Severn Trent and Pennon recognised for gender equality

Pennon Group and Severn Trent have been recognised as leading companies for gender equality in Bloomberg’s annual index.

The index tracks the financial performance of public companies that have shown a commitment to gender equality through policy development, representation and transparency.

It measures female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies, as well as companies’ pro-women brand.

The index recognises 325 companies across 50 industries and 42 countries and regions each year and was opened up to 6,000 companies across 84 regions this year.

South West Water’s parent company Pennon Group’s chief financial officer Susan Davy said: “As a group which operates in traditionally non-diverse sectors, we are well aware of the impact our own practices may have in relation to gender equality, as well as broader issues of race and ethnicity, within industry. In recent years we have taken a wide range of steps to better understand and improve gender equality and diversity in our workplaces – from revising our policies and improving our reporting through to renewing our focus on gender equality within recruitment and employee development, acknowledging that this will help us attract and retain the best talent.”

Liv Garfield, Severn Trent chief executive said: “It’s wonderful news that we’ve been included in what is a worldwide index that looks at thousands of companies. The fact that we’ve been named as one of the top companies just shows our commitment to gender equality which is all part of our move to becoming a more socially purposeful company.”

Bloomberg said the companies included in the index have shown their commitment to transparency and demonstrated leadership in gender-related data reporting.

Peter T. Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg, said: “Disclosure of company statistics and practices is an important first step in supporting gender equality globally.”