As most of you will know, until recently Magenta had been an all-female work force. Whilst for those of you who have been clients a long time, this is just something you are used to – this certainly bucks the trend in the wider Financial Service Profession, especially for the senior roles in practice. We work in a profession where female advisers are outnumbered by anything between 10:1 to 6:1 and only around 20% of senior roles are filled by women.
You may remember Magenta signed the Women In Finance Charter 3 years ago and we’re dedicated to keeping our pledge and will focus on continuing to develop our business in line the Charter’s goals.
Despite campaigns and calls to action like the Women In Finance Charter, diversity and inclusion continues to be a massive issue in our profession and even our regulator the FCA has recognised that better diversity and inclusion can underpin healthier cultures in professional firms – and that in turn, this leads to better outcome for clients.
Whilst the pandemic has led to an increase in people seeking financial advice, according to MetLife UK, still only a quarter of UK adults seek out a financial planner. At Magenta we believe that to encourage more people to seek financial advice and get to grips with their finances, we need better representation of all sorts of people. Diversity has many dimensions. People with different life experiences bring new thinking, and their experiences inspire new approaches to problem solving and decision-making.
This year we’ve been shortlisted for several awards in the Diversity and Inclusion space. This is primarily in connection to our work internally over the past 5 years to develop more women into financial planning roles, but also due to the launch of a podcast this year called Financial Changemakers, which is hosted by Gretchen. This podcast is aimed at those who are interested in learning more about diversity and inclusion and are keen to embrace and make positive change in their life, business, management style or company ethos. It’s all about being open to addressing issues we have, trying to be less fragile and defensive in our reactions when challenged, and thinking about language, culture and privilege.
The podcast highlights that greater diversity must be reinforced by ensuring any business is also a safe space with an inclusive approach to diverse views, enabling both client’s and employees to feel safe and supported – no matter their background, gender, sexuality, age, health.
An inclusive culture, where diverse views are listened to, will increase a better understanding of the diverse needs of people – ultimately our future clients – across society.
It’s clear that to remain relevant and attract more people to seek financial advice, the Financial Services profession needs to strive to be more diverse and inclusive and Magenta is very proud to be a leader in this.
You can listen to series 1 of the Financial Changemakers podcast HERE or this is available on all main streaming networks. Series 2 will follow in the New Year.
We will keep you posted about the awards!