Page 23 – Top1000funds.com

Many European and UK asset owners have pulled their allocation to hedge funds in recent years, unsure what multiple strategies with different outcomes are trying to achieve or if hedge funds really do capitalize on bull markets and protect them in a downturn.

But the TfL Pension Fund, the open scheme for workers across London’s transport network, remains firmly committed to hedge funds in its £14 billion portfolio where a 13.6 per cent allocation to liquid alternatives allows the fund to tap the one free lunch in investment – diversification.

“We are a bit unique in this space,” Padmesh Shukla, chief investment officer at TfL Pension Fund, told Top1000funds.com.

The fund uses hedge funds to diversify equity beta risk – and to some extent rates and credit risk – in a strategy based on key principles encapsulated in three allocations. A premium bucket comprises classic alternative risk premiums where the Fund refuses to pay 2:20 fees.

“Why pay for returns if they are correlated to equity beta in the book?” says Shukla. “We are not going to pay for a levered version of beta. Not everything deserves a 2:20 structure.”

He is prepared to pay for clearly defined, uncorrelated pure alpha, however. This second program comprises macro, discretionary, systematic and some multi strategy and relative value strategies that are impossible to recreate elsewhere.

A third, satellite element to the book comprises niche strategies that are less scalable and allocations with much smaller ticket sizes than the premium or core allocations. These strategies may be with emerging managers for example and must have a low correlation to strategies in the other buckets to ensure diversification across the whole book.

Other pillars to the allocation include governance support and robust backing from the top. When the long only equity beta format posts three times the return and trustees question value for money, the team will face difficult questions.

Validation for the allocation was most notable in 2022 when no matter what investors held, everything from globally diversified equity, bonds, and credit, was down. Shukla recalls that although the fund suffered on the long side, it held its assets under management flat, thanks to hedge funds.

“When everything wobbled, the hedge funds portfolio, with its left tail risk construct provided the much-needed ballast for the Fund.”

Cutting out carbon

Shukla is currently focused on reducing and measuring carbon emissions in the hedge fund allocation in line with the fund’s introduction of a net zero strategy in 2021. When hedge funds have a physical exposure to bonds and equities, he notices encouraging progress capturing carbon.

For example, UK-based equity hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund Management, a long-only equity hedge fund, uses standard templates for reporting. It is successfully pursuing net zero targets through voting and clear engagement initiatives and is never shy in expressing its displeasure where the progress is unsatisfactory, he says.

“ESG and net zero is in the DNA of the fund; they are also doing great work around engagement with companies.”

Still, outside public markets despite “positive” progress that is “worth our effort” he notes making headway is slower. Many hedge funds are intangible by nature, comprising wide-ranging synthetic exposure via futures and options to FX, rates, commodities, and credit like the Fund’s large book in macro and trend.

Working out what to measure, and how, is difficult.

“In these cases, we are working with managers and the industry more widely to understand if the right metrics are being included and reported. We need a regulatory regime to flow through to managers across jurisdictions.”

Shukla continues that in some places it’s “fairly easy” to identify where there is not direct carbon exposure in synthetic allocations – for example US rates. But in others, like commodities, it gets more complex. Carbon exposure in short allocations where investors have taken an active stance on not owning a company is another thorny area.

“If you are invested in a long-short strategy in equity or credit and you are running a net short book, does that mean you can book [the carbon] benefit of being short in view of long positions?”

He adds that accurately measuring emissions in hedge funds is still a balancing act as investors strive to neither under nor over report. He doesn’t want to rely on technicalities or leave questions unanswered, but is also wary of issues like double counting or using revenue as a measure of emissions.

“We want to be sure where we are making real progress. It is about being consistent and pragmatic.”

Other sources of diversification

Diversification doesn’t only come via hedge funds. Other allocations like re-insurance, where the fund has invested for the last ten years, and emerging markets, are important sources. For example re-insurance, where the fund has a $300 million allocation via separate accounts rather than pooled funds to better tailor the allocation to its own time horizon and risk appetite, is the only investment that is not driven by the economic cycle, says Shukla.

