Halma : recognised for championing gender diversity in the workplace

21 January 2021

We are pleased to announce that Halma has come in 8th out of 668 European companies in the 2020 European Women on Boards Gender Equality Awards. This recognition highlights Halma's progress to improve gender diversity in our Boards and senior leadership.

The awards recognise leading global businesses who are driving change for gender diversity in the workplace and empowering gender equality in decision making. The list is run by an international non-profit organisation using a weighted Gender Diversity Index, which measures individual companies' performance looking at 10 comparative criteria.

Since 2014 Halma set out on the path towards improving the diversity and gender balance of its Executive Team, which at that time had no women represented. Today the Executive Team includes five women, making up 63% of the team, and from 1 April this year this will rise to seven women, making up 78% of the Executive Team. In addition, the gender balance among Halma's Divisional Chief Executives (DCE), who run our portfolio of companies and lead our acquisitions, has also improved considerably with women making up 44% of DCE roles. Halma has also set targets for all its 45+ company boards to be within a 40-60% gender balanced range.

Halma has been an active member of the 30% Club since 2017, a membership organisation which campaigns for at least 30% of board seats to be held by women. In addition, three Halma executives were recognised last year by the Financial Times as part of its Women in Engineering Awards. Halma was one of only two companies represented more than once in the list, which acknowledges the top 100 most influential women in our industry.

To help drive lasting change and combat bias in the workplace, Halma has recently launched a new diversity and inclusion microlearning programme across all businesses.

Commenting on the recognition, Halma's Group Talent & Communications Director, Jennifer Ward, said:
'Our talent is what drives our success, and it is critical that not only women but people of all backgrounds and perspectives are represented for us to be able to achieve our purpose. We know there is more work to do and are proud to join others in advancing the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion agenda and supporting a fairer future for all.'