Why diversity in the financial sector matters by Rowan Morrison, Co-Managing Director and Co-founder, Rationale

This Supporter Recommends features Rowan Morrison, Co-Managing Director and Co-founder at Rationale

As a female entrepreneur and founder I am extremely passionate about equality of opportunity. I’m also a member of the 93% club, a membership organisation which celebrates the impact that state school educated people (of which I am one) can have on all areas of society. I’m pleased that in recent years I’ve seen many financial services organisations beginning to take meaningful steps to address inequality in their sector. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.

On the topic of social mobility, many financial services firms are already seeing the opportunity offered by hiring employees from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds. For example, Zurich Insurance is using its outreach program research

Benefits of representation

This is vital – not only because it is the right thing to do as a business, but because doing so will benefit your people and your bottom line. When we work with senior leaders of financial services organisations on developing effective employee value propositions and employer brands, companies with an intentional and clear diversity initiative are overwhelmingly more appealing to talent, in terms of both recruitment and retention.

Greater representation signals to prospective talent that ideas and solutions are generated from a wider range of perspectives and experiences. A junior seeing someone who looks like them in the senior leadership team will come to work motivated and inspired, while different cultures and backgrounds bring energy to the team. If all companies are run by people with identical educations and networks, then how will anyone challenge, create or grow?

Some of the most interesting things I’ve read recently on this topic:

• The 2023 Social Mobility Foundation Index
  • If you like stats and a good graph, this McKinsey article
    • Rationale’s own feature on ESG here
      • Mentorship is a great way to boost social mobility within a company. This Forbes piece

        Businesses with strong environmental, social and governance targets do better. Research supports this. And yet there’s so much more we can do when it comes to looking at the diversity within our own businesses and companies and supporting growth and mentorship. At Rationale, we’ll keep doing everything in our power to hire a diverse pool, while keeping the doors open for diversity at leadership level too. There’s more we can all do to level the playing field, so let’s get to it.