Liontrust is committed to building a workplace that fosters diversity, inclusion and equity for its employees. Achieving diversity and inclusion is an ongoing objective and one that the financial sector has had to continually work to achieve, especially in terms of recruiting women and individuals from under-represented ethnic and/or educational backgrounds. Obviously, it takes time for DE&I related efforts to feed through, from recruitment to training to progression. While there is still progress to be made, Liontrust is more cognisant of the areas for improvement in this area and is working to make progress in these, over time.
Liontrust believes that its people should be appointed to their roles based on skills, merit and performance and makes all appointments within the guidelines of its equal opportunities policy. It is our policy to ensure that all job applicants and employees are treated fairly and on merit regardless of their race, gender, marital status, age, disability, religious belief or sexual orientation.
Liontrust’s executive remuneration is linked to DE&I. There is a 30% allocation to ESG as part of the remuneration scorecard for 2022/23. Within this 30% allocation, 10% focuses on having a joined up approach to increasing the diversity and inclusiveness of Liontrust.
The Board regularly reviews the gender split across the Group and has asked management to address the issue of under representation of women in senior management. Liontrust has improved the diversity of the Board over the last few years currently with 33% female representation. The Board will continue to work to ensure the composition of the Board and the workforce as a whole is representative of wider society. As part of the Executive Directors’ strategic objectives, there is a commitment to gender-balanced shortlists of candidates at the beginning of a recruitment process.
Liontrust’s current gender balance is broadly 15:9 male:female with men predominating in more senior positions. This reflects the history of the asset management industry, the companies we have acquired and is typical of the financial industry as a whole. The Board and senior management are actively seeking to address this, and have appointed 3 women to the management team in the past year. Senior management continue to focus on attracting and retaining female talent by updating policies and creating a culture to address the gender balance and gap at Liontrust.
As at 31 March 2023, Liontrust’s workforce was broken down between employees and partners:
For the same period, seniority was broken down as follows:
(1) Senior managers are identified as the heads of operational departments, all being direct reports to the CEO, CFO/COO or Deputy COO.
We ensure there is a good gender mix of candidates in all recruitment, removing all-male recruitment processes, providing training to staff on diversity, reviewing our policies to remove unconscious bias and encourage diversity and offering flexible maternity, paternity and shared parental leave and flexible working policies to help support staff.
Liontrust tracks and analyses our gender pay gap (the percentage male employees overall are paid more than female employees), and it is more than the average for the financial services sector. Although the gender pay and bonus gaps between female and male employees could be expected to decline gradually as we continue to recruit and develop senior female talent across the business both the Board and senior management are seeking to transition the business more quickly.
As at 31 March 2023, Liontrust’s total of 241 staff was broken down as follows:
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
During 2021, Liontrust established the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Committee chaired by the COO/CFO (Vinay Abrol). The Committee provides feedback and recommendations to the Management Committees, Nomination Committee and the Board. The purpose of the Committee is to address the challenges and opportunities arising from the following topics:
- Preventing and eliminating discrimination, including unconscious bias
- Raising awareness of the importance and benefits of diversity enhancing our culture and innovation
- Ensuring policies and procedures promote diversity across the company
- Increasing awareness through training, mentoring and coaching
- Highlighting changes required to promote diversity
- Attracting people from diverse backgrounds to join Liontrust and the asset management industry in general
The Committee meets regularly to make progress across this important area. At the outset of the committee we partnered with GP Strategies (was PDT Global) to deliver the first Liontrust diversity audit. The recommendations and conclusions from this audit are influential in the Committee in developing its strategy.
To continually build on Liontrust’s inclusion, the Committee have organised all staff training sessions on:
- Allyship
- Understanding Autism
- Understanding Bias
- Microaggressions
In addition to the training mentioned above, course aimed at Heads of Department on Inclusion as a Strategic Driver, the objective of which was to consider how the leaders approach diversity and inclusion at a strategic level.
Partnerships
Liontrust works with both Investment 20/20 and The Diversity Project.
Investment 20/20 is a part of The Investment Association, and provides a high-quality route through to a career in investment management.
Liontrust first partnered with the Investment Association in 2019 for its Investment 20/20 Internship programme, which introduces young people to the asset management industry on a fixed term contract basis. The initiative helps interns to gain industry knowledge and experience and to develop relationships, enabling them to progress in their careers and providing them with skills to secure a permanent role. As part of the Investment 20/20 programme, trainees have opportunities to meet and network with over 200 of their peers across the industry and participate in social and insight events. Investment 20/20 also provides training on technical and soft skills.
During 2022 we hired 3 further trainees in support areas. Trainees receive hands-on support and training. They have established themselves well in their roles and are actively supporting and contributing to the performance of the teams. Liontrust is committed to supporting our graduates to study and gain qualifications as well as offering a range of personal and professional training opportunities during the placements.
The Diversity Project is a cross-company initiative championing a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive UK investment and savings industry.
Liontrust initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion
Liontrust has taken a number of actions to increase diversity and inclusion and to continue to raise awareness of the importance of building a workplace that fosters inclusion and equality for all. This includes:
Black History Month
For this year’s Black History Month, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee hosted Baroness Floella Benjamin, DBE as Keynote Speaker. In-line with the theme of BHM 2023, “Saluting Our Sisters”, Floella shared her own success story along with how her and other Black British women's achievements and contributions have impacted British society. There was a Q&A session where colleagues asked Floella questions.
Diversity and Inclusion Ambassadors
This year Liontrust introduced DE&I Ambassadors who will act as advocates of all aspects of DE&I across Liontrust, our approach to an inclusive culture, and be a sounding board for anyone within Liontrust for DE&I related topics. They are here to listen and give neutral support on issues.
International Women’s Day (IWD)
We are proud to celebrate International Women’s Day and the fantastic achievements of women across the world. At Liontrust we strive to achieve equality across our workforce and have taken steps to address under-representation of women in senior management. We will continue to work towards the goal of true gender equality in all we do.
Liontrust celebrated International Women’s Day on 8 March 2024 by acknowledging the excellence of all the women at the company. The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee arranged several events and activities over the month, including a networking event and a panel discussion featuring women from across the business to share their perspectives on this year’s theme – Inspire Inclusion. Staff were then given the opportunity to ask questions. Liontrust was also delighted to donate a piece of artwork named Bright Eyes by Mary Osinibi to Paintings in Hospitals, a charity that supports this principle. Their collection represents over 2,000 artists and they pride themselves on the diversity of their collection. Most of their collection is made up of works by women artists. Thanks to Paintings in Hospitals, Mary’s piece will be displayed in a new installation celebrating women and diversity in art at the University College Hospital, London.
Menopause Awareness
We're passionate about the wellbeing of our colleagues and that means talking about menopause openly. For this year’s Menopause Awareness Day, we held a webinar titled ‘Let’s talk about Menopause’ to break the stigma, raise awareness and highlight the support available.
PRIDE Month
Liontrust fosters a workplace culture where colleagues can be themselves and this involves everyone being accepting of all communities that we have at Liontrust. For this year’s PRIDE month, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee ran a coffee morning and bake off as well as a PRIDE themed film club meeting.
World Mental Health Day
For this year’s Mental Health Day, Liontrust highlighted the importance of self-care. Mental Health is often overlooked, and we believe that just like your physical health your mental health requires work in order for you to stay fit and healthy over the long term. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee planned a ’Coffee Connect’ event across all of our offices to take some time out, reflect on our own mental health and enjoy a coffee while connecting with colleagues.
