Putting measurement at the heart of our DE&I journey

Here at Harvard we’re on a long-term DE&I journey. Our stated vision is to create an environment where anyone from any background feels safe, inspired and free to make their mark and reach their potential. 

As part of working toward that vision in February we were proud to have been awarded The Blueprint Ally status. The Blueprint diversity mark is awarded to organisations that are committed to diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business. There are 23 commitments that are well worth a read and can be found here: www.thisistheblueprint.co.uk 

As part of the commitment we are today updating our gender and ethnicity pay gap statistics. 

Gender reporting 

As a result of our action our gender pay gap has reduced from 19.6% to 7% over the last 12 months.  As a company we are 60%/40% female to male split and our board is split 50%/50% male to female. And we continue to have equal pay between genders at all levels. 

We realise there is still work to be done to eliminate this gap altogether and that is absolutely our goal. Over the next six months we will focus on the following: 

• We will continue to ensure gender equality across all levels of seniority in the business as well as ensuring we provide an environment where women can thrive  
• Core focus areas are ensuring we provide mentoring and coaching for our female talent 
• And ensuring that returning mothers have the support, flexibility and access to the opportunities they need to continue to fly  

Ethnicity reporting 

We have lots of work to do in this area. While we continue to have equal pay across all ethnicities at Harvard our ethnic pay gap has stayed the same at 31%. 

Currently 17% of our workforce identifies as from an Asian, Black or Minority Ethnic background – an increase from 12% in December 2020.  

As above, one of our commitments in 2021 is to reduce our ethnic pay gap. We understand that this is a result of the small number of ethnic minority background employees at senior levels within the business. This is something we will work to address quickly, with a key focus on: 

• Mentoring for employees from ethnic minority backgrounds to support their development 
• A commitment to ensuring we have a board member from an ethnic minority background by the end of 2022. 

Sharing this data is about remaining accountable and maintaining momentum on the DE&I journey we are on. We will continue to be transparent and share all the progress made, as well as the fundamental work still to do.