People

Our success is based on delivering a highly professional and personal service to our clients. We believe this can only be achieved by having engaged and motivated employees with a diverse range of backgrounds, skills and experiences. Our employee strategy, policies and investment plans are all designed to achieve these goals.

Talent development

Leadership shapes the culture of an organisation. We focus on identifying future leaders, and supporting the current leadership to enhance their skills and widen their experience. We have developed robust methods of identifying and developing potential with positive results.

Structured career progression is important and new career pathways have been developed for investment professionals, which will be rolled out for our other employees.

Our graduate development programme maintains a high-quality pipeline of younger talent. This is not the only source of quality recruits as shown by the success of the 2013 two-year apprenticeship programme, which is being repeated from September 2015.

Learning

We make substantial and sustainable investments in the development of our people, and regularly review the relevance and outcomes of this training. We also encourage our employees to take business relevant qualifications and offer generous support packages. Our investment professionals are required to achieve standards above the regulatory minimum with a particular focus on the Chartered Wealth Manager and Chartered Financial Analyst qualifications.

Diversity and inclusion

We are an equal opportunities employer and it is our policy to ensure that all job applicants and employees are treated fairly and on merit regardless of their race, gender, marital status, age, disability, religious belief or sexual orientation.

We have two women non-executive directors, achieving our commitment to meet Lord Davies’s target of 25% female board representation. For the company as a whole, we have a broadly 50:50 gender balance.

Performance and reward

We offer a comprehensive remuneration package which is regularly reviewed to ensure that it remains competitive. This is supported by challenging objective setting and appraisal processes to align reward to corporate goals and encourage high performance.

All employees have the opportunity to participate in a pension arrangement. We provide health and well-being initiatives including private medical cover, annual medical examinations to all employees and a confidential advice service.

Employees are encouraged to become involved in the financial performance of the group through a Share Incentive Plan (SIP) and a Sharesave scheme.

Employee relations

Engagement with our employees is crucial to our continuing success. We communicate regularly on matters affecting them and on the issues that have an impact on the performance of the group, and actively seek their feedback.

Rathbones recognises the importance of an appropriate work-life balance, both to the health and welfare of employees and to the business. Employees are not expected to work long hours on a consistent or ongoing basis and any overtime is voluntary.