Sainty Hird & Partners announces official support for Progress Together

London, June 2024: Sainty Hird & Partners, the executive search and assessment firm, today announced that it has become a Supporter of Progress Together, the first membership body of its kind to focus on senior level, socio-economic diversity in the Financial Services sector.

Progress Together launched in 2022, the result of a Government Commissioned taskforce led by the City of London Corporation.

Through a series of workshops, resources, firm-to-firm mentoring and benchmarking, Progress Together helps its members to progress and retain a socio-economically diverse workforce. They focus on socio-economic diversity at senior levels, defined as Non-Executive Board, Executive Committee and two levels down.

In our role as a Supporter of the organisation, Sainty Hird & Partners will lend our voice to further Progress Together’s aims of socio-economic diversity through: participation in roundtables and webinars, advising Progress Together on executive search best-practice and utilising their resources to better support our clients from across the Financial Services spectrum as they seek to attract and retain a more diverse workforce.  

Speaking on this announcement, Tory Hyndman, Partner in the firm’s Wealth & Asset Management Practice, commented:

“There is not just a clear moral case for greater diversity in all its forms across Financial Services, but a strong business case too.

“We know that those organisations with more diverse workforces – in which all voices are heard and people from all backgrounds are championed – benefit from greater productivity, innovative and creative approaches to new challenges, and are better able to maximise their competitiveness.

“Consequently, we are proud to be working with Progress Together and look forward to helping them achieve their worthwhile ambitions – benefiting both the Financial Services sector and the wider community in the UK.”

Sophie Hulm, Progress Together’s CEO, said:

“By becoming a Progress Together Supporter, Sainty Hird demonstrates a commitment to improving socio-economic diversity at senior levels.

“Socio-economic diversity benefits individuals, businesses and the wider economy. Executive search firms have an important role to play in building a diverse and dynamic workforce in which talented people from all backgrounds can succeed.”

About Progress Together

Progress Together is a not-for-profit membership organisation working to improve socio-economic diversity at senior levels in UK financial services.

People from working class families are not being given opportunities for promotion within financial services.

Progress Together’s 2023 report, ‘Shaping our Economy’, revealed that socio-economic background has a greater impact on career progression than gender or ethnicity.

Progress Together is working with firms to create an environment in which all employees can succeed based on job performance, not the circumstances of their birth.