In May 2017, we signed the Women in Finance Charter, and pledged to improve the gender balance in our senior team. We said that by 2020, we’d aim to have women make up at least 40% of both our executive committee and our board.
Here’s our yearly update on the progress we’ve made so far.
What is the Women in Finance Charter?
The Women in Finance Charter was launched by the Treasury in response to the unequal gender representation in the financial services industry, especially in senior and mid-level management. It’s a voluntary charter that companies can sign to publicly commit to improving that imbalance.
When we signed the Charter last year, we committed to doing the following:
Having one member of the senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion
Setting internal targets for gender diversity in senior management
Ensuring any variable pay for the senior executive team is linked to delivery against our gender diversity targets
Publicly reporting on our progress every year
These targets focus on our board and our executive committee. But it’s useful to know that we run Monzo a little differently to most banks and financial institutions. Traditionally, a company’s board gives the executive committee the delegated authority to make decisions.
At Monzo, we empower the people closest to problems to make decisions instead. That means everyone in the company has the power to make decisions as part of their day-to-day work, so decision-making and influence are distributed more evenly across the company. We use our executive committee as a forum to debate ideas and challenge our CEO.
Our progress so far
When we signed up to the Charter in May 2017,
38% of our board identified as women
11% of our executive committee identified as women
In September this year,
29% of our board identify as women
20% of our executive committee identify as women
The percentage of women in our executive committee has grown as we’ve promoted people into senior positions and welcomed new people to the team. But the percentage on our board has fallen.
After playing a crucial part in building Monzo over the last three years, a few months ago the Chairman of our board Baroness Denise Kingsmill decided to step down. Now, just two of our seven board members identify as women. We’re currently looking for someone new to join the board, and we’re making sure we have a broad funnel to help us attract a diverse group of candidates.
Overall we’re confident that we’re still on track to meet our target. As we grow, we’ll be looking for more people to join the team at senior levels, and we’re now in a position to hire experienced leaders from other organisations too. If we keep working to improve diversity across the company – and especially in our hiring process – we think we’ll see more and more women taking up senior leadership positions at Monzo.
What are we doing to improve?
To meet our target for gender representation, we’ll continue with the work we’re doing to improve types of diversity across the company. That includes everything from giving training to minimise bias during the hiring process, to offering better benefits, part time roles and job shares.
You can find out more about what we’re doing to improve in our latest updates on diversity and inclusion and the gender pay gap.