“Reinsurance is an act of God and you can’t find a better diversifying asset.”

The fund’s investment in re-insurance is global and across the spectrum, including private markets. He doesn’t give managers a return target, instead the allocation is wholly risk driven.

“We set the risk the manager can take, and from that they build a globally diversified re-insurance book.”

The same principles of diversification and robust rationale underscore the allocation to emerging markets, another corner of the portfolio that distinguishes the fund from peers, more so given emerging markets haven’t been a great story recently.

“With hindsight, the best market to be invested in is the US. But emerging markets provide one of the highest equity risk premiums, so we are not looking to unwind our exposure. It is consistent with our long-term investment thesis.”

Despite his enthusiasm for emerging market public and private equity, debt, infrastructure, and hedge funds, he avoids private credit. Uncertainties around the rule of law and bankruptcy processes in developing countries can leave investors out of pocket, particularly given private credit investors’ position in the capital structure can impinge their ability to enforce security.

Going with the ebb and flow

In recent years, Shukla has gradually reduced the equity allocation and increased the allocation to alternatives where investments include private credit and private equity (where he notices interesting opportunities starting to appear as co-investor and in the secondary market) infrastructure, and re-insurance.

Paring back and building out the different portfolios has come in response to the ebbs and flows of the market – like building out private credit off the back of changes in spreads, for example.

“The market will always throw opportunity at you, and we use dislocations or out of favour sectors to pick up the pieces and build our long term strategic asset allocation.”

The market certainly threw opportunity the fund’s way when long term UK real rates surged during last year’s LDI crisis. Although it was a painful experience for many UK pension funds with large exposure to government bonds, the Fund has been a net beneficiary.

Shukla went into the LDI crisis with a low hedge ratio of around 8 per cent, and when real rates moved from nearly -4 per cent during peak COVID to +2 per cent (currently +1-1.5 per cent), he used the swing to increase the hedge ratio to around 33 per cent. Combined with proxy hedges via investments where the payout is linked to inflation, the portfolio is currently hedged around 40 per cent.

“For a fund that is still open to new members, that is quite a significant amount,” he says. “Long term real rates really are the best deal on the table and we have leveraged this in the context of our LDI strategy,” he says.

The fund has 25 manager relationships with close to 45 mandates, meaning some managers run multiple mandates. “We try to not have too many mandates with too many different managers. We aim to have meaningful partnership where we have high conviction to get the trade-off right between over-diversification and too much concentration.”

All management is outsourced leaving the internal team – around eight- focused on strategy and risk management, compliance, sustainability, reporting communication and technology. The entire portfolio sits on Aladdin which helps the team lever up its understanding of risk in the book, across all the assets.

The UK’s Smart Pension already exceeds £5 billion and is one of the fastest growing defined contribution Master Trusts in the country. Launched in 2014 it serves more than 1.4 million members and more than 70,000 employers in the UK. It receives regular contribution inflows of £1 billion annually and anticipates doubling within three years.

“Smart Pension was initially launched in response to the UK Government’s change to make it a legal requirement for UK businesses to set up and contribute into a workplace pension plan for their employees,” Paul Bucksey, chief investment officer of Smart Pension tells Top1000funds.com.

Alongside organic growth, Smart Pension has expanded through a string of strategic consolidations. In July 2023 it acquired Evolve Pensions, a leading provider of UK workplace pension services. This acquisition was the latest in a consolidation strategy which now includes nine former master trusts.

Bucksey predicts that consolidation in the UK DC landscape will continue, moving from around 1,800 single employer trusts and 35 master trusts today to just “hundreds” of single employer trusts and “about 15 master trusts” in the next five years. “The number of master trusts will reduce considerably, and the UK government and regulators are pushing towards that.”

“The workplace pension marketplace is changing fast, and master trusts are key drivers of that change. More and more employers in the UK are using these simple and effective retirement savings structures to reduce risk, lower costs, improve oversight and upgrade the investment options available to their employees. They offer significant potential benefits to both employers and members,” he continues.

