In 2021, US asset manager Invesco told Citywire that women comprise 29% of job applicants – but 40% of hires. This is the kind of dial shift that fund businesses need to make if they are to effect meaningful progress towards gender parity.

Citywire’s 2022 Alpha Female report will soon reveal whether the asset management industry has increased its rates of change. But for Amplify’s final look at the world’s biggest fund firms, we turn to a business that has made strides in its global workforce and promoted diversity as an asset owner.

If you do not single out fund managers, Invesco has indeed made good progress: the asset manager has exceeded a goal set in 2017 to reach 30-40% female representation in senior management roles. That figure is now at 36% (the target having been raised to 35%) Invesco told Amplify, with women making up 38% of Invesco’s global workforce.

But does this company-wide change map well to fund manager roles?

‘Educate, empower and develop’

Invesco was a winner of Citywire’s Gender Diversity Awards last year, as a regional leader in the USA. And this was well deserved. Taking US-domiciled funds only, Invesco has among the highest percentage of female fund managers.

Globally, though, the picture is more mixed. A particular issue is the rate at which female fund managers leave the business. Weighted hiring rates will only move the needle if turnover is addressed, too.

According to Citywire’s 2021 Alpha Female report, Invesco’s female manager turnover rate last year was 62%. This is 14 percentage points higher than its global peer group average of firms with 100 managers or more.

‘We conduct employee surveys every two months and are able to evaluate this data by demographic group to understand and address potential issues before they impact retention,’ Invesco told Citywire last year. ‘A highly flexible “smart working” policy encourages employees to fit work into their lives as opposed to fitting life around work schedules.’

Since the award, Invesco has made several measures to increase gender representation. ‘Invesco has joined The Equity Collective, an industry partnership launched by Morgan Stanley with a mission to educate, empower and develop the next generation of diverse leaders in the finance industry,’ Devvya Sharma, Invesco’s Emea diversity and inclusion manager told Amplify.

Owning it

It’s important to remember that while asset managers must indeed battle to increase their own manager diversity, they can also play a key role in pushing along the businesses they invest in.

In the first nine months of 2021, Invesco voted on 19 shareholder proposals requesting reports on company efforts to diversify the board, disclosure of workforce diversity (EE0-1) data and reporting on companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. These included promotion, recruitment and retention and Invesco supported 60% of these proposals.

Invesco has also entered partnerships with various diversity-based organisations in the past year, including i2020, 10,000 Black Interns, Kickstart, Evenbreak (a disability network and job board), Bright Network (entry-level and social mobility), myGwork.com (LGBT+); GAIN (Girls Are Investors) and The Return Hub.