Our Annual General Meeting - Have your say

The provision of services by the external auditor and the potential costs and benefits of entering a tender process are considered at least annually by the Audit Sub-Committee and this matter was reviewed by the Committee in 2021. This consideration takes into account the effectiveness of the current audit process and an assessment of the auditor’s independence and objectivity.

The audit had previously been put out to tender in 2015 when KPMG were appointed. There is a legal requirement to undergo a tender process within 10 years of an auditor's appointment, in this case before the 2025 year end. In addition we are legally required to change the audit firm at least every 20 years.

During 2021 the Audit Sub-Committee decided that due to a forthcoming audit partner rotation, this was an appropriate time to carry out a tender process.

We went through a rigorous audit tender process which included six firms in total.  Of these firms three were mid-tier firms.  Through the process one mid-tier firm was excluded and another withdrew from the process.  A mid-tier firm did remain under consideration until the latter stage of the process in 2022, however it was decided that Deloitte LLP were best placed to provide members of the Society with the required level of audit assurance.

In a future tender process, we would also seek to invite suitably experienced firms to tender from both within the “Big 4” and from outside this group. Our selection of a future audit firm will be driven by our assessment of the factors noted above regarding auditor effectiveness, independence and objectivity, together with our assessment of whether the firms concerned have sufficient insurance technical capability to audit a Group such as ours.

Doing right by our customers is integral to how we run our business and we want to support them through the bad times as well as the good.

At the start of the pandemic we swiftly set up Temporary Hardship Grants, supporting 466 customers with costs such as rent, bills, food shopping and home-schooling equipment, as well as awarding grants to community groups who were striving to make a difference during the crisis. We also simplified the claims process for our Over 50s product, recognising the severe pressure on GPs and clinicians - caused by the coronavirus pandemic - would most likely cause a delay at a time when seriously ill customers most needed support.

We recognise that our customers might also need extra help through challenging times, such as bereavement, money worries, sight or hearing loss and health issues. We provide a range of options to help customers with what they need, including payment holidays, signposting to charities and
support groups, making changes to our communications and providing extra support for managing an account.

We also use our voice to speak up on issues that are affecting our customers, for example we led on an industry-wide solution to the difficulties faced by the families of teenagers with mental incapacity in accessing their Child Trust Funds (CTF).

Uncertainty surrounding the spread of Coronavirus in the first part of 2020 and other global events can also lead to sudden drops in markets globally. We have previously seen falls in the value of our equity funds as a result, with periods of recovery subsequently.

Options for members who invest with OneFamily are provided on our website and can be found here.

Through clear and defined strategies, we’re working towards providing responsible investment opportunities, while supporting businesses striving to be better for the environment - benefiting both our members and the environment.

We launched our new climate-friendly investment funds in 2020, which enable us to invest in shares in companies that have set an agenda to help tackle climate change.

During 2021 we launched our new ISA and lifetime ISA products that enable us to use these same climate friendly investment funds to provide further options for our customers to invest with us more sustainably.

The way we invest our ISA Funds is based on aligning with the United Nations Paris Accord limiting temperature change to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels.

To qualify as deserving to sit within our Climate Change fund, each organisation is ranked on 5 different factors: green revenues, adaptation score, carbon intensity, fossil fuel reserves and brown revenues. Learn more about our climate-friendly investment options.

In 2021 we reviewed our portfolio of c£200m fixed income assets that back our non-profits liabilities, restructuring it to be more ESG focussed. We will continue to review our remaining investments so that they are also more ESG focussed.

We are committed to continually improving our operations and regularly review our practices. We have implemented the following in our offices:

• Recycling initiatives: centralised collection points on all floors to encourage and enable efficient recycling
• Motion sensor LED lighting installed in the Brighton office to reduce electricity consumption
• A ‘no waste goes to landfill’ policy and we purchase products made from recycled materials wherever possible
• Participation in an environmental initiative which benefits a non-profit organisation called CoolEarth, who work alongside rainforest communities to halt deforestation and its impact on climate change
• Compliance with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, where we assess our energy use and identify efficiencies and with Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting, where we measure our carbon footprint and look at ways to reduce / offset this

Our commitment to minimising our environmental impact also extends to the employee benefits we offer to colleagues:

• Electric cars and bikes – we launched a car salary sacrifice scheme for our colleagues enabling them to purchase electric vehicles through the scheme and increased the loans available for e-bike purchase
• Employee Pension – we moved to a Worksave Pension Plan to set the default investment fund to the Legal & General Future World Multi-Asset Fund, which has a sustainable focus on ESG at the heart of the investment approach

We’re committed to promoting a diverse and supportive culture in our workplace. We treat all colleagues equally, regardless of their sex, race, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, or disability.

