In 2021 we launched our Women in Investment Initiative, knowing that unless we address the issue of the lack of gender diversity in the industry ourselves then we are part of the problem.
The first part of the initiative is how we support our female team members throughout all stages of their lives and careers. We introduced a women’s health benefit which is available to all staff and their female family members and friends, which provides educational courses and content on all areas of women’s health, from general pelvic health, pregnancy and postnatal as well as the menopause – none of which are a key focus of mainstream health benefits. We also signed the workplace menopause pledge which aims to break the taboo of the topic of menopause in the workplace and in turn reduce the number of women who end up leaving their jobs due to the menopause.
The other side of the initiative focuses on encouraging young women to pursue careers in the industry. We run an internship programme and partner with GAIN (Girls are Investors), an organisation set up to promote gender diversity in the industry by informing and inspiring women about careers in investment management.
In April we hosted two student insight days for a small cohort of students from the GAIN Investment Insight programme. This was their inaugural Investment Insight programme which ran for 3 months, offering 50 first year undergraduates an insight into the investment industry through a series of insightful and educational webinars and events, and ending with two days spent at one of the participating investment firms. During the insight days at Velox the students spent time with each member of the investment team learning more about what they do and the inner workings of a hedge fund. They had been set a stock pitch task by GAIN and on the second day they presented their work to the research team who provided feedback. We look forward to hosting more of these insight days in the future.