Fidelity International employees make year-long pledge to support gender equality

 June 25, 2019

Encouraging people to make a commitment to gender equality is a great way to make progress towards a #BalanceforBetter.

This is exactly what Fidelity International did to mark International Women's Day. Inspired by a similar exercise run by Fidelity's internal Wellness committee, the company organized a Pledge Wall to get employees to write a year-long pledge that would help encourage a more gender balanced world. Fidelity felt that this was an excellent opportunity for everyone to take some time to think about the benefits that greater gender balance in the workforce brings to its work, teams and lives.

Fidelity communicated the initiative to employees across the world through different channels, and by the end of the week the wall was full of pledges.

Discussion sessions with Fidelity CEO Anne Richards

Alongside the Pledge Wall, Fidelity organized various activities focused around its new CEO, Anne Richards, that allowed employees to speak about gender equality issues with a global leader and demonstrated senior commitment to achieving a greater gender balance.

One of these events, organised by Fidelity for Everyone, the employee-led Diversity and Inclusion network, was a webcast conversation between CEO, Anne Richards and Hannily Pavey, Head of Corporate Communications in Europe, on the topic of #BalanceForBetter.

This was an interactive Q&A session connecting colleagues worldwide and the webcast was also made available online to all employees around the globe.  A variety of topics were covered during the discussion including;  diversity in the financial services industry, building diverse workplaces and Anne’s leadership journey. Fidelity also held a more informal afternoon tea session with Anne. This session offered a more intimate conversation with its new CEO and Fidelity employees got to the chance to have an in-depth conversation about equality in the workplace and how Anne has responded to  both challenges and opportunities throughout her career.

Talking with leaders about gender equality

The feedback from these sessions highlighted that the knowledge employees gained from to speaking leaders on topics of gender equality was invaluable.

Employees also found it very insightful to hear personal stories from Fidelity leaders and felt the welcoming and inclusive environment lead to more engaging conversations.

Fidelity also encouraged employees around the world to share images on internal social media doing the #BalanceForBetter scales pose. 

The company also shared a video to support their commitment to women's equality.

Forging a lasting impact

Encouraging people at all levels of the company to make a pledge towards gender equality proved an important and innovative way for Fidelity to make a long-lasting impact.