In 2023, Kent launched the Kent Inclusion Blueprint which is a global initiative, designed to promote and create a fair and inclusive workplace for our people and ensures we are fulfilling our Sustainability commitments and aligning with our Global Inclusion and Belonging strategy. The approach begins at the foundation level, where policies and procedures for inclusion may be less developed and progresses through levels from bronze to silver, gold and platinum. Our UK business was delighted to achieve bronze level in December 2023 which demonstrates that we are compliant with relevant local employment laws and requirements for equality. We are now working towards achieving Silver level in tandem whilst achieving this with Clear Assured.

Externally, we have achieved Bronze in the Clear Assured DEI standard, and we are now pursuing Silver Standard.

We have enhanced our Family Leave Policies, increasing the amount of fully paid leave time by 33% for birthing parents and by 50% for non-birthing parents. This applies to our Adoption Policy also, and we have also introduced paid support for those on their Surrogacy and Fertility Treatment journeys.

Whilst this is an important step forward for all our employees, there is also the intent that this provides women with the company’s support if they choose to take the step towards having a family. We removed the minimum service requirement to be eligible for full maternity leave benefits, thereby supporting women to make a career move at any point in their life without the fear of losing family leave benefits.

19% of our women and 8% of men choose to work part time in the UK to support in creating the work life balance they wish. We offer hybrid working through our Workplace Principles whereby we provide our employees with the freedom to work from their place of choice; provided it works for the Project / Client, then it works for us. We recognise that we all have commitments outside of work. The benefits of offering our
employees hybrid working supports them in being able to be present for things that are important outside of work, allowing them to be able to do the two in tandem.

We are committed to introducing a STEM Returner’s programme this year within the UK. This will support our efforts in recruiting, developing and retaining the best available talent, whilst supporting experienced STEM professionals to re-start their career or transfer their skills.

We recognise that to see a more even distribution of gender across grades, we need to ensure our processes and systems are fair. We will be monitoring promotions and progress through our grading structure by gender to lean into and take action in any areas where we might be experiencing the broken rung effect.

We are committed to sharing all development opportunities throughout the business to avoid hidden bias in opportunity assignments. We also monitor the selection and participation in our development programmes to ensure fair representation.