• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Tuesday May 24 2022
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Burges Salmon named one of The Times Top 50 Employers for Women for second year running

Bristol-based law firm Burges Salmon has been named as one of The Times Top 50 Employers for Women for the second year running, after a rigorous independent assessment of the firm’s approach to gender balance in the workplace.

The Times Top 50 Employers for Women is the UK’s most highly profiled and well-established listing of employers striving for gender equality in the workplace.

For more than a decade, the process has identified companies that make gender equality part of their business strategy and are trying to bring it to life at all levels of the organisation.

Run by Business in the Community (BITC) – the business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business founded by HRH The Prince of Wales – the list assesses applicants on a range of areas, including their approach to recruitment, family-friendly policies and how they have championed gender equality in the context of the pandemic.

The list is published as a special supplement in The Times’ newspaper and on its website.

The accolade reflects the work being delivered by the firm’s gender taskforce and its people-led network for gender balance, BBalanced.

The firm’s gender action plan was developed to directly respond to the challenges and gaps identified through research and the Taskforce have responsibility to drive forward the action plan and report to the board.

Chris Seaton, senior partner at Burges Salmon and chair of the firm’s gender taskforce, said: “To receive this recognition for the second year running in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women is a significant achievement for the firm.

“Diversity and inclusion are of paramount importance to our firm-wide strategy and in 2020 we established our gender action plan which was developed following consultation with our people and is being driven by our senior leadership team.

“This underpins our commitment to ensuring our female colleagues can see demonstrable evidence of a clear route to senior roles within the business, equality in terms of pay and recognition, and a strong support network within the firm to help facilitate this.”

Kate Redshaw, chair of BBalanced, said: “As a co-chair of the firm’s gender balance network, BBalanced, I couldn’t be prouder that our efforts as a firm have been recognised in this way.

“The engagement and support we see within our network shows how important gender balance is to the people who work here.

“Our network, which works closely with our gender taskforce, offers an opportunity to shape our policies and to celebrate and showcase our many talented women inspiring and encouraging our people across the board.”