Gender equality

Gender equity continues to be a strong focus for our leadership. As a network, we’re dedicated to supporting change and focus our efforts on helping to guide and develop talented women at KPMG. We also use our community to voice and address key challenges and barriers, leading activity around topical issues such as hormone health, financial independence, trans-inclusive feminism and personal growth.
KPMG UK Women’s Employee Network (KNOW) chairs

Commitments and recognition

We’ve committed to having 40:40:20 representation at partner level by 2030. The target requires us to have a minimum of 40% female colleagues and 40% male colleagues in the relevant population. 20% is flexible and recognises the moving nature of our firm, while setting parameters for us to meet and stay within.

We signed up to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter in September 2017 – a commitment by HM Treasury and signatory firms to promote gender diversity and work together to build a more balanced and fair industry. We publish our progress annually and remain on track to meet our 2030 targets.

We’ve been recognised in the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality for 14 consecutive years (2011 – 2024).

We are a corporate co-sponsor of the FTSE Women Leaders Review (formally the Hampton-Alexander Review), the independent, business-led framework supported by the Government, which sets recommendations for Britain’s largest companies to improve the representation of women on Boards and Leadership teams.

Where we are now

Females firm-wide / 50% 1-Oct-24 spot count (1-Oct-23: 49%)

Female Executive Committee members / 44% Dec 24 (Jan 24: 44%)

Female Partners / 29% 1-Oct-24 spot count (1-Oct-23: 29%)

Female graduate and apprentice joiners / 51% FY24 (FY23: 53%)

These figures are based on the total headcount as at 1 Oct 2024.

Find out more about representation across our firm here. You can also find out about our 2024 Pay Gaps and how we’re addressing them here.

Our gender equity action plan

Accountable leaders We have been named in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women for 14 consecutive years. In 2024, our Group Chief Executive and UK Senior Partner, Jon Holt, and our Chief People Officer, Karl Edge were recognised in the HERoes Advocates list, while our former Head of Corporate Affairs, Rachel Hopcroft, was listed in the HERoes Top 100 Women Executives, and Maya Prentis and Jody Zhou were listed in the HERoes Top 100 Future Leaders.

We’ve set ourselves long-term targets to 2030, with the aim of increasing female representation at senior levels of our firm. 44% of our Executive Committee and 40% of our Board are female, and all three of our client-facing capabilities are led by women.

Our broader impact KPMG are proud co-sponsors of the FTSE Women Leaders Reviewopens in a new tab (formally the Hampton-Alexander Review), which is an independent, business-led framework supported by the Government, which sets recommendations for Britain’s largest companies to improve the representation of Women on Boards and in Leadership positions.

We're represented on groups including Women in Tech, Women of the Future, Council for Investing in Women Entrepreneurs, and Women on the Wharf. KPMG are also the Global Lead Sponsors of Women Corporate Directors, and we've signed up to HM Treasury's Women in Finance Charter.

We continue to support the Women of the Future Programme founded by Pinky Lilani CBE, sponsoring a category at the Women of the Future Awards and hosting and sponsoring their Kindness in Leadership Awards in 2023 and 2024.

Equitable experiences To help keep us accountable on this journey, we have refreshed our dedicated Gender Equity Plan which outlines our intended actions for the coming years, with interventions ranging from improving how we support parents and carers, through to new learning offerings and initiatives that empower our colleagues to work in an agile way.

We analyse data around promotions and progression to make sure they’re proportionate. Nearly half (48%) of all our promotions across the business this year were female, and our Progression Reportopens in a new tab showed a +2% point gap in average progression rate for women in the firm. We’ve also put processes in place to challenge the business, and we ensure our policies reflect current trends in relation to topics such as menopause, agile working, and women’s representation in leadership.

In areas that have historically lacked women’s representation, such as Deal Advisory and Technology, we run specific Insight Programmes and initiatives such as our award-winning IT’s Her Future programme. And to support progression of women in the firm, we have several dedicated initiatives including our new personal development programmes, Inspire and Elevate, which have been designed to support the career progression of colleagues from Assistant Manager to Director across our entire business.