Our board and executive are ethnically diverse, with an equal gender split on the board. Diversity at leadership levels brings greater skills, knowledge and experiences to drawn upon, reflecting our membership, and the issues that are important to them.

We launched our Diversity & Inclusion strategy in 2020 and we’ve continued to focus on creating the right environment for our colleagues to feel like they truly belong. In 2021 we launched allyship groups for each of the pillars of our Diversity & Inclusion strategy which colleagues can sign up to. These include an allyship group for LGBTQ+ and we are a Diversity Champion member of Stonewall - a UK based LGBTQ+ charity. We also celebrated Pride for the sixth year running in 2021 and have shared colleague experiences through blog posts and webinars on a number of subjects, including coming out as LGBTQ+ and being a trans man.

During Black History Month 2021 we ran a range of activities, including sharing stories from our colleagues, providing links to resources and welcoming guest speakers. We are also signatories of the Race at Work Charter and have signed up to #10,000 Black Interns, which seeks to offer 2,000 internships each year for the next 5 years. We’ll be supporting the initiative in 2022 by offering three placements with our IT & Change and Commercial teams.

As signatories to the Women in Finance Charter, we launched the Women in Finance Mentor Programme in 2021, with the objective of supporting females at middle management and professional level within the business to realise their talents and aspirations.

In 2021 we introduced a new volunteering policy so that more colleagues can give back to their communities and developed a partnership with IntoUniversity.

Our focus on gender equality in the workplace forms part of our broader Diversity & Inclusion strategy to increase awareness and best practice, promoting equality for all.

Our 2021 gender pay gap report can be found here.

This is a Government initiative which encourages organisations to promote the right practices and culture in the workplace. The report illustrates the difference between the average and median pay of all men and women in a workforce expressed as a percentage of men’s pay. The gender pay gap reflects that OneFamily, like most financial services organisations, currently has more men in senior leadership roles. The financial services sector has a larger gender pay gap than many industries.

OneFamily’s 2021 gender pay gap has reduced to 14.6%, down from 19% last year. This is a good result demonstrating how our actions are having a positive impact, but also shows that we have more to do. The national median average in 2021 was 15.4% (ONS, 2021) and we are pleased to see our median is below this.

At the end of 2021 our Board comprised 50% female and 50% male directors. At the senior management level, we have 31% females and 69% males.

We will continue to work on narrowing our gender pay gap each year and some of our key initiatives include:

• Our Executive Directors sponsoring each pillar of our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy, helping to raise awareness and leading from the top
• Committing to the Women in Finance charter to increase the female representation in senior manager positions
• Reviewing our gender-related policies such as maternity leave and parental leave
• Using a gender-balanced approach to recruitment, including developing unconscious bias training
• Conducting a mentoring programme for female colleagues
• Raising awareness around gender through internal communications

In 2021 we compiled a shortlist of charities in the Brighton area who are working within our 3 focus areas – access to education & training, fostering financial wellbeing and improving life chances. The shortlisted charities were then put to a staff vote, allowing Brighton-based colleagues to have a say in who we partnered with. The 3 charities with the highest votes were selected for the partnerships.

We’re providing each charity with financial assistance, advice and hands-on support, with the aim of building and maintaining a long-lasting and meaningful relationship with each organisation.

The 3 local charity partners are:

• Spear Brighton Trust – a charity that inspires and supports unemployed young people to overcome disadvantage, helping them with the attitude, confidence and qualifications to succeed in work.
• Team Domenica – a social enterprise charity whose mission is to help people with learning disabilities discover their career potential, to create employment opportunities and remove barriers to work.
• The Clock Tower Sanctuary – a charity that works with young homeless people (aged 16-25), providing a space where they can feel safe and 'just be', whilst also getting access to services and support.

You can find out more about the charities – and our other charity partners – at https://www.onefamily.com/our-story/charity-partnerships/

Christina served on the Board for just over 7 years until June 2022, having previously been on the Board of Engage Mutual Assurance for 10 years before the merger that created OneFamily. With our organisation in a strong and stable position, Christina decided that this was an appropriate time in OneFamily’s development for a smooth handover of the Chair role to enable her to spend more time on her other interests outside the organisation.

A thorough and robust appointment process, led by our Senior Independent Director Graham Lindsay, was undertaken by a sub-set of the board’s Nomination Committee. Having also sought an independent external perspective, it was recommended that there was no need to seek an external candidate.