Almost a quarter of financial planners have revealed the main aim of their diversity and inclusion programmes is to prevent discrimination, a survey of Personal Finance Society members has revealed.
A social media poll of 101 Personal Finance Society members in August asked: what is the main goal of your firm’s diversity and inclusion policy?
A total of 24 per cent said they were working to improve workplace culture, with the same amount stating the goal of their approach was to ensure diversity was respected and employees were treated equally regardless of their race, gender, sex, health, ethnic or social origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion or culture.
Attracting and retaining talent was the main aim of diversity and inclusion policies in place at 13 per cent of Personal Finance Society member firms while only 2 per cent stated the major goal was to increase customer diversity.
Sarah Lord, President of the Personal Finance Society, said: “When an impactful approach to diversity and inclusion is at the heart of a financial planning firm, the regulator has been clear that they usually also find positive outcomes in risk management, good conduct, healthy working cultures and innovation too.
“The financial planning profession has made strides forward in recent years, but we are still on a journey. I firmly believe further progress can be best achieved by sharing the challenges we face as well as how we are going above and beyond legal requirements to boost employee and client wellbeing with our work.
“The Personal Finance Society will work with the CII Group to share good practice guidance in the coming months.”
In 2019 the CII Group introduced a new requirement for all Chartered firms to have an EDI policy in place.
In April and May this year the CII surveyed 328 Chartered firms to measure the impact policies have and identify good practice.
The Personal Finance Society will use the findings of this survey to share good practice guidance on what financial planning professionals can do to take strides forward to becoming more diverse and inclusive in the coming months.
