We only use cookies for website functionality and security.

Diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are important elements of our people strategy. We believe the diversity of our directors, managers and employees should reflect the diversity in the world around us. We want everyone to feel welcome at Paragon and share their talents, helping us to broaden our perspective, understand our customers better and build a stronger business.

Our targets

Equal opportunities

Equal opportunities

We believe all employees should be able to work in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and bullying, and that employees along with job applicants, customers, retailers, business introducers and suppliers should be treated fairly. We invest in management training to ensure managers are equipped to support fair working practices and educate all employees to ensure the policy is fully embedded.

Women in finance

Women in Finance and diversity targets

In January 2022, we met our target to have 35% female representation in senior management positions. We’ve now revised our target to 40% by December 2025.

Leadership focus

Organisations that are more diverse and more inclusive are more successful. They are better places for people to work and they foster a greater sense of engagement and belonging.

Richard Rowntree
Managing Director – Mortgages

Paragon’s Managing Director of Mortgages, Richard Rowntree, is the senior executive responsible for equality, diversity and inclusion across the Group, including progress against the Women in Finance Charter and he represents Paragon on The City of London’s socio-economic taskforce.


Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Network

Made up of employees from across the Group, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Network was launched in 2020 to support and encourage a diverse range of talent. It provides a place where employees can share their challenges, experiences and ideas to build an equal, diverse and inclusive workforce.

EDI logo
Clipboard Icon

Understanding our people

We regularly request data from our employees to help us understand them better, including their age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and disability. This helps us evaluate how diverse we are and ensure we are creating equal opportunities for all our people.

Celebrating diversity

The EDI Network leads focus events throughout the year to celebrate diversity at Paragon and encourage employees to share their views on how to create a more inclusive workplace.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day

In March, we held a virtual panel discussion celebrating women’s achievements in our mission to drive gender equality.

Pride at Paragon

Pride at Paragon

June is Pride month, dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ people everywhere. From walking together at Birmingham Carnival Pride Parade, to charity rainbow cake sales and podcasts, there are lots of ways we are getting involved.

Black History Month

Black History Month

During October, we celebrated Black History Month by showcasing the work of Black artists, hosting a tropical food sale and supporting local Caribbean restaurants by offering discounts for Paragon employees.

Gender Pay Gap Report

This report measures the difference in average pay between males and females at Paragon.

It compares all employees, regardless of role or seniority. It doesn’t indicate that men and women in similar positions are paid different amounts, but it does highlight that men generally hold higher paid roles, encouraging us to take action to address this where we can.

Read full report

External partnerships

30 Percent Club

Cross-company mentoring programme

Paragon is part of an external mentoring programme, led by the 30% Club aimed at supporting females and those in under-represented groups looking to develop their careers and increasing diversity at senior levels.

Richard Rowntree

Progress Together

Paragon is a founding member of Progress Together, formed as a result of a Government-commissioned taskforce led by the City of London Corporation to improve socio-economic diversity in financial services.

Race At Work Charter

We have signed up to Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter designed to remove the barriers that ethnic minority groups face in recruitment and progression. We have committed to and are demonstrating the five Race at Work Charter principles:

1

appoint an Executive Sponsor for race

2

capture ethnicity data and publicise progress

3

commit at board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying

4

supporting equality in the workplace is the responsibility of all leaders and managers

5

take action that supports ethnic minority career progression

Disability Confident

We are a member of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means we can demonstrate that we have taken action and made commitments to support disabled people at work.

We provide paid employment to disabled people and we are committed to:

1

inclusive and accessible recruitment

2

communicating vacancies

3

offering an interview to disabled people

4

providing reasonable adjustments

5

supporting existing employees

Ready to apply

Interested? Take a look through our current vacancies and see if there’s something for you. You can also register with us and we’ll let you know when a vacancy comes up that suits your criteria.

Job vacancies

Search and apply

Got a question?

Application FAQs