ESG: Social
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee was founded in 2021 and has gone from strength to strength over the last few years.
Our goal is to ensure Pepper is a fair and equitable workplace for our colleagues and to support the communities and causes that matter to us as a business.
At Pepper, we recognise that our colleagues are our most valuable asset. We empower our people to bring their authentic selves to work, as this allows them to achieve their full potential and contribute effectively to our strategic goals.
So far, our DE&I strategy is built on three pillars:
- Building trust together: We strive to foster a culture of psychological safety where all colleagues feel confident sharing ideas, giving feedback, and discussing lived experiences.
- People and progression: We aim to create a fair and equitable workplace where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
- Supporting others: We want to deliver quality products to our customers and support our communities through charitable activities.
Our strategy is led by the DE&I Committee, with support from the Executive Sponsors, Executive Committee, and the wider business. We believe every colleague plays a crucial role in building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture at Pepper. We’re in the process of developing KPIs, backed up with ambitious medium- and long-term goals to ensure our DE&I initiatives have the desired impact and guide our future efforts.
We’ve already disclosed our gender pay gap as part of our commitment.
Engaging and developing our colleagues:
- Having established our proactive DE&I committee and our Women in Business initiative, we’ve made further progress in engaging our colleagues, ensuring everyone has a voice, and fostering a sense of belonging:
LGBTQ+ Network Group: We launched our first employee network group to educate colleagues, raise awareness, and provide supportive and safe environment for people to connect with others who share similar experiences. - Pepper Fest: We hosted our inaugural Pepper Fest, aimed at celebrating our corporate culture.
- RITAs: For the first time, we hosted an internal award ceremony, the RITAs, which align with our four cultural principles and allowed us the opportunity to recognise the incredible contributions from our colleagues.
All colleagues have access to training resources, such as LinkedIn Learning and voluntary learning and development sessions, in addition, we’ve rolled out an unconscious bias and diversity training.
Wellbeing of our colleagues
Supporting wellbeing is an important part of Pepper Money’s culture. Our strategy is based on 5 pillars of well-being. This is supported by education events, dedicated wellbeing champions, and employee assistance programs.
Supporting our customers
Primary research for financial inclusion
We’ve invested significantly in primary research, which we’ve conducted in association with YouGov to better understand and address the challenges faced by consumers with credit issues.
Our latest Specialist Lending Study provides insights into adverse credit, the cost-of-living crisis, and self-employment. In the current economic climate, our accessible mortgage products and emphasis on customer understanding are more crucial than ever.
This research is vital in helping champion financial inclusion and ensuring that everyone has access to the information they need to take the next step on their financial journey.
Find out more about our Specialist Lending Study.
For additional information on what we offer and the mortgage landscape you can check out the support we offer.
Products & services designed to support those in need
First charge mortgages:
We’ve designed how we operate as a lender carefully to give customers who are overlooked by high street banks a chance to become homeowners.
We place people at the heart of our decision-making process by on a comprehensive view of a first charge mortgage application, with support from our brokers, rather than relying solely on credit scores.
We recognise that a previous financial misstep is just that. We understand that life doesn’t travel in a linear path, our customers have overcome previous challenges and are now back on their feet and in a position to move ahead with their mortgage.
Second charge mortgages:
Our second charge mortgage products are designed to help our customers plan for the future and manage more expensive debt without having to rearrange their main mortgage. Our aim is to provide second charge mortgages that meet our customers’ individual needs.
We offer competitive fixed, discounted, and variable rates tailored to individual circumstances and credit score checks.
By being innovative and flexible in our approach, we empower our people to make fairer lending decisions. Whether supporting hopeful homeowners looking to get on the property ladder or providing opportunities for those who have experienced a default or CCJ, we’re always looking for new ways to support those in need.
Find out more about our products.
Our fundraising efforts
Our Charity of the Year
(Raised so far)
Cancer Research UK was selected by our colleagues as our Charity of the Year for 2023. Throughout the year, we’ll be fundraising for this incredibly important cause by partaking in events and initiatives with our colleagues.
Matched Fundraising
We empower our colleagues to fundraise for charities that are close to their hearts, and when they do so, Pepper Money match their donations received to recognise these achievements.
Some recent examples include:
- Movember challenge – colleague ran 60 miles during the month – raised £491 (which was then matched)
- Strictly Top Dancer 2022 – colleague was part of a team of 8 who raised money for the Breast Centre Appeal – £286 raised (which was then matched)
- Cardiff Half Marathon – ran for The Stroke Association – £935 raised (which was then matched)
Supporting local organisations
Richmond Rugby Club