Life at Odgers Berndtson
Recruitment
Who we hire defines who we are. We are acting now to improve diverse representation within our business so that we may truly reflect the societies in which we operate. Ensuring that we have industry-leading systems and processes to find and attract the best talent, irrespective of background, is critical to our future success.
We continue to evaluate and refine our internal recruitment process and conduct a yearly review to ensure we are in line with current legislation and at the forefront of DE&I initiatives and learnings. We pride ourselves on running transparent interview processes with clear honest communication and feedback at the heart of what we do.
We use psychometric and skills-based assessments alongside competency-based interviews to remove bias. Adjustments are provided where necessary to ensure we do not discriminate against those who may be adversely affected by this style of assessment. We offer a range of inclusive interview formats utilising technology.
The Talent team attended interviewing and onboarding skills training with Leonard Cheshire, specifically for individuals with a disability neurodiversity or long term health condition, to ensure we are removing barriers and giving each candidate an equitable chance at success.
We partner with the following organisations to help us grow diverse talent:
- Ivee jobs
- Change100
- 10000blackinterns
- Crankstart foundation
- 93% Club
Diverse representation among new hires
We monitor the diversity of all our new joiners to ensure we are actively pursuing diverse talent through our partnership and active sourcing and relationship building.
Ways of working
Our commitment to being an inclusive and diverse workplace is supported by the work of our many Allies Groups.
We are proud to supporting women’s health across our business with our Menopause Allies Group/Ambassadors, our Menopause Policy and Passport, introduced in 2023. We recognise that symptoms can greatly affect an employee’s comfort and performance at work and are committed to ensuring that adjustments and additional support is available to those experiencing symptoms.
Additionally, our Working Parents & Carers Allies Group was introduced which aims to support and help colleagues who are balancing work and parenting/caring responsibilities.
Our enhanced family friendly policies, aim to support employees through significant life-changing journeys. We also understand the need for sensitivity and compassion in other situations, such as pregnancy loss and fertility difficulties, and have introduced policies which aim to acknowledge the emotional and physical toll of such situations and provide support and flexibility during challenging times.
We continue to recognise the value of flexible working, highlighted by our hybrid working and flexi-time policy. Since September 2021, we have embedded hybrid working arrangements. These arrangements have served us well. They are based on the principles of empowerment, mutual trust and flexibility, recognising that we work best when we make choices about when, where and how we work.
We are a client-service business in which our relationships and our culture provide a significant advantage. Our offices remain critical to how we work; they are a place for collaboration, learning, support and an anchor for the culture of which we are so proud. This is why we seek to get the balance right between self and team, today’s needs and being better for tomorrow, as well as providing an environment that is both supportive and empowering across the diversity of our people.
Hybrid work requires addressing unconscious biases, fostering open communication, trust, and flexibility, and creating effective work cultures. We will continue to evaluate hybrid working recognising the positive impacts on DE&I, on employee experience and indeed productivity.
Our approach centres on ‘empowered two-way flexibility’. We provide more freedom to work in a way that works best for you. We also ask you to meet the needs of colleagues and teams, the wider firm and our clients. It is part of everyone’s role to be there for each other, to share support, ideas and learning.
Odgers Berndtson continues to be accredited as a Living Wage Employer. Our Living Wage commitment sees everyone working at the Company receive above the minimum real Living Wage, significantly higher than the government minimums.
The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 460,000 people and put £3 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers. We recognise that voluntarily committing to pay the real Living Wage is the mark of a responsible employer, to make sure all staff earn enough to live on, and we believe that all employees deserve a fair day’s pay.
L&D
We work to ensure that learning and development opportunities are accessible for all. Building on what we have learnt during the pandemic, we are experimenting with ways to increase the number of virtual learning opportunities available, to foster an inclusive learning culture. Continuing our commitment to empower individuals across the organisation with the knowledge and skills required to confidently engage with and drive DE&I conversations and activities, we have delivered an expansive, bespoke DE&I learning programme across the organisation. This programme is ongoing for all new joiners. Our DE&I programme of learning consists of 4 modules:
- E-Learning – completed by all. The aim of this module is to explore terminology and themes across the programme.
- Foundation Module – attended by everyone. In this module we focus on DE&I within the organisation.
- Inclusive Search Module – attended by Researchers, Associates, Consultants, Principals and Partners. During this workshop attendees examine search processes to ensure our processes are fully inclusive.
- Trusted Advisor Module – attended by Associates, Consultants, Principals and Partners. In the final module attendees focus on becoming trusted advisors in DE&I for our clients.
Our 2022/2023 programme amounted to 61 sessions and 183 hours of training in total. On average, over 93% of attendees rated their experience as either good or excellent.
We have also have mentoring & buddying schemes, which are available to all employees.
We are also pleased to partnerwith YuLife, as part of our commitment to your health and wellbeing. YuLife is a wellbeing app that rewards you for daily healthy activities. With the YuLife app, it can build new habits like walking, cycling, and meditating while earning vouchers from brands like Amazon, Aldi, M&S, Argos, and Nike. Rewards can be turned into charity donations for Earthly, Share the Meal, charity: water, and more.
We’re also participating in a research study with YuLife, who are working with the University of Essex and Innovate UK, to explore the impact of gamification on employee wellbeing, change intervention and insurance risk. This study in 2024/2025 will give us:
- Greater insight into our current health and wellbeing as a business, and potentially deliver health benefits for our teams
- Insight that will help us improve how we support your health and wellbeing going forward
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