We are committed to developing our people and creating a culture where everyone, regardless of gender or background, has the opportunity to succeed.

In 2017 we launched our Women's Empowerment Programme which aims to create a flexible and supportive environment, ultimately enabling more women to reach leadership positions.

It is widely recognised that a more diverse leadership team is good for business. We want to better represent our people and our clients, believing that smart decisions today will create lasting value for our Crowe team and their clients tomorrow.

Women in Finance Charter

In March 2019 we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter as a commitment to improve gender diversity among or people. At Crowe we are actively working to have a balance of 30% women at partnership level by 31 March 2027.

When we signed up to the Charter, we had 24% female representation and our target was 30% by March 2024. As of September 2023 we have 21% female representation in senior management, so we have revisited our target, bearing in mind our future growth plans and our current female pipeline. We feel that the extension to the deadline is achievable.

While our representation has fallen, we believe this is reflective of the impact of COVID-19 and recruitment challenges within our sector. Our business has achieved significant growth over the last two to three years which has meant the partner team has grown quickly, resulting in our female representation reducing. We believe that this is because our current pipeline of emerging female leaders needed more time to develop and female external hires were not on the market or keen to move in the current economic climate.

We remain focussed on continuous improvement and the implementation of new practices and approaches to help us reach our target, including:

• work with our recruitment team to help implement policies that are aligned with the needs and requirements of women to encourage more gender balanced recruitment
• review our talent pipeline and ensure key women have support, training and sponsorship
• develop our return to work programme
• provide health and well-being support for women specifically around menopause, baby loss, body confidence and other female health issues
• implement strategic messaging for partners, champions and the wider firm from ambassadors, including regular ED&I discussion groups.

This will be under detailed and continuous review over the course of the next 12 months.