EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Cranswick recognises the potential benefits of bringing together a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences and is pursuing the development of a diverse workforce that is representative of all sections of society. Our Group Diversity Policy requires that all appointments, including recruitments and internal promotions, are based on merit, qualification and abilities, and are not influenced or affected by race, colour, nationality, religion or belief, gender, marital status or civil partnership, family status, pregnancy or maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability or age. The policy applies at all levels across the Group, including the Board and its Committees.
The gender breakdown of the Group’s workforce is set out below. Having improved significantly over recent years, the proportion of females overall, in management, graduate and apprentice positions remained largely static over the last 12 months.
The Food and Agriculture Sector has historically had low levels of female participation in management. Whilst we have been actively taking steps to promote greater gender diversity including through our recruitment and our graduate programme (where 40 per cent of recruits are female), this represents a longer-term approach which will result in improvement over time as careers develop and our colleagues move into more senior management positions. We have also explained on page 57 of the Strategic Report various further measures we are undertaking to encourage diversity, which apply across the Group at all levels, including senior
management.
Details of Board and executive management diversity are set out at the end of this report in accordance with new Listing Rule requirement. The Listing Rules now also require that companies explain where they do not meet the following targets:
- At least 40 per cent of the Board are women.
- At least one senior Board position (Chair, Chief Executive, Senior Independent Director, Chief Financial Officer) is a woman.
- At least one Board member is from an ethnic minority background.
Cranswick does not meet the target relating to women on the Board (where 33 per cent of the Board are women) or that at least one senior board position is occupied by a woman. Whilst we have made significant progress over recent years in relation to diversity with the appointment of women to the Board and other senior positions across the Group, we recognise that there is more to achieve. As indicated above, on Mark Reckitt’s retirement at the AGM, Liz Barber will be appointed as Senior Independent Director following which the Company will also have a senior Board position is occupied by a woman.
The Nomination Committee considers that diversity can strengthen the Board and that it is important that the Board is not made up exclusively of like-minded individuals with similar backgrounds. Whilst management appointments will continue to be made on the basis of merit, without the adoption of specific diversity targets, the Group recognises the potential benefits of a more diverse management and has a policy of increasing diversity at all levels. The Board remains mindful of the need to promote wider forms of diversity when considering future appointments to the Board and Senior Management.
Successful delivery of the Group’s strategy and planned growth depends on the recruitment and retention of a motivated and skilled workforce in an increasingly competitive and mobile labour market. The Board recognises that broadening diversity to ensure that our workforce is more reflective of society maximises our available talent pool and the attractiveness of a career with the Group both at a senior level and more generally.
Our Gender Pay Gap report's can be found below:
