2. DIVERSITY IN THE BANKING
& FINANCE SECTOR
A WAY FORWARD
People strategy is key to the success of every organisation. Having a people
strategy that includes diversity is part and parcel of most corporate agendas, ever
since equal opportunities legislation was first enshrined in law several decades ago.
And yet diversity, or the lack thereof, continues to be a hot topic for debate. A
recent report by the Sutton Trust claimed that private schools are still a passport
to top jobs in Britain, giving fee-paying pupils a head start when it comes to future
prospects.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme was “pledge for parity”, highlighting
the fact that progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places. “The World
Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global
gender parity. In 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace
of progress meant the gender gap wouldn’t close entirely until 2133,” said the
campaign website.
Survey findings from the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD)
reveal that the proportion of female employees decreases with seniority in two-
thirds (67%) of organisations in the UK and just three in ten (31%) have taken
action to improve the gender diversity of their board.
While it’s true to say that recruiters are focusing on increasing the number of
gender diverse submissions and placements made, their clients are not necessarily
accurately measuring the impact of this on their organisations. In some cases,
diversity, rather than becoming a cultural shift, has become more of a tick-box
exercise.
We investigated further with leaders across a number of banking and finance
institutions to see why the lack of diversity continues to be an issue in this sector.
BANKING &
FINANCIAL SERVICES
3. BANKING &
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Whilst most participants agreed that Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) were a more
integrated part of the workforce than in years previously, most agreed that this only went so
far, and that this change hadn’t reached senior level positions. Most also agreed that gender
parity continued to be a major issue.
The majority also agreed that diversity has to be approached under one policy, rather than
siloed into different areas. There are areas with combinations of diversity, such as female
BAME, which can only properly be tackled using a holistic approach.
There is a prevailing sentiment that diversity is another target to hit, while culturally, hiring
like for like is the easiest path to follow. In other words, once the diversity target has been
hit it’s business as usual. Partly, this is due to the fear factor – greater diversity means a
greater investment in onboarding and training, and the overall outcome/results harder to
predict. In some cases the bias may be unconscious, but there all the same. Short term-ism
is very much in play, where managers seek to find the candidate easiest to fit within the
team, rather than someone who will have different view and inputs and may take longer to
assimilate. In many cases this is due to business pressures placed on them.
HOLISTIC ISSUES
FACED BY CLIENTS
Hiring managers face the demands of helping business units meet their business targets,
and following a diversity agenda. With deadlines and productivity targets to consider, and
without the proper support, hiring managers are less likely to pursue diversity as a cultural
way forward but rather as a tick box exercise.
Some simply don’t buy into the diversity argument, and in turn become a negative role
model within the organisation. Even where this isn’t the case, because diversity is a cultural
issue the bias against a diverse talent pool may be unconscious.
Those that did buy into the notion still cited the “fear factor” as a limiting factor. The
inherent risks of hiring from a diverse pool of talent bred a reluctance to embrace it properly.
ISSUES THAT HIRING
MANAGERS FACE
The business case for diversity is clear. Countless studies have shown that increased diversity
equals increased business performance.
Last September Mckinsey & Co published a report stating that $12 trillion could be added to
global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality.
Another Mckinsey & Co study entitled Why Diversity Matters, found that companies in the
top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns
above their national industry medians.
“More diverse companies, we believe, are better able to win top talent and improve their
customer orientation, employee satisfaction, and decision making, and all that leads to a
virtuous cycle of increasing returns. This in turn suggests that other kinds of diversity—for
example, in age, sexual orientation, and experience (such as a global mind-set and cultural
fluency)—are also likely to bring some level of competitive advantage for companies that
can attract and retain such diverse talent,” says the report.
THE CASE FOR CHANGE
4. BANKING &
FINANCIAL SERVICES
ALL TALK, NO ACTION
Steve Allen, Head of Operations, Corporate Banking at Barclays, personally leads his
Operations efforts on diversity. So we asked him: why is diversity still a topic for discussion in
this day and age? “There has been an immense amount of talk and, certainly in my view, not
enough action across the various industries despite efforts,” states Steve. “There’s been lots
of analysis, lots of research, lots of stats, lots of different ways of professing how the situation
can be improved. But that hasn’t yet translated into enough action. There has not been enough
sustained action that we can see measurably, which is changing attitudes.”
“What gets measured get managed,” adds Steve, outlining Barclays’ three-pronged approach
to the diversity issue:
1. Holding everybody accountable, from c-suite down. “There needs to be that cascade,
down and back up, that real transparency on the accountability for a change in
philosophy, in behaviour, being clear on who is accountable front to back, top to
bottom for that change.
2. Measurable progress. “There has to be clear and very transparent indicators as to
whether progress is or is not happening.”
3. Championing success. “Organisations have to be brilliant at championing and
marketing success that does happen.”
In his search for talent, Steve has often looked outside the obvious pools of talent. “One thing
that has proved very successful is that I mandated that for every director level hire in my
organisation that there would be a female MD on the interview slate.”
