6 March 2025
Since AQ’s inception in 2017, we have strived to put EDI at the forefront of everything we do, from internal policies to support our team, ensuring fair and accessible processes for our candidates, or challenging our clients on perception and bias to help build more diverse and representative leadership teams. This International Women’s Day, we support the UN Women’s global campaign, “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” all things that deeply align with our values and ethos.
The UN’s theme supports action in three key areas: (1) advancing women’s and girl’s rights and challenging discrimination and exploitation (2) promoting gender equality by removing systemic barriers and elevating women and girls’ voices (3) fostering empowerment to ensure women and girls have inclusive access to opportunities
We realise that in the grand scheme of things we have a small role to play in advancing this agenda, but we take every opportunity to do so very seriously. AQ’s primary responsibility is to find the right people to help drive society-focused organisations forward, challenging our clients and supporting our own team through the development of workplace practices and benefits that address the issues that can systemically affect marginalised groups, such as women, at a greater rate.
AQ’s EDI work, both internally and externally, sees us continually promote gender equality and inclusivity, foster empowerment, and challenge systemic barriers. We are consistently making small gains, educating many along the way, and I believe making a difference. I’m especially proud of groups and networks we have created, both for our own people and our candidates, which all create inclusive, empowering and supportive environments for our female team members, clients, candidates, and wider community, to advance female equity.
Nicki Pritchard, Managing Partner
Women are disproportionately affected by pregnancy, parenthood, caregiving responsibilities, domestic abuse and life changes, such as menopause. That is why we have always set out to be an organisation that proactively supports, and has policies in place, to offer the women in our team an equal playing field. As our organisation has developed this has become even more important, as women make up 72% of the AQ team, and 67% of our senior leadership team.
From the outset we wanted to ensure we learnt from other organisations we had worked for where we felt they didn’t hit the mark with inclusivity. We wanted to create a workplace that truly embraced, supported, and properly embedded inclusivity at its core. That meant living and breathing an inclusive working environment, that is visibly championed by all our senior leaders, embedded into our business strategy, and a focus area for development, not just a list of policies in the background.
Elliott Rae, Managing Partner
We began as a flexible-working employer, and that hasn’t, and will not, change. We have members of our team working on condensed hours, part time, and even term time, enabling them to work flexibly; we see it as important to offer individuals working patterns that support their personal commitments.
As a woman with caregiving responsibilities, I have always deeply appreciated AQ’s flexible approach to working hours and location, as it has enabled me to balance my professional duties with my personal commitments more effectively. This autonomy has not only alleviated the stress often associated with juggling work and caregiving but has also empowered me to excel in both areas. Moreover, such practices foster gender equality by recognising the unique challenges women face in the workforce globally.
Helene Usherwood, Senior Partner
Over the years, we have also implemented new policies to support our team, such as menopause, IVF & fertility, domestic abuse, and an enhanced family-friendly policy which incorporates maternity, paternity, adoption, surrogacy and shared parental leave. We ensure these are embedded into our teams’ learning and development, so they don’t just sit there in the background, but our people truly understand what these policies mean, why we have them, and create a safe environment for people to discuss and support each other, cultivating a growth mindset.
“When recruiting people to join AQ, I feel we go above and beyond to ensure that we are an employer that promotes equality. All people, but more often women, feel that due to a certain stage of their life they may not be fit for the role, but we encourage everyone at all stages of their lives to apply to us, irrespective of their personal situation. We have a flexible working policy that allows scope for those with family or caring commitments, and those who may have disabilities visible or not to apply. We tailor our interview process to make people feel most comfortable to ensure that they are able to flourish and have a working environment that is supportive of additional needs.”
Lela Gascoigne, Head of Talent Acquisition
Supporting our candidates always starts with how we partner with our clients; we take client support and building relationships seriously, that is why we are authentic and question our clients to think carefully about the ideal candidate for a role, and will always challenge when we feel there could be any bias affecting decisions. We are committed to open conversations about all things EDI – we may not always have the answers, but we are committed to educating ourselves and others to ensure the correct challenge and progress is made in wider society.
“I do not shy away from giving feedback to clients on how working practices, interview processes, policies, or other areas, can disproportionately effect women, and are not inclusive. I recently spent a number of hours feeding back to a client on their proposed employment T&Cs, advising them on how they could improve them to make them more inclusive and attract more diverse candidate applications. They were very receptive to what we had to say and thankful for the positive challenge.”
Akhil Yerneni, Partner
We believe that diversity in all forms makes organisations more innovative, resilient, and collaborative, so we provide support to our candidates to ensure they understand their abilities, and how to interpret and communicate them throughout the recruitment process so they represent their best self. We understand applications and interviews can sometimes be daunting, so we do our best to support and advise each candidate to ensure they feel comfortable at every stage.
“I recently worked with a senior female candidate who was initially overlooked for an interim leadership role due to an extended career break. By reframing her experience—highlighting the strategic skills, impact she had made, resilience, and fresh perspective she brought – I helped her secure the position. She’s now driving significant change in a university, proving that career gaps should be seen as part of a broader professional journey rather than a limitation.”
Claire Lauder, Partner
We also know that bringing people together into safe networks and communities is crucial in order to make change happen. We have created our own networks (AQ Women in Tech / NED Exchange) and partnered with established third party networks (WB Directors (formerly Women on Boards) / Winmark) to ensure there are communities for people to share their experiences and insights, discuss what actions can be taken for positive change, promote allyship, empower people in their career journeys, and support organisations to build more inclusive and representative organisations.
“Our AQ Women in Tech network was created to give women a voice in the male dominated technology world. Diversity of thought creates more innovation, and having diverse teams can only benefit organisations. One of the biggest reasons there are not enough women in tech today is due to the lack of role models they had growing up, our events give women an environment to talk about their accomplishments and challenges in a safe space, and empower each other to success – we have seen the impact of this network firsthand as it continues to grow.”
Grace Tattersall, Partner
