced and fair representation of diverse societies, and the Women in Finance Charter, a government-led initiative to improve gender diversity across the financial services industry.
In 2023, we announced a new partnership with GAIN (Girls Are Investors), a charity set up by investment professionals to improve gender diversity in investment management by creating opportunities for female and non-binary young people to enter the industry. The partnership gives us access to the talent pool of GAIN participants, all of whom are eager to explore career opportunities in investments.
More about us
We are proud to be a leading independent UK professional services consultancy at the forefront of risk, pensions, investment and insurance.