Bucksey argues that winning market share depends on delivering better value for savers. Size and efficiency are important but a leap forward in technology is also essential. Much of the industry is still underpinned by clunky and expensive 20th century IT systems, amplifying risk and frustrating opportunities to create value for employers and members, he argues.

“We offer a number of investment options our members can use if they wish to make their own investment decisions, but most use one of our managed strategies where we automatically move them as they get older into asset classes that are more aligned with how they may choose to access their pension savings. These changes begin to be made when a member is eight years from their selected retirement age.”

evolving Investment strategies

The Smart Sustainable Growth fund (used in the growth phase of the most popular managed strategy) has a typical bundled charge of 0.30 per annum.

“The asset allocation of the Smart Sustainable Growth fund is 80 per cent in equities, 10 per cent in fixed income and 10 per cent in private credit. When setting the asset allocation, we are looking to optimise returns for our members against volatility and cost,” Bucksey says.

He explains that within the equity bucket, Smart Pension has focused on reducing emissions and has also allocated to a biodiversity strategy. Similarly, the fixed income bucket is invested in green bonds.

“We are reviewing the asset allocation and may increase the allocation to equities slightly,” he says.

“Our technology allows us to keep our administration costs down which in turn allows us to spend proportionally more on investments than most of our competitors. In addition to integrating more expensive ESG components into our investments, we’ve also been investing 10 per cent of the Smart Sustainable Growth fund in a private credit strategy for almost three years now.”

Bucksey adds that investing in illiquid assets will improve returns for members and provide greater diversification going forward. “We are actively looking at private renewable infrastructure as well as private equity right now, and I would expect that we will be investing in these asset classes by the beginning of next year.”

“Having very strong recurring inflows enables us to invest in longer term and less liquid assets already. As our AUM gets closer to £10 billion, we expect to be able to invest on a direct basis which should provide us with additional opportunities that aren’t currently possible using pooled funds.”

Technoligical advancement

Bucksey argues that as the UK pensions industry faces transformative shifts due to the Mansion House reforms and the exploration of a ‘pot for life’ model, the imperative for technological advancement has never been more pronounced.

For pension providers, this means prioritising technological upgrades not just for compliance, but to effectively reduce administration costs and deliver higher quality investment solutions and an improved customer experience.

The winners and the consolidators will be those that embrace and invest in their underlying technology ahead of the inevitable changes that are coming, not only to avoid passing higher entry costs to members but also to help ensure the industry is equipped for the demands of a rapidly evolving financial landscape, where both efficiency and adaptability will be key to success.

“We’re uniquely positioned to deliver on this. Right now many of our industry’s best improvements are coming from digital solutions and master trusts,” he concludes.

Germany’s €8 billion MetallRente, the pension fund for workers in the metal and electrical industries, has embarked on a new, revenue-seeking strategy. Ever since it was founded in 2001, MetallRente has prioritised a restricted and conservative strategy focused on guarantees but it has began rolling out a new equity-related product for beneficiaries that allows savers to significantly boost their exposure to capital markets.

MetallRente’s pension offerings comprises a €7.5 billion direct insurance option (MetallDirektversicherung and MetallPensionskasse) that guarantees retirement income with a focus on fixed income products. A much smaller, alternative offering, the €450 million Pensionsfonds allocation, offers exposure to the capital markets but has never attracted huge assets under management amongst Germany’s conservative saver cohort since it was launched in 2003.

Now in a strategy that combines guarantees with risk reward, the €8 billion insurance portfolio includes an equity offering in a bold move managing director Hansjoerg Muellerleile tells Top1000funds.com he has introduced deliberately slowly.

The introduction of the new allocation, outsourced to Allianz Global Investors – sole asset manager for the entire portfolio – has trailed the wider German pension sector. Many other funds raced ahead of MetallRente in a reform process that has seen the sector reduce the level of guarantees on contributions and free up space for higher equity quotas.

MetallRente rolled out its new insurance/equity hybrid model later than others so it could tap all the benefits of a close follower, rather than risk leading the pack.

