WRA24 is officially open – here’s what you need to know

What’s your impact?

I’m very excited to once again by marking the open of this year’s Women’s Recognition Awards – our seventh since we launched!

Last year once again saw an even greater number of women and businesses enter our awards, which is a phenomenal sign that there’s plenty to shout about in the industry and plenty that we’re all proud of as we strive for a fairer financial services.

Our new, broader Diversity Equity & Inclusion categories went down a storm, too – congratulations to Atlyn Forde of Pepper Money for scooping our first ever EDI: Best Leadership award, Aviva for taking Best Employee Support, L&C for winning Best Customer Support and AMI for being named Community Champions!

I hope we’ll see the same again this year – we’re proud to shout about the wider work firms and individuals in our industry are doing, and we’re keen to see entries for these categories roll in.

Our theme for this year is ‘What’s your impact?’ – not only to encourage our entrants to think about the impact they’re having on the discussion of equality in our industry, but also on their workplaces, their colleagues and peers. And this doesn’t just apply to the work our nominees are doing – people can make their own impact on the fight for equality simply by making a nomination and spreading the word.

Many of us might assume that to have an impact on a movement or an industry, we need to do something huge, but that’s not the case – making small, consistent changes to the way we think, talk and lift up women in our industry has a huge collective impact, and that’s what we’re hoping to see this year.

New categories for 2024

You may have noticed we’ve added some new categories this year! By popular demand, we now have awards for Mortgage Administrator of the Year and Entrepeneur of the Year (so if you know any brilliant women who would fit the bill, make sure you enter them!), as well as the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – Mental Health Champion award, which can be won by either an individual or business.

It’s important to us that these awards evolve, so we’re glad to have included a handful more categories that will help us cover an even bigger scope of nominees. If you know a mortgage administrator who goes the extra mile, an entrepreneur who is leading the way, or a mental health champion who is changing the game for their employees, colleagues or clients… we want to hear about it. You can see the category descriptions and apply here.

What to expect for 2024

Aside from our new categories, it’s business as usual!

We’re looking for the very best, but that doesn’t mean the names everyone already knows – I want to encourage anyone who thinks they’ve made an impact in their work to apply, regardless of where they are in their career.

I wish all our applicants the very best of luck and I urge everyone else to consider making a nomination for this year’s awards: it only takes a few seconds, and your impact will continue to be felt long after!

Here's to #WRA24!