Diversity, equity, inclusion and wellbeing

As part of our commitment to ensuring gender balance across Forvis Mazars, we have been a signatory to the HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter since 2018. The Charter is a commitment by HM Treasury and signatory firms work together to build a more balanced financial services industry.

We have made significant progress in improving female representation in our most senior grades since joining the Women in Finance Charter in 2021, seeing us achieve parity up to senior manager grade.

We are proud to have set a bold ambition for 38% of our partners to be women by the end of our 2028 financial year. We are committed to this through our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy with dedicated gender actions, and will continue to report on our progress in the coming years.

We are proud to be a signatory of Access Accountancy – an ambitious collaboration of employers and professional bodies, dedicated to improving access to the accountancy profession. Access Accountancy’s mission is to increase awareness and aspirations among young people to join the accountancy profession.

We are part of The Purpose Coalition, comprised of leading accountancy firms and a number of educational institutions. Chaired by the Rt Hon Justine Greening and Nick Forbes CBE. Its mission is to work together to identify innovative solutions to some of the barriers that exist in our industry, ensuring opportunities to enter and progress are equally accessible to people from all backgrounds.

"This was a fantastic opportunity to take stock of where we are and the work we’ve been doing, not just on social mobility, but diversity, equity and inclusion as a whole. The passionate contribution from everyone at Forvis Mazars showed we have made significant strides and have so many amazing stories to share than could possibly be covered in one report. I am hugely optimistic about how we unlock and create a place for future generations to flourish.” Mark Surridge, Partner and SoMobile Network Lead

At Forvis Mazars we have signed the Social Mobility Pledge. The Social Mobility Pledge is about creating opportunities for people with a socially diverse background and as an organisation we have committed to positively impacting social mobility via outreach, access, and recruitment.

We are proud signatories of the Race at Work Charter. The charter demonstrates our public commitment to drive racial equality and inclusion, delivering measurable and sustainable change. We are committed to addressing the barriers faced by those from ethnically diverse and lower socio-economic backgrounds focussing our efforts on unlocking talent, progressing from allyship to solidarity and embedding inclusive supply chains.

Forvis Mazars has signed up to the global initiative focused on putting disability on leadership agendas. As a firm we have made a commitment to play our part in creating a firm that is inclusive of all. Our commitment is “Our DE&I strategy is built on the belief that everyone deserves to feel valued, supported, and empowered to succeed. As the disAbility Network Lead, I’m proud to champion this commitment by fostering an inclusive environment where colleagues with disabilities can thrive. The network provides a vital platform for sharing lived experiences, educating others, and raising awareness—helping to break down barriers and build a culture of understanding. Inclusion isn’t just a goal—it’s how we grow stronger together” 

Sue Kukadia, disAbility Network Lead

We are signed up to NiB, a forum which brings experts and employers together to create more inclusive experiences for neurodiverse individuals. By partnering with NiB our aim is to build a better workplace for Neurodiverse employees, whilst supporting those with neurodiverse loved ones and families, through raising awareness, breaking down stigmas and improving our internal support and resources.

We are proud members of Business Disability Forum, working with them to create an inclusive workplace by removing barriers to improve the experience of team members, and create a disability-smart firm, through reviewing and updating our policies and process from a disability inclusion lens, and ensuring our application and recruitment process more accessible.  

We are a Disability Confident committed employer, as a firm we ensure our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible anduse our Disability Confident badge to make sure potential applicants know we are an inclusive employer.

We are very pleased to have signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge; in signing the pledge we have committed to making our organisation a supportive and understanding place for team members going through the menopause. By continuing the conversation and highlighting the importance of this topic, we hope to break down stigma and create a culture of inclusion, where everyone feels able to talk openly about the menopause and have the support they need.

We work with Stonewall, the leading UK LGBTQ+ organisation, as part of our commitment to creating a workplace where all our people feel they belong. This additional support helps us to ensure all LGBTQ+ team members feel safe, welcomed, and free to be themselves.

We are committed to building diverse talent pipelines and ensuring broad representation across all our programmes. Our leadership play a key role in accelerating inclusion across the firm. We ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are embedded throughout our talent development programmes – both in their content and delivery.

• Parental Transition Coaching: Our parental coaching programmes support those taking family leave to successfully manage their journey to parenthood in the context of their professional Lives. We also offer coaching for the line manager of the individual taking leave to support the transition.
• Returners programme: At Forvis Mazars we are proud to offer career returners coaching to any successful applicants who have taken a career break of 12 months or more as part of our work to be an inclusive employer of choice. We know that careers and life are not always linear, and that sometimes extra support from experts and peers is all that’s needed to help us take the next step.
• New baby gift bundles: We work From Babies with Love to provide team members with a baby bundle gift for their newborns to ensure they feel valued as they start their parental leave.

Our inclusive hiring training, completed by over 99% of people involved in our recruitment processes, is designed to support hiring managers to build high performing and diverse teams. The training provides education and awareness about the importance of inclusive hiring practices and at the same time develops the skills of our hiring managers and interviewers through practical exercises. By strengthening our hiring practices, we enhance our ability to attract the best talent, while also ensuring fairness in our internal interviews and processes.

We created our MHFA network in 2019 and continue to grow this group to ensure any team members who needs this support have access to it. This group meet on a regular basis and work with the national wellbeing team to signpost and support colleagues across the firm, sharing tips and tools to support a culture of positive wellbeing.

James, Financial Planning:“Circumstances at home and work can overwhelm and having someone to talk to can help put things in perspective. Having more than 45 Mental Health First Aiders in the firm creates a supportive environment for people to have those confidential conversations and seek support from colleagues who are trained to help”.

We know that mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and wellbeing and have partnered with Calm to provide employees a practical tool that they can use to care for their mental wellbeing, get better rest, and increase resiliency.

Acknowledging that sometimes we all need to support those around us, including outside of work, we offer access to this premium service for up to five family and friends per employee as well.

We acknowledge the support individuals need for their wellbeing can vary from day-to-day, and it’s important that they can access counselling and other specialist advice as and when they need it. To help with this we provide all employees with access to a confidential employee assistance programme, that is available to them 24/7.

We have a well-maker network who work closely with our inclusion and diversity networks and MHFA’s to signpost and share wellbeing resources across their local offices. Our well-makers provide a friendly face in the office, welcoming new joiners, and ensuring their colleagues are aware of the support available to everyone to encourage positive wellbeing.