“We learnt two things from waiting,” explains Muellerleile. “We gained insights into how the market was developing around us, and we grew confident that our customers would want the product because of its low cost and simplicity.”

Muellerleile’s patience has been rewarded by strong demand, evident in the 8,000 jump in new employers (occupational contracts) since the product was offered last April. In Germany, employers choose which product to offer beneficiaries, he explains. “Over the last year, we’ve seen a big appetite for our new, insurance- based contracts that also have risk exposure. It reflects a growing and significant risk appetite amongst our customers.”

The new product offers global, passive, equity exposure of between 30-45 per cent, a ratio that is automatically scaled according to a beneficiary’s age. Meanwhile, scaling up equity risk involves lowering the insurance-based guarantee from 100 to 80 per cent.

“Risk appetite is stronger amongst beneficiaries with a high income. If people are not earning much, and need every cent for their pension, then a guaranteed income in old age is of real value,” he says.

Growing the employer base and assets under management is supporting Muellerleile’s ability to lower costs. MetallRente’s increasing scale means it is better positioned to cut administration and asset management costs paid by beneficiaries, and increase returns.

“We are in a better position to re-negotiate the costs of our contracts by growing the assets under management.”

Enthusiasm for the new hybrid product has also served to highlight lacklustre appetite for MetallRente’s Pensionsfonds allocation, split around 60:40 between risk (comprising equity and corporate bonds) and insurance products. Following an asset liability study last year, a larger element of this portfolio was moved into corporate bonds and fixed-income products after the study revealed the volatility-dampening impact of investing in corporate bonds.

However, Muellerleile says it is difficult integrating sustainability in the corporate bond allocation.

“The data on corporate bonds isn’t always great. But we manged to choose a specific corporate bonds fund that resonates with our sustainability strategy.”

Alongside continuing to attract employers to MetallRente’s new hybrid portfolio, Muellerleile will spend much of 2024 focused on how to tactically adjust the portfolio in response to market volatility. The European Central Bank has signalled it may cut interest rates from June from an all-time high of 4 per cent.

“The ECB is likely to adjust interest rates that will have implications for the portfolio on a tactical level,” he says.

Another focus will be incorporating anticipated changes in the EU’s Taxonomy. Pressure for a faster transition – and bias to other energy sources – is now likely since Europe is no longer drawing on the Russian gas that shaped much of the initial taxonomy.

“When the Taxonomy was first drawn up, Russian gas was plentiful. The Taxonomy will have to evaluate the impact of that,” he concludes.

Recent research by The Conexus Institute identifies significant dispersion in the operating environment for Australia’s superannuation funds. Here they consider the impact on fund investment models including internalisation, private assets and offshore investment teams.

Dispersion is increasing in the operating environment for Australian superannuation funds, with size and flows the most obvious differentiators. This motivates fund-specific investment models, especially in the areas of internalisation, private assets and development of offshore investment teams.

The Conexus Institute’s recently released 2024 edition of its State of Super Research Booklet, provides insights into the state of the Australian super fund sector using data for funds that are regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). In this article we draw out some key insights and consider how they impact fund-specific investment models.

Dynamics of the Australian super industry

There are around 50 super funds with assets exceeding A$1 billion, with the largest at June 2023, AustralianSuper, approaching A$300 billion ($200 billion). The diagram below identifies that the 14 largest funds (the ‘big 14’) manage about 82 per cent of industry assets. There exists sizable dispersion in fund size, and the level of dispersion is only increasing. The market share of the largest super funds continues to increase as the system grows overall, making for some sizeable funds.

Fund flows is another dimension where even greater dispersion is evident. Flows for APRA-regulated funds, which account for contributions, pension payments and member switching (choice-of-fund) activity, netted out at a positive 2.4 per cent of assets in FY2023. Note this captures member-related flows, and does not account for investment income and returns. However, closer examination reveals that only two-thirds of super funds are experiencing positive net flows, meaning that one-third is experiencing outflows.

