Diversity and inclusion
Why diversity matters to us
A diverse workforce is important to guaranteeing we can source attractive investment opportunities across different geographies and industry sectors, and conduct thorough due diligence on these opportunities, analyzing them from as many different angles as possible.
Diversity inherently enhances our ability to understand, engage with and deliver innovative private markets investment solutions to over 900 clients ranging from pension funds, to sovereign wealth funds, to banks, to high-net-worth individuals, based all around the globe.
It is essential to fostering collaboration across our services hubs spanning three continents, ensuring no team or office works in silos and increasing operational efficiency by utilizing a wider range of skills.
And it means we can leverage the experiences drawn from people with different backgrounds to create a truly integrated platform across our 20 global offices.
"At Partners Group, we are committed to promoting a diversity of perspectives, skills and backgrounds. We believe that diversity makes us better and stronger at what we do."
André Frei, Co-Chief Executive Officer
What we do to promote diversity and inclusion
We wish to nurture our talent across the globe in every way and support internal and external initiatives and communities that promote diversity and inclusion.
Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
Our dedicated Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (DIWG) is responsible for the coordination of initiatives to advocate and promote diversity and inclusion at Partners Group. The DIWG works as a consultant to our Executive Committee on diversity and inclusion topics and acts as a bridge between Partners Group employees and senior management.
Recruitment and retention
Some of the initiatives we have implemented to attract, develop and retain diverse talent include:
- Attracting the next generation of talent: we have a number of dedicated diversity ambassadors who attend alumni events, speaking engagements and career fairs at universities globally to foster interest in private markets and promote Partners Group as an employer of choice in order to attract the next generation of diverse, talented young professionals.
- Onboarding and mentoring programs: we are passionate about employee development and have established programs to further promote inclusion. Our Buddy Program is a complementary onboarding scheme designed to orient new employees and introduce them to the Partners Group people, processes and culture. Our Mentoring Program gives employees the chance to find a more senior and experienced professional within the firm who can act as a personal mentor. This dedicated program is designed to connect experienced senior professionals with our firm’s future leaders.
- Training: we make diversity and inclusion a focus topic for our management training and Leadership meetings in order to promote a more inclusive leadership style.
Prevention of harassment and discrimination
Diversity inherently enhances our capabilities and operational excellence, and it remains a priority for us to ensure the policies and practices that govern our firm accurately reflect this belief. We are proud of our professional and congenial work environment and will take all necessary steps to ensure that this environment is free from harassment and discrimination based on legally protected characteristics.
Our policy on the Prevention of Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation outlines our expectations regarding employee respect, civility and professionalism. All employees, officers, and other workers over whom Partners Group has control are required to read and agree to comply with the policy.
Spotlight on gender diversity
We aspire to be a leader in promoting gender diversity at Partners Group and in private markets. We firmly believe our industry will benefit from increasing female representation and want to address the current gender imbalance in a proactive manner, at all levels of the organization. This is why we have set ourselves the target of substantially increasing the number of our female Partners and Managing Directors to at least 25 by 2025. Additionally, we had set ourselves the goal of having ambassadors in 20 top universities globally by 2020 in order to attract the next generation of talented young women interested in thriving in a career in finance and driving the future of private markets.
We have currently achieved 100% of our 20 by 2020 target and 44% of our 25 by 2025 target. We continue to work towards the remaining target through our employee development initiatives and through targeted recruitment initiatives.
Our targets and progress*
1) Figure includes members of our Board of Directors.
All figures as of 31 December 2019.
External diversity and inclusion initiatives supported by Partners Group
Advance
Advance is the leading business association for gender equality in Switzerland, committed to increasing the share of women in management in Swiss-based companies.
Girls Who Invest
Girls Who Invest is a US-based non-for-profit that is working to bring more female investment professionals into the asset management industry through an intensive skills-based summer training. Girls Who Invest also provides an online training program and paid summer internship programs with partnering asset managers.
High Water Women
High Water Women is an organization founded in 2005 by women in the hedge fund and investment industries with a focus on providing enriched educational opportunities for low-income youth and the economic empowerment of women and children.
Him For Her
Him For Her is a not-for-profit venture aimed at accelerating diversity on for-profit boards. The organization engages leading “Hims” to introduce the world’s most talented “Hers” to corporate board service. Since its founding in May 2018, Him For Her has made hundreds of valuable introductions to board-ready women.
Level 20
Level 20 is a European-based non-for-profit organization that aims to promote and improve gender diversity in the private equity industry. Level 20's goal is for women to hold at least 20% of senior positions in the European private equity industry. In 2015, when the organization was founded, women occupied only around 5% of these positions.
Pathways to Higher Education
Pathways to Higher Education is a Philippines-based organization focused on equipping high potential but financially underprivileged students with the necessary academic and soft skills to become ethical and discerning leaders.
Toigo Foundation
The Toigo Foundation aims to foster the career advancement and increased leadership of underrepresented talent by creating mechanisms for greater inclusion from the classroom to the boardroom.
Windsor Fellowship
The Windsor Fellowship identifies disadvantaged students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds across the UK and provides career guidance and development skills with the help of intensive training sessions, internships and career mentoring.