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Diversity, equity and inclusion

Delivering on gender equity

Our colleagues share their experiences of gender equity at Macquarie.

International Women's Day 2024

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, 'Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress', is a global call to find and accelerate solutions to improve gender equity through economic participation.

This theme is particularly relevant to Macquarie because it speaks to how the economic empowerment of women contributes to building a resilient society and dynamic economy, reflecting our purpose statement of empowering people to innovate and invest for a better future. It also intersects with the Macquarie Group Foundation’s equitable grant making focus.

Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake, and Head of the Macquarie Group Foundation Lisa George, discuss the Foundation’s work around the world to advance women’s economic inclusion through breaking down barriers to employment and education.

Piettra Silva talks about how Leadership Through Sport and Business (LTSB), a social mobility charity which enables those facing barriers to employment into meaningful careers, helped her secure professional employment.

Supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation for over 10 years, LTSB CEO Rob Burton, and Regional Head of the Macquarie Group Foundation in EMEA Rachel Engel, highlight the impact the charity is having across the UK.

Improving gender equity 

We recognise that the diversity of our people is one of our greatest strengths. An inclusive, equitable workplace enables us to embrace diversity to deliver more innovative and sustainable solutions for our people, clients, shareholders and communities.​

Everyone at Macquarie is responsible for ensuring our culture is inclusive and equitable. Given the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), our EMEA Management Committee acts as our diversity committee, meeting quarterly to discuss proactive initiatives and working closely with the EMEA DEI team to enact our global and regional strategy and drive change.

We encourage our people to self-identify across a broad range of diversity dimensions including cultural and racial diversity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and parenting and caring roles. This data enables internal and external benchmarking, as well as measurement of progress and equity in our people processes.

To build a future where all genders have equitable opportunity to succeed, we need to prioritise inclusivity and equity.” 

Paul Plewman
CEO, EMEA

 

Driving gender equity

We are committed to achieving more balanced gender representation at all levels across our organisation and are proud of our progress. We employ more women and gender diverse people than ever before, but there is always more we can do.

62%

Female representation on the Macquarie Group Board of Directors

44%

Female representation across Macquarie’s total workforce

Our focus continues to be on strengthening the internal and external pipeline of women and people from under-represented groups at all levels of our organisation and enhancing our recruitment and talent practices to help facilitate this. 

We have a range of programmes to drive gender equity and support women to succeed. Equity focuses on structures - it is about levelling the playing field by removing barriers, enhancing capabilities of leaders, and valuing and accommodating for differences so more people are included and can reach their full potential.

Our purpose is empowering people to innovate and invest for a better future. This includes the future of our people, and it is why we continue to invest in and support their career paths. We provide a wide variety of role and business-specific training, and have multiple development offerings including:

  • Sponsorship and Development Programmes: that support talented employees by matching them with senior leaders to support their development.
  • Development and mobility: employees can access opportunities to work across business areas and in different geographies.
  • Buddy Programme: pairing all new joiners with a buddy from their team and offering an additional buddy, chosen by the employee, to help give people a sense of belonging from the very beginning.
  • Inclusive Leadership Masterclasses: supporting our leaders to actively create inclusive environments for all colleagues.
  • Executive and Director Leadership Programmes: supporting our director population globally to enhance their sense of accountability for creating an inclusive culture, with increased motivation and skill in empowering, developing, retaining, and leading diverse people and teams.
  • We also provide a range of group specific development programmes to equip employees to succeed in their chosen field.

Investing in our current and future talent is a key priority at Macquarie. We are continuously improving our approach to recruiting, to remove bias and focus on creating shortlists of diverse candidates, which in turn, builds a more diversified workforce.

We also provide a range of Early Careers Programmes:

  • Junior Associate Programme: provides careers access to university students from under-represented communities and low socio-economic backgrounds with valuable work experience at Macquarie, two days per week whilst they complete their degree. It is delivered in conjunction with several Macquarie Group Foundation partners.
  • Rise to It with Macquarie Programme: provides full university maintenance and tuition fees, as well as offering hands-on work experience at Macquarie, to Year 12 students from low socio-economic backgrounds and under-represented communities.
  • Women in Business Series: aims to attract more women to apply for roles in Macquarie.  
  • Intern and Graduate Mentoring Programmes: provide additional support and tools to help our graduate and intern hires succeed in their career with us.

