Strengthening Our investment Escalation Message from Key highlights our stewardship Our progress Our purpose approach and Our approach and exercising Our aspirations for 13 Pension Protection Fund Responsible Investment Report 2022/23 our Chair of the year commitment at a glance and governance incorporating ESG to engagement shareholder rights the coming year Appendices OUR PURPOSE AND GOVERNANCE CONTINUED Our commitment to industry-leading diversity Creating an inclusive workplace remains our utmost • We went beyond statutory requirements to report Next steps: priority so that every employee at the PPF feels valued on our disability and long-term health condition • To meet the goals set out in our Diversity and and respected: pay gap for the 昀椀rst time. As a Disability Con昀椀dent 85% Inclusion Strategy, we will strive to broaden Leader, we have seen an increase in applicants representation across the PPF through our • With a year-on-year increase of employees from an disclosing disability or a health condition during of PPF employees say that the PPF is a diverse mentoring, internal development programmes ethnic minority background from 23.7 per cent in 2021 the recruitment process. employer that supports inclusion and award-winning apprenticeship schemes. to 26.1 per cent in 2022, we have made progress towards • We prioritise understanding and openness about our target to increase ethnic minority representation • We will continue working to support change in our across the PPF to 30 per cent by December 2023. mental health issues at the PPF. In addition to mental sector through the Diversity Project, an initiative that health 昀椀rst aiders across the organisation, we equip champions a more inclusive culture in the UK savings • Our employee-led Race Action Group’s reverse our line managers with necessary skills to encourage I believe that the PPF is fully and investment industry. mentoring initiative enables employees – often senior honest dialogue with their team members through leaders – to be mentored by colleagues from an ethnic our mental health training. committed to diversity and • Our focus will remain on creating a pipeline of talents minority background to build their awareness of the from ethnic backgrounds as well as from the local challenges faced by ethnic minority employees. • In partnership with Investment20/20, we encourage inclusion, and I am con昀椀dent communities in which we operate. talented young professionals from all backgrounds to • Throughout the year, we will review our current • We o昀昀er 昀氀exible working options, including hybrid and join the investment industry. that will stay the case. 昀氀exible working hours, promote a menopause-friendly initiatives and support for mental health at the organisation and encourage male allyship. PPF. This will include assessing potential corporate mental health benchmarks and having appropriate PPF member policies and processes in place to support employees’ mental well-being. Taking action Supporting asset manager diversity As part of our Sustainability Strategy, we aim to encourage greater diversity across the pensions industry by in昀氀uencing the organisations we partner and engage with. We also note a growing focus on diversity challenges by external bodies including the FCA and the DWP. This year, for the second year running, we asked D&I related questions as part of our external asset manager operational due diligence process. We are using the responses to these questions (which are the same questions asked in our in-house manager selection and appointment process) to monitor their year-on-year progress on D&I. Now that we have two years of data, we have begun incorporating the 昀椀ndings into our asset manager assessments. We are not considering setting speci昀椀c targets for asset managers at this stage, but we recognise that there needs to be much further progression on diversity throughout the asset management industry.