SJP Inclusion & Diversity

At St. James's Place, we are committed to building an inclusive environment that enables everyone to thrive; from how we attract, retain, and develop talented people who are growing their career or business with us, to meeting the unique financial planning needs of our clients. We’re working hard to ensure that we are a place where everyone feels like they belong.

Our approach

Our clients:

Everyone should be able to access a safe space to talk about money confidently and confidentially. We want people from all communities and backgrounds to know that they can come to us for expert financial advice that will help them build their future, their way.

We recognise the additional barriers and complexities that some of our clients and their families may encounter when it comes to financial planning. That’s why we’re developing advice propositions to address any unique needs, like our LGBTQ+ proposition which aims to equip our advisers with the information and resources to reach and serve LGBTQ+ clients.

We’re also working hard to improve the way we operate and make everything we do as accessible as possible. Whether our clients have a disability, neurodiversity or long-term health condition that may impact what support they need – we’re here for them.

 

Our people:

At St. James's Place, we embrace diversity, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes us stronger. From helping us to make better decisions and manage risks, to fostering greater innovation and creativity. It enables us to deliver the best products, services, and experiences for our clients. 

That’s why, together with our people, we are building an inclusive workplace that enables us to benefit from the different skills, perspectives, and experiences of our entire community.

We want to support our people to create the career they want, one that gives them clear purpose and meaning. By enabling everyone to bring their whole self to work, without any limitations, we hope to create a more fulfilling workplace that helps people develop and grow.

Here is some of the actions we’re taking:

  • Driving inclusive hiring outcomes by using gender neutral language in our recruitment campaigns, aiming for diverse shortlists and interview panels, and equipping our hiring managers with unconscious bias training.
  • Ensuring we have the right people policies in place to support our community, including our Time off for Parents policy, Transgender Policy, Menopause policy, and Flexible Working policy.
  • Supporting talented employees, especially those from minority groups, through our internal mentoring programmes and external initiatives like the 30% club and the Diversity Project’s Pathway programme.
  • Working to make careers in finance accessible to all by collaborating with organisations like the Aleto Foundation and EY Foundation.

Find out more:

“Our people are at the heart our business. Fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and has clarity of purpose is a key part of our commitment to being a responsible business and essential for our long-term success.”

Maria Spooner,
Divisional Director Responsible Business

Our commitments

We work with a number of external organisations and groups across the diversity agenda and believe these relationships play an important role in our continuing journey.

Inclusion and Diversity Policy

Read our Inclusion and Diversity Policy

Download
Board Diversity Policy

Read our Board Diversity Policy

Download

Commitment from our leaders:

Accountability starts at the top. Our Executive leadership team are committed to driving the change needed for us to harness the benefits of a truly inclusive and diverse business. This includes acting as sponsors for different areas of diversity and providing support to our Community Networks, to mentoring pipeline talent and taking an active role in the celebration of inclusion events. Their commitment to change is evidenced through their objectives which include measures around equality and diversity. 

Our progress against inclusion and diversity is tracked regularly through our Responsible Business Advisory Group, with support from our I&D Working Group, Workforce Engagement Panel and Community Networks.

Our community networks

Our community networks, groups and clubs give our people the opportunity to connect with others around the business over the things that matter to them, whether that’s a hobby, a passion, or an ambition to drive change.

They include:

  • Unity, our professional women's network
  • Embrace, our race and ethnicity network
  • Connect, our disability neurodiversity network
  • Pride, our LGBTQ+ network

We also have a number of smaller groups sharing interests such as military veterans, menopause support, working families and carers, religion and faith and environment and climate change.

Hear from some of our network chairs and members on what inclusion and belonging means to them:

How we measure our progress

Listening to our people:

We know that one of our biggest measures of success is how our people feel. We listen to the experiences of our community through our workforce engagement panel, chaired by Non-Executive Director Lesley-Ann Nash, as well as providing employees access to anonymous feedback platform all year round. We also run a biennial Groupwide employee survey, which includes questions focused on inclusion and belonging, the outputs of which help inform our people policies and support.  

A representative from each of our community networks also sit on our I&D Working Group, providing insight on the lived experience, challenges, and perspectives of their members. This insight helps to shape our inclusion initiatives and the actions we take to build a more inclusive working environment for everyone.

 

Pay Gap Reports:

We know that transparency builds trust and helps to drive change. That’s why we calculate and report on our gender and ethnicity pay gaps. It also helps us track and measure our progress - understanding where we are doing well and where we need to do better.

What are pay gaps? Pay gaps are the difference in average hourly pay, when comparing different groups of people within an organisation. For example, the gender pay gap compares all women with all men.

Whilst we are required by UK law to publish our gender pay gap, we choose to also share data voluntarily on our ethnicity pay gap because we believe it’s the right thing to do.

We are committed to eliminating our pay gaps and have seen a steady decrease in our gender pay gap since reporting began in 2017. However, we still have work to do and are realistic that it take a few years to fully resolve our pay gaps in a fair and sustainable way.

Our partnerships

We are proud to work with a number of external organisations and groups across the diversity agenda and believe these relationships play an important role in driving widespread change.

  • The Diversity Project

    The Diversity Project

    A cross-company initiative championing a more inclusive culture within the Savings and Investment profession. As long-standing members, we are active supporters of their diversity workstreams and development programmes. Find out more.

  • LGBT Great

    LGBT Great

    An organisation focused on driving awareness of LGBT+ issues in the investment industry. As founding members of LGBT Great's Investment Industry Benchmark Tracker, we passionately believe in the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Find out more.

  • Stonewall

    Stonewall

    An organisation looking to drive transformative change in the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the UK. As members, we first completed their industry benchmark in 2022 and are using the outputs to inform and evolve our approach to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Find out more.

  • Progress Together

    Progress Together

    A cross-company initiative driving socio-economic diversity In financial services. We work collaboratively with other members to drive change and get a clearer picture of socio-economic diversity through capturing and sharing diversity data. Find out more.

  • GAIN

    GAIN

    An organisation committed to celebrating and supporting neurodiverse individuals in the Insurance, Investment, and Financial Services Industry. As members, we’re working with GAIN to better understand the lived experience of neurodiverse talent at SJP and ensuring we have the right support in place. Find out more.

  • Disability Confident Leader

    Disability Confident Leader

    Disability confident is a government scheme that supports businesses in building disability Inclusive workplaces.  We were proud to be re-accredited as a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader In 2023, the highest level possible. Find out more.

The Diversity Project

A cross-company initiative championing a more inclusive culture within the Savings and Investment profession. As long-standing members, we are active supporters of their diversity workstreams and development programmes. Find out more.

LGBT Great

An organisation focused on driving awareness of LGBT+ issues in the investment industry. As founding members of LGBT Great's Investment Industry Benchmark Tracker, we passionately believe in the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Find out more.

Stonewall

An organisation looking to drive transformative change in the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the UK. As members, we first completed their industry benchmark in 2022 and are using the outputs to inform and evolve our approach to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Find out more.

Progress Together

A cross-company initiative driving socio-economic diversity In financial services. We work collaboratively with other members to drive change and get a clearer picture of socio-economic diversity through capturing and sharing diversity data. Find out more.

GAIN

An organisation committed to celebrating and supporting neurodiverse individuals in the Insurance, Investment, and Financial Services Industry. As members, we’re working with GAIN to better understand the lived experience of neurodiverse talent at SJP and ensuring we have the right support in place. Find out more.

Disability Confident Leader

Disability confident is a government scheme that supports businesses in building disability Inclusive workplaces.  We were proud to be re-accredited as a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader In 2023, the highest level possible. Find out more.