We are committed to helping our employees manage their care responsibilities and provide a range of benefits and support for parents and carers.

  • We believe achieving gender equity means supporting all parents, so we offer up to six months of paid leave, regardless of gender. Secondary Carer Leave is available to all parents with secondary childcare responsibility for a new child, including through adoption.
  • We offer one-to-one parental leave coaching that is provided before, during and after taking time off from work. This coaching is designed to support both new and existing working parents transition from, and back to, their professional lives.
  • Coaching is also provided to managers of those going on leave to ensure they are equipped to provide support.
  • We offer a phased return to support transitions back to work after Primary Carer Leave, with up to 12 paid transition days in the first 12 weeks of returning to work.
  • We provide all our employees with emergency access to childcare support, nurseries, childminders, holiday clubs and elder-care specialists when required (UK specific).
  • We are committed to hybrid working for the long term. That means most of our people balance time spent working in the office and remotely. Everyone is empowered to work together flexibly in a way that works for their team, also taking advantage of the benefits of coming together in person.
  • The wellbeing of our people is a priority, and we provide a comprehensive range of initiatives and benefits, designed to equip our people with the tools and resources they need to own their health and wellbeing. 
  • We provide one wellbeing day and two days of volunteering leave for all staff annually – in addition to traditional annual leave.
  • We provide support and advice for under-served areas of healthcare that can make a big impact on all of our day-to-day lives, including menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood, men’s health and women’s health (UK specific).
  • We understand that we all have lives outside of work. Often, we can balance the two, but every now and again something tips the balance, and we need a bit of extra support. Our Wellbeing Ambassadors are colleagues to talk with - they are someone who understands because they have been there.

Our successes

Recognised as a Top 10 Employer at the Investing in Ethnicity Awards 2023.

Our regional CEO, Paul Plewman, was awarded Champion (Ally) of the Year at the Investing in Ethnicity Awards 2022

Recognised as a Top 10 Employer at the European Diversity Awards 2023

Listed in the Top 50 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2023 in the UK

Met our Women in Finance Charter target to improve gender balance 18 months ahead of schedule in January 2022 and set a new target that 35 per cent of our UK director population (our most senior 3 career levels) will be women by July 2026.

Our Women In Tech network was awarded the Best Mentorship Programme at the UK Women in Tech Employer Awards 2022.

Number 1 on the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, celebrating LGBTQ+ inclusive employers and best employer for LGBT+ people: Stonewall Awards 2022.

Our LGBTQ+ network Pride was awarded Highly Commended Network Group in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2022. 

Recognised as a Top 10 Employer by the British LGBT Awards 2022.

Employee voice

We encourage everyone at Macquarie to be responsible for ensuring our culture is inclusive and equitable and, to create an environment where all our people belong and can thrive.

Our Employee Network Groups (ENGs) work closely with our DEI team to deliver intersectional and affinity group events and initiatives so that everyone can embrace their full identity. Everyone at Macquarie has mandatory, annual DEI objectives. Beyond what we can each do individually, the ENGs are one of our biggest assets, connecting employees from across the business to share knowledge and insights on gender, ethnicity, race, culture and religion, families and carers, LGBTQ+ and neurodiversity. 

They work with HR and the DEI team to provide development, networking, and mentoring opportunities to enable employees to be engaged, empowered, and encouraged to succeed – regardless of background. This includes:

Networking opportunities

providing platforms for networking and broader industry insight and connections (i.e. for people working in or alongside technology, infrastructure, commodities, and energy markets)

Career development initiatives

including growth mindset training, profile building and senior leader mentorship

Families and carer support

including insight events and networking

Working with the community

The Macquarie Group Foundation drives social impact work for Macquarie Group, supporting our people, businesses, and communities to build a better future. Recognising that many people around the world face systemic barriers to employment, our funding is focused on breaking down these barriers and building effective pathways to economic security.

We acknowledge inequities in the philanthropic and community sector and are taking steps to strengthen the diversity, equity, and inclusivity of our grant making processes and practices globally. 

UK Gender Pay Gap Report

Pay gaps are not the same as unequal pay. Equal pay considers work of equal value. A gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of all men and women across an entity or organisation. Our gender pay gap is driven by not having enough women in senior roles, which we are working hard to address through various initiatives and actions.


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