ITV has been recognised as one of The Times’ Top 50 Employers for women, having been selected by gender equality experts at Business in the Community, part of the Prince’s Responsible Business Network.

The Times Top 50 Employers for Women is the UK’s most highly profiled and well-established listing of employers leading the way on workplace gender equality. Its rankings recognise employers who make gender equality part of their business strategy at all levels.

The criteria for inclusion includes the roles of senior leaders, actions taken to increase the representation of women in senior positions and ensuring gender balance at all levels, recruitment and progression.

ITV has established a data-driven, systemic approach to increasing female representation, building a pipeline to recruit and develop women at all levels. Structures, programmes and support is provided to build confidence and visibility and development opportunities throughout the business to allow women to thrive. These include the Career Returners Programme aimed at offering experienced and talented professionals the opportunity to return to careers after an extended break, the High Potential Leadership Programme to identify and accelerate the development of talented colleagues for senior positions, secondment opportunities to identify senior diverse successors, the ITV Women’s Network, a supportive forum to build confidence and brand and our apprenticeship programme, which has high levels of female intake.

Currently ITV staff are over 50% female personnel across both on-screen output and off-screen roles. Representation of females within senior leadership roles is currently at 44.8%, with published targets to be reached by 2023 including an objective to reach 50% within the Senior Leadership Team and 30% at board level.

In addition, ITV continues to push for greater representation in our programming with recent drama commissions including Beecham House, Deep Water, Bancroft, Honour, Too Close and Flesh and Blood all having been led by female writers.

Carolyn McCall, CEO at ITV, said: “We appreciate this recognition of the whole-hearted, on-going commitment to gender equality throughout ITV. This is embodied at every level of the business, from our apprenticeship scheme, to our High Potential Leadership Programme, to how our shows are made and look on screen and our target of increased representation on our board. ITV will continue to be a place that attracts talented women, develops women and gives women unlimited opportunities to be at the heart of our success.”

Gender Equality Campaign Director for Business in the Community Charlotte Woodworth said: “Business in the Community’s Times Top 50 Employers for Women list is the longest running and most widely respected award for employers committed to achieving equality for women at work. This year marks ten years of the awards, and the bar was especially high. A decade of expertise and experience underpins Business In the Community’s assessment, which sees organisations reviewed across a wide range of areas including transparency around pay practices, family friendly policies and to what extent the gender equality agenda is embedded into wider strategy.”

This month ITV has also announced its new Diversity Acceleration Plan which pledges to create more opportunities across underrepresented groups to deliver measurable change across all levels and parts of ITV. The full release appears here