From a recruitment perspective, we also aim for a gender balance across our graduate and apprentice intake, which we achieved with 51% females in our 2024 cohorts. One of the ways we support this aim is to ensure our interviewer and assessor pool is gender-balanced, whenever possible.

Our external recruitment efforts are supported by dedicated gender-focused partnerships with organisations such as STEM Women, IT's Not Just for the Boys, and Women in the City Afro-Caribbean Network. We also have dedicated university events, society sponsorships and course targeting that are gender-focused too.

Inclusive environment In 2024 we refreshed our IDE mandatory training and launched a new mandatory module on preventing sexual harassment, highlighting the important role we can all play as active bystanders. We have also developed targeted training on domestic abuse, establishing three cohorts of Safety Champions to support colleagues that may be impacted by, or experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

KPMG's Network of Women (KNOW) also provides invaluable support, helping to celebrate and promote gender balance, and provide opportunities for colleagues to share experiences and seek guidance on professional development.

We’re doing more to build an inclusive and supportive culture for women, as well as empowering our people to drive change in our business. To further improve women’s wellbeing in the workplace we introduced free menstrual products across our UK offices, following an initiative driven by some of our colleagues.

We also offer coaching and resources to support parents before and after returning to work, and throughout their child's life. We also offer enhanced pay for those taking shared parental leave and time off for parents undertaking fertility treatment, or adopting via surrogacy.

Getting to ‘KNOW’ KPMG’s Network of Women

KPMG's Network of Women (KNOW) was created to provide support to colleagues across the firm, helping to celebrate and promote gender balance and provide opportunities for colleagues to share experiences and seek guidance on professional development.

As the network has evolved and grown, the impact they’re able to have has too. Sarah Dal Pozzo, co-chair of the network explains “KNOW plays a really important part in driving progress within the business. We work closely with our Inclusion, Diversity and Equity team and our leadership to help shape how we address gender related barriers”.

A key part of the network’s strategy is to educate and engage, whether that be leadership, allies, or colleagues more broadly across the business. Sarah explains “We recognise the huge role intersectionality plays in people’s individual experiences, so more and more we’re working with the other employee networks across KPMG to tackle issues and have conversations that are tailored to different minority characteristics. For instance, partnering with our LGBTQ+ network, Breathe, for an event specifically discussing trans-inclusive feminism.”

With targets in place to reach gender parity by 2030 and a dedicated Gender Equity Plan, KPMG are ensuring gender equity remains high on the agenda. “It’s great that we have ambitious targets and that the business recognises there is still more we need to do” says Sarah. “As a network, we’re always listening and learning to ensure we’re focussing our effort in the right areas. For instance, hormone-related support in the workplace has become more prominent and is something we now address, through regular menopause support groups and broader educational sessions. We’re also keen to get more allies on board – for us this about gender equity, not just women”.

IT’s Her Future: Encouraging Women into Tech

IT’s Her Future is KPMG’s award-winning flagship women in technology programme. Originally founded back in 2015 as an action group, it aims to tackle gender diversity in technology departments and improve the gender parity in senior leadership roles.

We support our women at every stage of their career by providing technical and soft-skills based learning, mentoring, networking and community led opportunities, instilling confidence to allow them to be architects of change in technology. We also work with schools, universities, external organisations and clients to address the lack of inclusion and diversity in technology from school through to industry.

Achievements to date and what’s next?

IT’s Her Future has enabled significant changes in the attraction, recruitment, and engagement of women in technology, achieving a 50:50 gender split at graduate level. We’re now focusing on retention and progression of our female technology talent to increase the representation of women in senior leadership positions at KPMG.

Recognised as best company and employer network at the TechWomen100 awards 2024
Awarded Best Mentoring Programme at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2024
41% representation of women across all KPMG technology departments in 2023.

Inspiring and Mentoring Future Generations

Our Junior’s programme focuses on expanding tech opportunities for new generations of women. Over 200 girls in over 30 schools and colleges across the UK have benefited from this important outreach activity, gaining insights into the varied world of technology and the extensive range of careers available.