Below we combine these size and growth numbers into a single chart to create a summary view of the dynamics of the Australian super fund industry. Each dot point represents a super fund, with size appearing on the horizontal axis and net flows on the vertical axis.

The horizontal red line represents the 2.4 per cent average net flow rate. The vertical red line of A$30 billion reflects a number that APRA has used as an indicator of reasonable scale. Below we briefly reflect on each quadrant to explain the situation faced by super funds:

Quadrant 1 includes small but fast growing super funds. Our research identifies that often these high growth levels moderate over time, sometimes before these super funds reach good scale.
Quadrant 2 is where most super funds would like to be: good scale and experiencing above industry average growth rates. Our research identifies that this quadrant is sticky for some funds but elusive for others, with no funds managing to shift into this quadrant over the last year.
Quadrant 3 contains super funds that have good scale but are experiencing a rate of growth below the industry average and in some cases negative. The challenge for these super funds is to successfully develop and implement a growth strategy.
Quadrant 4 super funds face the difficult situation of being below scale and experiencing below industry average growth rates. The regulator is likely exploring the sustainability of super funds in this quadrant. Many will be looking to merge with other funds.

Evolution of investment models

Given the disperse dynamics across the Australian super industry, it makes sense that we observe super funds evolving their investment model to one that is appropriate given their situation.

Amongst the largest super funds we are seeing increasingly sophisticated investment activities. Some of the major investment management trends in Australia include internalisation, direct participation in the private asset space, and establishment of offshore investment capabilities. AustralianSuper, for instance, manages over 50 per cent of assets internally and has offices in Beijing, London and New York. Last year Aware Super announced an international expansion of its investment function, the first step of which was the establishment of its London office.

Internalisation of asset management among large super funds is not a new characteristic of the Australian super fund industry. However, the breadth and sophistication of internalised strategies is increasing, as are the size of internal investment teams. Examples of the degree of sophistication include active management of public markets, more direct involvement in private transactions, and greater focus on cash and liquidity management.

The increasing sophistication of private asset activities among many large super funds is notable in this regard, with many of the large super funds having sizable private asset transaction teams, allowing funds to take on deals in a syndicated model (with asset managers and/or other asset owners) or on a standalone basis.

Finally, some of the biggest super funds are establishing large offshore investment teams to support activities in both public and private assets. A broad range of arguments are offered in support for creation of offshore investment teams, including proximity to private asset deal flow, improved ability to analyse and collaborate over private assets and more effective time zones for trading. There are also strong human resource arguments such as access to a larger investment talent pool and increased diversity.

Not all funds are following these trends in investment model evolution for a range of reasons. Some logically flow from the size and scale situations faced by the fund. Others may be more legacy-related.

Scale is a sizable barrier for smaller super funds when considering their investment model, in particular with regard to internalisation and private assets. These areas require an uplift in the sophistication of the investment model and development in a range of areas including investment teams, reporting, risk, compliance, and governance. For many smaller funds, the required uplift in capabilities may prove too costly relative to the potential benefits.

The flows experienced by a super fund can also be an input into a fund’s investment model. It is rational to assume that funds that are experiencing outflows have less capacity to allocate to illiquid assets. However, our research suggests that flows are only one driver. The diagram below comparing super fund allocations to illiquid assets against flow rates reveals there is some relationship, but also much variation around the line of best fit.

Legacy reasons also help explain why some super funds are not evolving their investment models as much as others. One influence is the significant work associated with fund mergers. Flow-on activities from a merger – such as team integration, product consolidation, systems development and investment philosophy and strategy harmonisation – can last years. There can be little opportunity for other initiatives, especially those expanding the scope of investment activities.

Finally, evolving an investment model does not guarantee positive outcomes. Some super fund boards and their chief investment officers may take a more cautious view of the net benefits of implementing a range of activities that entail greater sophistication. There are many risks related to implementation, operational, governance and cultural challenges. For instance, a few large super funds continue to use a substantially outsourced model, including Australian Retirement Trust and Hostplus.

The Conexus Institute is a retirement-focused research think tank philanthropically funded by Conexus Financial, publisher of Top1000funds.com.

