Since July 2016, Direct Line Group has been a signatory of the Women in Finance Charter. The Charter is a commitment by HM Treasury and signatory firms to work collaboratively to build a more gender balanced and diverse industry.
When signing the charter in 2016 we had 22% women in senior management* roles and set a target of 30% by the end of 2019. Having achieved this target, we chose to adopt an ambitious stretch target of 35% by the end of 2022. While we missed this, the process of target setting had clear value and has driven our internal work to improve senior representation of women since.
Looking to the future, to support continued progress, we have set a new target of 40% of women in senior management* roles by the end of 2027.
Our long-term focus on investing in women led us to be intentional in how we rebuilt our leadership team over the past 12 months; ensuring we are bringing in not only diversity of candidates, but also leaders who understand and are keen to take accountability for driving culture, including D&I, in the organisation. At the end of 2024, women made up:
| Women in Leadership | |
| Board | 41.7% |
| Executive Committee | 40.0% |
| Executive Committee - 1 | 32.4% |
To help meet our charter pledge we have:
- Re-set our approach to diversity and inclusion to become a core part of all business decisions, integral to driving a high performing and equitable organisation. To facilitate this, we’re creating a detailed D&I strategy with clear actions and accountability across the company.
- Recommended D&I objectives for all senior leaders with targeted actions and measurable outcomes.
- Continued to promote inclusive hiring principles, to build representation into shortlists in key areas.
- Re-framed our approach to sharing D&I data with senior leaders, creating greater accountability for them to drive equitable outcomes wherever we identify opportunities.
- Strengthened our succession plans with high potential talent from underrepresented groups and invested in our future leaders through facilitating access to WeQual, the world’s leading development network for women leaders and INvolve Emerging Leaders programme.
*Our Women in Finance Charter definition of senior management was adjusted in 2024 to align to that used by FTSE Women, Women in Finance Review and the Parker Review. It is based on the FTSE Women definition of Executive Committee-1 (Executive Committee and their direct reports, ExCo-1).
