We are committed to ensuring we have a culture where all our people feel respected and are supported both in their work and with their wellbeing – a culture where our people can thrive. The success of all our people – regardless of gender, age, disability, cultural background, sexual and gender identities, or political and religious views – is important to us.
Russell McVeagh's Board has committed to three key diversity and inclusion goals for within the next 5 years – you can read more about these here.
Our recruitment process is fair and robust and our promotion structure ensures that there are no hidden glass ceilings in the firm. We hold ourselves accountable to this by progressing the work programme that supports our D&I strategy and working in partnership with external organisations to strive to achieve excellence and best practice.
Through our partnerships and initiatives, we are proud of our work with organisations that help to improve diversity and inclusion in the communities we live and work in, as well as the advancement of our profession.
Rainbow Tick
We are proud to have held Rainbow Tick certification since 2016 and we are committed to our environment being a welcoming place for everyone to feel comfortable to bring their authentic selves to work. The Rainbow Tick programme is a continual quality improvement programme designed to help an organisation ensure it is a safe and welcoming workplace for employees of diverse gender identity and sexual orientation.
Gender Tick
In 2023 we gained Advanced Gender Tick certification with the Gender at Work Community, which is a first for a New Zealand law firm. The work the firm is doing to progress gender equality, including becoming one of only two law firms in the country to publicly report its gender and ethnicity pay gaps with Mindthegap, has contributed to this recognition, which you can read more on here.
The GenderTick enables businesses to demonstrate their commitment to gender equity in their workplace and their compliance and leadership across five key indicators: Equal Pay, Leadership Representation, Flexible Work and Leave, Gender Safe Workplace, and Gender Inclusive Culture.
Paying our people fairly is important
As an accredited Living Wage Employer, we pay at least the current Living Wage rate to all staff and regular contractors.
We recognise that ensuring true diversity and inclusion is a long-term focus requiring ongoing commitment to create meaningful change. Part of this commitment is holding ourselves accountable to our three strategic goals and workplan actions including pay gap reporting.
Continuing our culture journey
Following Dame Margaret Bazley's 2018 review, we implemented a comprehensive culture transformation programme to address all the recommendations. We have since addressed all the recommendations, with some of these some involving long-term and ongoing actions (for example, that the Board and partners remain committed to leading a programme of transformational culture change). You can read more about this work here. We continue to build on this work and our commitment to having a culture where all our people can thrive.