Recruiting Female Talent

Since inception of the programme we have removed STEM degree requirements and implemented the use of gender inclusive language in job descriptions, which has resulted in a steady increase in the number of female job offers accepted - from 36% to 74% and an increase in the number of females in tech roles at KPMG - from 26% to 40%.

Supporting and Progressing Female Talent

Our internal mentoring programme has over 600 mentees and mentors participating, and its benefits are regularly cited in the promotions process, with 40% of promotions being awarded to women in tech in 2023.

KPMG’s Menstruation and Menopause Policy

At KPMG, our aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where our people truly feel the menopause is not an issue that needs to be hidden and can talk about it openly without hesitancy or fear of embarrassment.

Menstruation and the menopause can impact a person’s personal and working life. We want all our people to feel supported to thrive with us, and confident in asking for help when they need it. We also want our leaders and managers to fully understand the symptoms and impacts of menstruation and the menopause, and to feel confident in supporting colleagues. That’s why we’re proud to have introduced KPMG’s Menstruation and Menopause Policy,” says Virginia Smith, Head of Culture, Engagement and Wellbeing.

In 2022, KPMG launched a new Menopause policy, which sets out the support available for colleagues before, during and after the menopause. Since then, in 2024 KPMG refreshed this policy to also cover menstruation and the support available. As part of this policy, all colleagues have access to the Bupa Menopause Plan, which provides staff with a 45-minute consultation with a menopause trained GP, personalised care plan and subsequent follow up appointment in addition to 24/7 access to a menopause trained nurse. We’ve already had over 240 colleagues use our dedicated menopause support service, and we have also established a Menopause Ambassador network and host monthly Menopause Cafes to provide an opportunity for peer support. In addition to this, colleagues have access to free period products and desk fans in all KPMG offices, a remote GP service, options for agile working and access to the employee assistance programme.

Virginia adds, “We recognise menstruation and menopause as a workplace issue and are taking a number of steps to address it and provide the necessary support for our colleagues. Annually, as part of World Menopause Day, we work with the KPMG Network of Women to hold events to highlight the importance of talking about menopause in the workplace, to share experiences, to raise awareness of the associated challenges, and to share lifestyle changes we can make to have a more positive menopause experience at whatever stage of life we are.”

Our internal wellbeing page on women’s health sets out information about menstruation and menopause, early menopause, common myths explained and how we, as an organisation, can help. We have also set up Line Manager Menopause training to further support our colleagues. This includes a comprehensive guide to support with conversations both inside and outside the workplace, as well as CIPD guidance for line managers to support Performance Managers, Engagement Managers or line managers in their conversations and responses.

Evolving for equity: Taking an intersectional approach to gender equality

As individuals, our identities, backgrounds and circumstances are multi-faceted. To be effective in championing inclusion, we must therefore tackle it in a way that recognises these differences.

“At KPMG, intersectionality is embedded at the heart of our inclusion, diversity and equity strategy – this essentially means that we actively look to reflect the different experiences of all women in our approach, which can include everything from differences in age, background, circumstances and beliefs” says Megan Murray-Smith, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Senior Manager leading on Gender Equity.

Investing time in listening to colleagues and using data and insight can help inform what today’s workforce of women need from organisations.

“Our approach as a firm is constantly evolving. We respond to what our colleagues and data tells us, but sometimes, it’s also influenced by changes in attitude in wider society, key events or topics just becoming more openly discussed in the public space” adds Megan.

Some great examples of how we’re putting intersectional insight into practice include our focus on supporting colleagues experiencing menopause; updated policies, systems and training that are more inclusive for trans women; and a renewed attention on women’s safety, including an update to our Domestic Violence policy and training for managers.

“Reaching gender equity is not going to be a linear path, but we’ll continue to take the time to listen to our colleagues' lived experiences, to help us get it right” says Megan.

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Gender

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Where we are now

Our gender equity action plan

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