Inclusion and Diversity Policy 1
Purpose
Inclusion and Diversity are an integral part of Mercury’s culture. We believe that having a team of individuals with different backgrounds, views, experience and capability working together makes us stronger and better as an organisation. We are committed to recruiting and retaining people who care about each other, our customers and our stakeholders and have a broad range of skills, experiences and frames of reference to drive innovation, deliver improved financial performance and to help us to achieve our ambition. When we talk about Inclusion at Mercury we are referring to our focus on removing any perceived or tangible barriers to becoming a part of our business, being treated fairly and respectfully and having equal access. We seek to make it easier for our people to have a voice and use the variety of thinking styles, backgrounds and capabilities that they have. When we talk about Diversity at Mercury we are referring to being composed of the elements that make people similar or different from one another, including: background, views, experiences, capabilities, values, beliefs, physical differences, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, thinking styles, preferences and behaviours.
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Our Principles
Our progressive approach to inclusion and diversity focuses on gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, inclusion and flexibility. The activity we undertake across these areas of focus is aligned to the following principles:
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pursue diversity of our workforce at all levels, creating a flexible and inclusive work environment that values difference and enhances business outcomes, harnessing diversity of thought and capitalising on individual differences, leadership behaviours that reflect our belief in the value of inclusion and diversity, and retaining and attracting a talented workforce through increasing the diversity of the candidate pool and maintaining a recruitment strategy that is attractive to all candidates.
Practical Application
This approach will be practically achieved across our business by:
providing training and education that raises employee awareness of inclusion and diversity and associated benefits ensuring our recruitment and selection, development and talent management approaches enable inclusion and diversity at all levels, enhancing processes and policies to encourage greater flexibility and diversity, embedding inclusion and diversity in our culture through engaging internal communications and events, regularly tracking progress against targets, engaging with educational institutions to promote and encourage wide talent pools for the industry.
In addition to the proactive actions we undertake we also support an inclusive and diverse workplace through not permitting or condoning any harassment, discrimination or victimisation.
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Review and Measurement
Under the Board Charter the Board is responsible for:
ensuring that, as a collective group, it has the skills, experience, knowledge, diversity and perspective to fulfil its purpose and responsibilities,
Inclusion and Diversity Policy | Reviewed by Board of Directors | 7 December 2020 | Page 1 of 2
ensuring that succession and development plans are in place for the Chief Executive and Executive Management Team to ensure the right mix of skills, experience, knowledge, diversity and perspective for the future, and promoting a corporate culture which embraces inclusion and diversity.
Under this policy the Board is also responsible for establishing measurable objectives for assessing our performance against this policy. Alongside this policy, these measurable objectives are contained in a document that is available on our website. The GM People and Performance will lead the implementation of this policy through programmes that encourage inclusion and diversity and will provide regular reports to the People and Performance Committee on how we are performing. Each year the Company will:
review the effectiveness and relevance of this policy; look at inclusion and diversity metrics across all levels of the organisation to identify areas for improvement; provide a summary of inclusion and diversity related programmes undertaken and planned; and provide an evaluation of the Company’s performance with respect to this policy, including the progress towards achieving the measurable objectives.
The Board will review this policy as required but at least every two years.
Inclusion and Diversity Policy | Reviewed by Board of Directors | 7 December 2020 | Page 2 of 2