David Bell is executive director and Geoff Warren is research fellow at The Conexus Institute.

Roy Swan, director of mission investments at the Ford Foundation, is helping The Church Commissioners for England set up a new impact fund to tackle its slavery legacy. He tells Top1000funds.com about the fund that will provide grants and make impact investments intended to increase access to capital for Black-led businesses.

The Church Commissioners for England, which manages the £10.3 billion assets and properties of the Church of England has established an oversight group to advise the Commissioners on their approach to deploying a landmark £100 million commitment made in response to the Church of England’s sponsorship of the transatlantic chattel slave trade.

The oversight group’s members include leading global experts from a variety of fields, including academic, advocacy, community development, investing, journalism, law, and theology from all over the world.

Roy Swan, director of mission investments at the Ford Foundation, also a member of the group, tells top1000Funds this melting pot filled with a wide range of perspectives and decades of practical knowledge, has begun to collaborate to chart a course of action that will ensure this innovative fund will leave an enduring legacy.

“The focus at this early stage has been providing the Church Commissioners with a clear, impactful, and ambitious strategy to launch the Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice, HRJ,” he says.

The HRJ fund will provide grants to community-oriented NGOs, academic research on the continuing legacy of transatlantic chattel enslavement, and make impact investments intended to increase access to capital to Black-led businesses; all into perpetuity, says Swan.

The oversight group recently released a report containing several recommendations for the fund, which included an assessment that this fund, while a historic gesture, is just a start

“The Church Commissioners should invite others, including Christian institutions and other moral authorities, those with blood on their hands and those who are inspired by noble action, to join this worthy effort,” he says.

The Church Commissioners warmly received the oversight group’s recommendations which Swan calls “encouraging,” adding: “I know from experience that the best impact investing strategies take time to design based on rigorous, meticulous, and wide-ranging analysis. I look forward to helping the Commissioners on the journey from plan to execution.”

Much like the impact investing endowment he manages at the Ford Foundation, the HRJ fund is intended to be perpetual. That means it must generate a financial return of its spending plus inflation over time.

“That is a higher financial hurdle rate than other funds. But as we’ve seen at Ford, aligning an investment strategy within those parameters can not only be done, it can be done well.”

Achieving market-rate returns through impact investing is harder than with traditional investing, but Swan says that’s a challenge the team have embraced.

“Just like with traditional investing, impact investing requires a great deal of diligence and rigorous analysis. At the Ford Foundation, we’re very pleased with the returns we’ve achieved in our Mission Investments program, which is why we believe that others can also achieve success.”

Over the portfolio’s first five years, Ford’s impact investing endowment generated a 28 per cent compound annual return.

“We see the Ford Foundation impact investing strategy as a case study for other endowments and institutional investors on how to take advantage of unconventional approaches to generate conventional market-rate financial returns together with meaningful and measurable positive social impact.”

“The Church of England has made a significant, and symbolic step in the right direction with the Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice. I have no doubt that this fund will provide a template for others because of its inspirational and aspirational objectives. Although impact investing is harder than traditional investing, the returns are also more robust– financial and social– and lead us to a brighter and more prosperous future. That’s hard work worth doing,” he concludes.

A clear focus on and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is helping the $480 billion CalPERS support its senior staff and managers to optimise the performance of the teams it already has, as well as providing a valuable framework for attracting and recruiting a diverse range of new talent.

When CalPERS chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officer Marlene Timberlake D’Adamo presented a DEI activities and accomplishments review to the $480 billion pension fund’s board of administration in January, she could reflect on 18 business plan initiatives, 18 strategic measures and 57 deliverables across the 2022-23 year.

These were achieved across the fund’s five DEI pillars: culture, talent, health equity, supplier diversity and investment. CalPERS’ DEI roadmap for 2023-24 encompasses 20 business plan initiatives, 21 strategic measures and 95 deliverables.

It’s a full program, and one on which Timberlake D’Adamo provides regular progress reports.

“We go to our board, and we provide updates of all the activities that we’re doing, where we think we’re going, where we’d like to go, with the work that we’re doing,” Timberlake D’Adamo says.

