Corporate governance report Composition, succession and valuation continued DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION Gender, age and ethnicity The Board’s ambition to secure the best talent in Dunelm Gender diversity has been discussed for many years and we includes being known for our inclusive, diverse and tolerant have made progress in balancing our gender ratios in the culture, as encapsulated in our ’stronger together’ shared workforce and seen a shift towards female representation value. For Dunelm to continually improve as a business, it on our senior leadership team: 55% of our Executive Board is crucial that we select and recruit the best people in the and 38% of our senior leadership roles are held by women industry. This involves calling on the widest possible pool and 33% of Board members are female, as is the Company of candidates and selecting them based on their ability to Secretary. Full details of the gender balance on our Board do the job regardless of their gender, marital status, sexual and in our senior management population are set out on orientation, disability, race, religion, colour, nationality, ethnic page 68 in our Sustainability section. Dunelm published its in ae or gender reassignment. The Board agrees that fourth gender pay report later than usual in October 2021, diversity of input helps to promote better decision-making as per revised UK Government timings and guidelines (which and is focused on three broad activities: exclude any colleague on furlough or receiving reduced pay). • Refine the way we recruit. As this represented a considerable percentage of the Dunelm population the Board also received a more comparable • Identify, support and mentor existing diverse talent in the summary. An overview is provided on page 68 in our business. Sustainability section. • Increase the diversity amongst senior appointments as they are made. As part of its oversight of colleague policies and practices across the Group, the Board also receives a full breakdown of ‘This is Me’ programme our colleague population by age, and for the last 12 months In FY21, a significant programme – overseen by the Board – we have been collecting ethnicity data on new joiners. was launched to promote inclusion and diversity throughout In 2021 we also trialled our first colleague ‘census’. Through the Group under the theme ‘This is Me’ with the support of a our planned census roll out we aim to provide the Board specialist consultancy. In the past year, the focus has been on with more robust ethnicity data, to enable us to develop ‘educating’ and ‘starting the conversation’. Over 300 leaders further our strategy and action plan. Further commentary in the business participated in ‘Leading in an Inclusive World’ on our colleague population and findings is made in our training and the Group Board and Executive Board attending Sustainability section, page 68. awareness-raising workshops on specific topics, designed to educate and stimulate discussion (see below). Policies Our Board Diversity Policy, which has been in place for more FY21 BOARD AND EXECUTIVE BOARD INCLUSION than a decade, is set out on page 129. AND DIVERSITY PRESENTATIONS Topic Presenter Diversity Amanda Cox, People and Stores Director Diversity – ‘This is Me’ proposalAmanda Cox, People and Stores Director Black Lives Matter Discussion Raph Richards, Chair of Governors, Djangoly Strelley Academy, Mentor LGBT+ Martin Mason and Leng Montgomery (Unleashed) Social mobility Tunde Banjoko, OBE 128 DUNELM GROUP PLCANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2021