Rest, one of Australia’s largest profit-to-member super funds, has been a Future IM/Pact partner since February 2023. Rest is an outstanding ally in our work, actively championing gender equality and setting a powerful example in the industry.
Rest’s focus on gender balance is a vital part of their mission to help their two million members achieve better retirement outcomes. Representing over a million women, Rest leads by example by building an inclusive culture that promotes gender equality at all levels.
As a super fund representing more than a million women, championing gender equity is an important part of helping many of our members achieve better retirement futures. A key part of this includes building a diverse team and an inclusive culture that promotes gender equality at all levels of Rest, including our investment team. Our partnership with Future IM/Pact helps us do this, connecting us with emerging talent and early career women who bring invaluable insight and talent to Rest.
Strategic gender targets
Rest recently relaunched their DE&I Strategy with a target of achieving 40% women, 40% men, and 20% individuals identifying as any gender across the organisation, including the Board level.
In particular, Rest’s investment team have proactively embraced gender diversity. Since 2020, the proportion of women in their investment team has grown from 21% to above their 43% target of women by the end of Financial Year 2024. Bravo!
Proactive initiatives and impressive results
With the unwavering support of Rest’s CIO, Andrew Lill, the organisation has implemented several initiatives to attract and retain women in their investment team. Positive gender bias recruitment plans and gender-inclusive language in hiring practices has been crucial. These efforts have helped lead to 48% of investment hires in 2023 being women. Future IM/Pact is proud to contribute to this fantastic result by promoting job opportunities at Rest to our student and early career database and encouraging and assisting them to apply.
Outside of the Future IM/Pact partnership, Rest also participates in the University of NSW program for women in Actuarial studies, raising awareness about career paths in investments and providing valuable learning experiences through internships with Rest’s investment team. They’ve had great success and recently had one of the interns permanently join the External Equities team following her placement with Rest.
Addressing gender balance and pay gap challenges
Rest, like all organisations across the industry, faces challenges in attracting and retaining women due to a smaller female candidate pool. They acknowledge this impacts representation in senior positions and contributes to gender pay disparities. However, Rest is actively working to close pay gaps by identifying inequalities and developing targeted strategies to close them. They also prioritise various supporting initiatives, including talent development programs and promoting a flexible work environment. Their Hybrid by Design Guidelines, gender-neutral parental leave policies, and emphasis on work-life balance are highly valued by employees.
- Elevated Rest’s brand with engaged university students and women in their early career.
- Provided direct access to a talent pipeline through mentoring, recruitment partnerships and networking opportunities.
- Increased employee engagement through their positive experience with the program, helping build mentoring skills and inspiring internal programs.
- Facilitated cross-industry collaboration with peers to share lessons learnt and drive gender diversity in investment management.