“Our framework is centred on our mission, and our mission is to pay pension and health benefits to members and their beneficiaries. We’re a [$480 billion] pension plan, as well as we have a health program that is very significant. We cover about a million and a half people in terms of health benefits, both active members – so those are members that work for the state and local municipalities – as well as retirees.”

Timberlake D’Adamo describes her role as “the architect, conductor, quarterback, if you will” of CalPERS’ DEI activities.

“Our framework has five different pillars that we’ve identified as what are the things that are critical to us being able to deliver on our mission,” she says.

“What we do during the course the year is, really underneath the framework, different initiatives that are geared toward improving the efforts that we see and the impacts that occur with respect to those five pillars.”

Among the range of initiatives and deliverables outlined in its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Activities and Accomplishments Review, dated January this year, CalPERS said it ran “uncovering unconscious bias in recruiting and interviewing” training, and used an augmented writing tool to reduce biased language in job ads and descriptions, with the aim of attracting candidates from a broader pool of talent.

Timberlake D’Adamo says CalPERS is interested in “making sure that our leaders are bringing the most positive things that they can to their teams”.

“I’m thinking about different opportunities for training, say, that we have about inclusive leadership, and thinking about different ways that we actually can help our managers,” she says.

“A lot of times, as a manager, it’s really hard, because you’ve got a lot of things that you have to do. Sometimes a team member who is asking a lot of questions, or just doesn’t seem to be going along with the program, slows you down.

“A lot of what we do is…like building a bridge, between the manager, who really is focused on getting the work done and making the results, and the team member who is focused on the same thing but is just seeing it in a different way.”

Timberlake D’Adamo says CalPERS creates opportunities both formal and informal for training managers.

“There’s leadership training, but then there’s also opportunities to have dialogue with managers, opportunities like bringing in speakers that we do on an enterprise-wide basis that helps folks to understand how do you make sure that you’re actively managing your team in the best way possible,” she says.

But Timberlake D’Adamo adds that “the best way possible” is necessarily a subjective assessment.

“One manager might feel they have certain things that they want to see or expect; and then another manager maybe has different expectations,” she says.

“A function of bringing all that together into the organisation [is] how do we allow managers to operate independently, as they do with their teams, but then also set some clear norms.”

Timberlake D’Adamo says the benefits to CalPERS as an organisation, or to any organisation, from equipping senior staff and managers to understand and integrate diversity, equity and inclusion into how they manage teams is clear.

“The team is more engaged, I think that there’s better communication, there is an opportunity for the team to really thrive,” she says.

Timberlake D’Adamo says that a clear and committed DEI focus helps the organisation support employees, who at the end of the day “want to have value, they want to have input, they want to be heard”.

“If there’s one thing that I’ve realised, it is the extent to which people really want to be heard – the need, actually, the drive to be heard,” she says.

“The benefits of getting it close to right or right, if you’re able to do that, is just that: creating a team [ where] people really feel valued, they feel respected.

“And again, those are the things that people should feel. When you’re on a team, and you’re really contributing, it creates an opportunity for that to be felt. That that helps the organization. It definitely helps the organisation.”

Recognition of DEI issues not only helps an organisation make the most of the teams it already has, but it’s also a critical tool in improving the strike rate of new hires. Timberlake D’Adamo says all organisations are looking for ways to make better decisions on who to bring in, to reduce the complexity, cost, and hassle of turnover from not hiring the most suitable people in the first place.

“What everybody is trying to do in their own way is trying to get some insight and some intel so that they can make a decision, a hiring decision…they’re not going to regret at end of the day,” she says.

“Everybody’s trying to figure out how do we make the most out of the opportunities that we have in terms of creating a team. [If] there’s 10 slots, how are we going to pick the 10 best people that fit into this? What is the matrix? What is the combination that we’re going to build that is going to get us that result?

“Turnover, as we all know, costs a lot of money – not just money, but think of time and think of historical knowledge. It is 100 per cent one of the most important decisions that organisations make.”