Witad Awards 2023: Best company for diversity and inclusion (vendor)—Rimes

Rimes is the recipient of the only company award of the annual Women in Technology and Data Awards, which it wins on the back of the outstanding work it has done over the course of the last year on the diversity and inclusion (D&I) front. Women currently account for 42% of employees at the firm―an impressive number for any organization active in the financial services industry―although it is looking to grow that number to half of all employees. However, boasting an equal male–female split is only half the D&I challenge. The other half centers on a firm’s ongoing commitment to D&I-related issues to ensure that all employees feel represented, “safe” in their place at work, and are “heard.”

When asked whether Rimes has a formalized framework that seeks to identify and attract talented women to the business, Francois Guyeux, chief people officer at Rimes, thinks for a moment before answering: “Yes and no. When I joined the company about three years ago, one of the key pieces of feedback [I received] was regarding the underrepresentation of women across the company,” he says. “We started looking at the women’s demographic within the Rimes organizational pyramid and what ‘great’ would look like [in terms of the male–female balance]. We knew there would be a number of hires coming up with the growth path we were on and so we looked at every level of the pyramid and implemented multiple strategies that would allow us to organically promote women from within the organization across all levels of the pyramid.”

Culture

When it comes to engendering a D&I culture and ensuring women are given every opportunity to fully realize their potential and rise “unimpeded” through the organization, a top-down approach led by management can be very effective. Naturally, a bottom-up approach or simply allowing D&I to grow organically can be similarly successful, although nothing quite trumps a passionate CEO who sets the tone for the entire organization. Guyeux explains that Rimes’ senior management fully supports and drives its D&I program, ensuring that it is embraced throughout Rimes’ lower echelons.

“At the top of the business, both our CEO Brad Hunt, and our board, are committed to increasing diversity,” Guyeux says. “We have appointed two women to our board as non-executive directors in the last 18 months, and we’ve promoted key female talent from within the organization. At the level just below the executive committee, we have started bringing in a number of talented women, some in the product segment and some in professional services. In multiple areas of the business we have created role models from within of women who have had successful careers in the industry who are also a great source of inspiration to younger women in the business. Ultimately, the vision is to have a 50–50 split between males and females in every category.” 

Visibility

Having a CEO and executive committee that champion the firm’s various D&I initiatives means that it is clearly visible to employees across the firm’s various strata, according to Laura Davis, chief marketing officer at Rimes and one of the firm’s most prominent and experienced women who joined the business in mid-2021. “From my perspective, that strategy is visible,” she says. “We’re still a small company―less than 400 people―but it’s very visible the more female leaders we have. I have a number of informal mentorships and the one area where I have been so impressed with what Francois has created is the smaller versions of town halls, specifically around women and their place in the business.”  

As many financial services firms will attest, it is one thing attracting talented women to the business but another when it comes to retaining them. It’s an issue that Guyeux is all too aware of and one that he believes cannot be satisfactorily addressed by throwing more money at it. “The answer to that challenge is really complex,” Guyeux says. “You can’t control the competition―the only thing you can control is your own employee value proposition. What we have been doing, especially in the last year, is building Rimes University, our internal learning and development department that targets valued staff members and offers curricula for all employees in various stages of their careers and departments. We started with the new joiners where we have a virtual onboarding for a week and depending on the role, individuals are embedded within a tailored curriculum. Similarly, we have a two-day management experience workshop followed by a 360 and a coaching class. All of these experiences, I believe, make us unique as a firm.” 

Past winners of this category include RiskSpan (2022), Carson Group (2021), Datactics (2020), BNP Paribas (2019), and Tata Consultancy Services (2018).