Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter

As part of our 2025 vision to make Wright Hassall an exceptional place to work, we are committed to ensuring that diversity and inclusion is built into everything that we do and that we lead the way in equality practices.

Our core values form the foundations on which our business is built and go to the very heart of who we are. They are proactively implemented across the entire firm, known by all our employees and referred to throughout all our decision-making processes. They do not simply live on a piece of paper – they live in all that we say, and do, and define how we interact with each other, our clients and the community in which we operate.

We call them our FAIR values and they are that we are FLEXIBLE, AMBITIOUS, INCLUSIVE AND RESPECTFUL.

In line with our Inclusive and Respectful values, we value the differences and advantages that a diverse and inclusive workforce brings to the firm.

We want to celebrate diversity by conveying our passion and commitment for diversity, equality and inclusion not just in our workplace but in society as a whole by supporting understanding, respect and embracing people’s differences and diverse backgrounds.

This Charter sits alongside our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and details the actions that we intend to take over the next 12 months and by September 2024.

Recruitment

We aim to adopt inclusive attraction and retention of talent through our recruitment process working towards a goal that diverse talent is actively encouraged to apply for roles.

We will ensure that our role descriptions and adverts are fair and objective and aim to remove conscious and unconscious bias and have an extensive reach across society. Each position description and advert will be assessed by a gender bias decoder to reduce unconscious gender and age bias.

All applications which are provided via our recruitment team will be anonymised and distinguishing characteristics removed to reduce unconscious bias.

We will always aim to have a minimum of two people from the firm as part of the recruitment process and, where possible, we will ensure a diverse balance ensuring that we recruit the best person for the role.

We will provide detailed constructive feedback to all of our candidates using the Circle Back Initiative.

We will ensure that our recruitment partners are actively committed to diversity and providing diverse candidates from different backgrounds for interview.

We will always appoint the best person for the role, and we will monitor and assess the progress of applicants and take action if we believe that any of our initiatives are not working.

We will actively record and monitor the diversity of our applicants to ensure we’re attracting a diverse range of talent.

Commitments

We will regularly survey and consult with colleagues to seek their feedback on the inclusivity of our working environment, and we are committed to publishing our diversity data each year.

Unconscious bias training is mandatory for all individuals and is refreshed each year and we continuously review our training needs.

We are committed to ensuring that we have employment policies and practices that support the development and retention of an inclusive and diverse workforce. We embrace remote and hybrid working where possible allowing individuals the flexibility to balance their work and home life.

We will raise awareness of our diverse differences such as cultural backgrounds and menopause and menstruation and create a culture where our people feel supported and have help when needed.

We are committed to ensuring equity of pay and working towards no gender or ethnic pay gap.

We will actively seek external charters, commitments and measures to benchmark ourselves recognizing that whilst these individual commitments may focus on one area of diversity, the benefits of such commitments can also support equality, diversity and inclusion as a whole.

Culture

We are committed to an inclusive social culture including our social activities.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, harassment (including third party), victimisation, bullying, intimidation and micro-aggressions and will not hesitate to take disciplinary action (up to and including dismissal) if required as detailed in our disciplinary process.

We will raise the awareness of different backgrounds, cultures, abilities and experiences by holding regular celebration events as part of our engagement calendar, by encouraging internal colleagues and external speakers to tell their stories and by publishing resources to our people.

Our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion committee will review our progress against these commitments, challenge us and hold Wright Hassall to account for the commitments made as part of this Charter.

Community

We will share how our firm has impacted the local community through our charitable trust ensuring that our community investment supports strong community and charity projects in our local area.

Company

We will publish our equality, diversity and inclusion statement on our website and ensure that our colleagues, suppliers and clients know the standards to expect.

What can I do to support diversity?

In order for us to achieve our goals as outlined above, we need the support and commitment of all of our colleagues and leaders. To help us, we need our colleagues to:

• Know and understand the diversity goals as we’ve outlined above and commit to the process by understanding how diversity impacts them and their role.
• Participate in our engagement surveys and respond as openly and honestly as possible.
• Actively engage in the diversity effort. Individuals can take part in the ED&I committee, attend or talk at informed training sessions. They can consider becoming a mentor, mentee, or part of a co-mentoring relationship.
• Become culturally competent. Take the time to learn about different cultures, races, religions and backgrounds represented by our colleagues. Use the Resources on Whoogle or just ask colleagues about their background. If people make a mistake when talking to their colleagues, we ask them to apologise and ask for support.
• Treat people in a way they wish to be treated rather than the way you wish to be treated. Common social activities and practices that are comfortable for individuals may not be comfortable for everyone. Most importantly, we must be respectful at all times.