Hippo’s diversity in a snapshot:
At Hippo, we believe firmly that it’s important for us to be as representative of wider society and the end users of the services we design and build as possible.
Recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse teams is therefore fundamental to our business approach.
All employees at Hippo are asked to complete their personal data on our HR System to help us understand our workforce composition. Though they can always opt-out, we strongly encourage disclosure as this information helps us to observe overall trends, make well-informed decisions and improve Hippo for everyone.
The questions cover a range of demographics, including: gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, trans/transgender status, religion, and socio-economic background. Access to this data is highly restricted: it is stored securely and is kept strictly confidential.
We also run a number of employee surveys annually (general engagement survey; diversity, inclusion and belonging survey; and wellbeing survey). While these surveys are entirely anonymous and therefore confidential, responses are linked to the employee’s demographic data so we can see which diverse groups respond more positively and negatively.
For the sake of transparency, we have begun to disclose demographic data and survey results publicly.
The following percentage figures are presented as a proportion of the total workforce at Hippo: non-disclosures (including those selecting ‘prefer not to say’) have not been excluded from those totals. This means that many of them are likely to be conservative and would be higher as a proportion with non-disclosures excluded from the total.
As of the 1st April 2026:
Gender
44.5% of Hippos were women, 57.9% were men, and 0.9% were non-binary
The proportion of women in Hippo has increased from 41.2% in April 2025
By comparison, in 2024 the UK tech sector female population average was 28.9%*
Ethnicity
7.9% of Hippos were Asian, 3.5% were Black and 5.1% were Mixed or Multiple Ethnicities
The proportion of Asian and Black Hippos was just slightly lower than the national population for England and Wales**, meanwhile the Asian population across the UK tech sector in 2024 was higher at 18%
Disability
7.2% of Hippos were disabled or had a long term health condition (physical and/or mental health)
The proportion of disabled Hippos has increased from 6.3% in April 2025
This is still lower than the overall national population (estimated to be 22%), but slightly higher than the overall tech sector average of 6%*
Neurodiversity
When asked “do you consider yourself to be neurodivergent?”
16.0% of Hippos were neurodivergent, representing a marginal increase from 15.8% in April 2025.
Sexual orientation
4.8% of Hippos were bisexual and 3.2% were gay or lesbian, while 0.9% said ‘another sexual orientation’.
Religion
18.5% of Hippos identified as having a religion, while 54.3% said ‘no religion’.
Disclosure rates for questions relating to trans status and socio-economic background are currently too low to report these demographics.
*Tech Talent Charter
**Government Annual Population Survey/APS data (ONS)
Positive action
While we are proud of our staff diversity and our inclusive culture, we acknowledge we still have work to do – particularly where disability and ethnicity are concerned.
To that end, we have signed the Business in the Community ‘Race at Work’ Charter and are working to meet the 7 core commitments of the Charter.
We have also obtained Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader status) and are implementing outstanding recommendations under a continuous improvement plan.
As part of our wider positive action on disability, we:
- Operate the ‘offer an interview’ scheme in recruitment to all disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a role
- Maintain community partnerships with disability charities and community organisations to support their objectives and source disabled talent
- Run a Disability ‘Community of Belonging’ for employees, including a safe space for disabled or neurodivergent Hippos, and an open group for wider staff engagement
- Offer reasonable adjustments, in both the recruitment process and in day-to-day employment for any candidates or employees that may require them
- Use an office accessibility matrix which includes accessibility criteria for any new facilities and support continuous improvements in existing facilities
- Are rolling out mandatory training on disability and neurodiversity inclusion to all staff
- Have begun analysing our disability pay gap: our median gap is currently 6.5% (down from 12.9% in 2025) - this figure compares well to the UK average of 15.5%* but shows there is still more work for us to do to close the gap. (*TUC)
- Monitor the engagement, satisfaction and sentiments of disabled and neurodivergent employees through surveys to understand where improvements can be made.
Mental health and wellbeing at Hippo
Our wellbeing approach consists of five pillars through which we conduct initiatives and activities to support the different needs of our people:
- Supportive and Inclusive Culture
- Mental Wellbeing
- Financial Wellbeing
- Physical Wellbeing
- Personal and Professional Growth
Our mental health and wellbeing initiatives include:
- An annual wellbeing survey to understand the experiences of Hippos in relation to health and wellbeing
- Being a registered Mindful Employer - a charter signatory for Employers Positive about Mental Health
- Mandatory training for all staff on Positive Mental Health at Work
- An Employee Assistance Programme
- A company-wide team of MHFAs (Mental Health First Aiders)
- Promotion of mental health awareness days and external speakers from mental health community organisations
- A flexible employee benefits programme that can be tailored to individual need
- Fitness communities and groups, and yoga sessions twice a week
- Monthly staff socials, Communities of Belonging (inclusion networks) and an allowance of 2 community volunteering days per year
- Financial wellbeing sessions
From our annual survey data (2025), we can report that:
- 98% agree that the physical working conditions at Hippos are safe
- 94% say that the working environment at Hippo is a respectful one
- 94% say that the opportunity to work remotely positively affects their work-life balance
- 91% feel comfortable asking other members of their team for help
- 89% say that their manager shows that they care about them as a person
- 88% are proud to tell others that they are part of this company
- 86% say that if they are struggling, they know who to turn to for help
- 81% feel included and valued by those they work directly with at Hippo
- 81% feel they can be themselves at work
- 77% are aware of the resources available at Hippo to maintain positive wellbeing
In 2025/2026 (by the end of which we had 569 permanent employees), we had 52 instances of employees taking up mental wellbeing support through either our Employee Assistance Programme or Mental Health First Aiders.
