Environmental, Social & Governance Programme

Offices, communities, countries, regions – everywhere that we call home, you will find us working hard to be positive and impactful citizens, colleagues and neighbours.

A professional person is having a conversation regarding the environment with a blurred tree background.

Corporate responsibility

Our impact on the environments in which we operate goes far beyond delivering services. Our commitments, obligations, and responsibilities to colleagues, clients and to society are an important part of what makes us who we are.

Every commercial decision we take always includes Environmental, Social and Governance considerations, and all of the choices we make around supply chains, recruitment, reward and our internal structures and processes are impacted by our perspective on ESG.

We know that to keep on making financial services work for our clients we need to invest in our workplaces and the wider community. Doing this increases retention, creates a more innovative and open culture, and fosters the flexibility our people need to reach their full potential.

Diversity, equity & inclusion

As a firm we have a clear and single-minded focus on supporting our clients and helping to make financial services work. Doing this well demands a broad range of skills and experiences and a willingness to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). We are on a bold, ambitious journey to being a leader in DEI, for both our people and our clients. We know that the best way to deliver excellence is to embrace DEI, and that aligning the interests of our business with the interests of our people is the key to this.

Diversity is the beating heart of our firm, and it is our approach to equity that helps to ensure that people from all backgrounds and walks of life have the opportunity to join our team. We have over 80 volunteers across our eight DEI committees.

Gender split is almost 50:50 in our senior management team, and across the firm we are working hard to ensure that women and men enjoy the same opportunities. We are proud of the gender balance at Walkers, and to help encourage and maintain it we support a number of initiatives, not least of which is Women of Walkers, our own staff-led employee network for women and their allies to connect, share experiences, and support each other in their personal and professional development.

Our global team represents 50+ nationalities bringing a broad mix of talent and experience to our team. We are proud of the diversity we have achieved and are focused on supporting and developing the rich talent we need to make this a permanent reality. Events and initiatives are an important part of our approach, but encouraging knowledge, understanding, and everyday acceptance across the Walkers’ world puts the onus on every one of us to make this happen.

Learning & education

We proactively share expertise, innovation and best practice across our global network. Not just technical know-how – we also share the soft skills needed to thrive in the modern workplace.

Support

We offer support, networking and mentoring programmes to help our colleagues to succeed. Sometimes this is through structured initiatives, often it just comes as second nature in our working lives.

Working with clients

We want all of our people to have the opportunity to demonstrate their value to clients. One of our key strengths is the amount of responsibility and client contact our people have at every step of their careers.

Listening

We believe that leadership is a trait, not a role, and we actively encourage feedback, ideas and discussion that helps us develop.

Recognition & reward

We take a transparent and open approach with a focus on added value to our business, clients, and colleagues.

Community

Here at Walkers, we are deeply committed to playing a long-term role in every location in which we operate, and to forming lasting partnerships in our communities.

We pride ourselves on our local knowledge and rely on the insight of team members and colleagues who best understand how we can make a positive difference in our communities. With their help we are able to sponsor, donate to, and volunteer with more than 50 charities and non-profit organisations around the world every year.

On a table, a blue toy iguana is holding a medal celebrating 21 years of Walkers' support.

For 20 years Walkers has supported the National Trust’s Blue Iguana Recovery and Conservation programme and helps raise awareness of Cayman’s endemic reptile.

A woman is delivering a powerful speech to a diverse audience about the law of society.

As part of its key priority of promoting equal access to legal opportunities, Walkers has been a sponsor of Trinity College Dublin Law Society's Outreach Programme since February 2022. Trinity runs the programme with designated disadvantaged secondary school students across Ireland with the goal of breaking down the barriers to careers in law for young people from all backgrounds.

A woman is planting colourful flowers in an office area of Walkers for environmental and social awareness.

In Dubai we team up with students from the SNF Centre for International Day of Disabled Persons. The SNF Group is a specialised learning development and training facility in Dubai that provides individualised training programs and support to young adults with special needs. Walkers volunteers joined the students at the centre for an interactive and fun morning of gardening. We subsequently hosted a Christmas pop up on 11 December 2023 where the students from the centre sold their handicrafts and all of the proceeds went directly to the centre. It was great to reconnect with the students again and we are already looking forward to next year!