“I also promised to publish to my team when we appointed a director how many females met
the final interview stage. Two very simple things but it really did set the tone that we were
serious about trying to improve the diversity of our candidate slate. It didn’t mean every
director that we posted was a female because it’s the best person for the job, but we made
sure that we had a clear commitment to get a diverse candidate slate and have balance on the
interview.”
The key to this strategy is that news of every opening reaches every part of the organization; to
those whose experience may not seem, on the surface, to be a natural fit.
Steve goes on to explain how this works in practice: “The well-trodden assumption is that the
hiring manager knows best, I don’t agree with that. I don’t believe that I have the ability all
the time to know exactly what I’m looking for a particular role; I have to be much more open
minded than that. When the recommendation for a particular director role recently came
down to the final two, one was a female from a different part of the organization. She didn’t get
the job because of her technical capability, but because of the broader skills.
“It was the attitude she demonstrated, the forward looking opinions she had, the network that
she had clearly built up in her previous role, and her motivation. She aced the interviews and
brought some different dynamics to the team, even though her experience was not something
I had considered having on my team.”
“I’m not convinced that there is an extra investment case to be answered,” states Steve.
“Anyone who starts is going to need feedback, coaching, guidance, you can’t think in such a
short term way, you’ve got to take a medium to long term view.”
5. Among the calls to action made by the charity, The Sutton Trust, was more work to open up
top jobs to a more diverse talent pool as well as for companies to publish more information
about diversity within their organisation.
Achieving a truly diverse workforce means going deeper than targets and looking at each
business unit individually and the hiring trends therein, rather than a purely statistical
approach.
In order to assess the effectiveness of a diversity policy, simply looking at targets doesn’t
provide a clear assessment on the diversity within locations, at different levels and within
teams. To achieve the results of a diverse workforce means looking at the current trends per
office or the recruiting behaviours and candidates selected per office, rather than a statistical
approach across offices. In particular, hiring managers need support from C-suite to be able
to embed a truly diverse workforce.
Diversity has to include a cultural change, which consistently encompasses all talent pools
when searching for talent at any level. This may include looking at longer periods of training
and/or accepting longer periods before the new talent becomes productive. It has to be a top
down approach, with hiring managers that have full support to implement diversity strategies
and all that this means to the organization.
As the McKinsey report concludes: “Most organizations, including McKinsey, must do more
to take full advantage of the opportunity that diverse leadership teams represent. That’s
particularly true for their talent pipelines: attracting, developing, mentoring, sponsoring, and
retaining the next generations of global leaders at all levels of organizations. Given the higher
returns that diversity is expected to bring, we believe it is better to invest now, since winners
will pull further ahead and laggards will fall further behind.”
THE BROADER
SOLUTION
Huxley Banking & Financial Services is recognised as one of the market leaders in banking
and financial services recruitment. Working with some of the world’s best known financial
institutions to help them to identify, attract and recruit business critical talent.
We have a broad global reach, and deep local knowledge to be able to support our clients and
candidates wherever they are in the world.
The Huxley Family also includes Huxley Engineering, Huxley Supply Chain and Huxley IT.
ABOUT HUXLEY
BANKING & FINANCE
BANKING &
FINANCIAL SERVICES
6. BANKING &
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Sam has spent her career with HSBC since 2000, working across various functions.
She is currently Head of Business Management for HSBC Commercial covering
the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Sam has spent her career developing people
and driving business across different areas of the business. Sam is also the Co-Chair
of Balance UK, the voluntary Employee Resource Group which supports and drives
gender diversity in HSBC, with over 3,000 UK members and over 33,000 members
globally. She is also a speaker for Opportunity Now. Sam is an Associate of the
Chartered Institute of Bankers.
Steve is Global Head of Operations for Barclays Corporate Banking and a member of
the Corporate Banking and Global Operations Executive Committees. He currently
leads a team of over 5,000 colleagues that provide Lending, Trade, Payments and
Client Service capabilities to a broad range of domestic and international clients. Prior
to his current role, Steve was Head of Global Payments – a division that serves over
100,000 clients and processes 10m+ transactions a day with a value often in excess
of £560 billion. Steve has previously worked at Citigroup where he gained extensive
international Operations and Customer Service experience having held a number of
senior management positions in Citigroup’s Corporate and Investment Bank and Global
Consumer Bank. Before leaving to join Barclays, he was Executive Vice President,
National Director of Client Services for Citigroup based in New York.
Marcia Jones is the founder Managing Director of Inspired1 Ltd, a Human Resources &
Logistics Consultancy Services company. A professional certified coach, a member of
the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring & Coaching
Council (EMCC). She has her own practice as a Personal, Executive and Business
coach with clients in the UK, America, and the Caribbean. A Fellow of the Chartered
Institute of Personnel Development (FCIPD), with an MA in HR Strategy, she has
over 25 years working in the Corporate sector in senior HR roles including membership
of the Executive Committee at International and Global level. Marcia specialises in
coaching individuals, executives and business managers helping them to increase
their effectiveness and unlock the blockages that prevents them from having a fresh
perspectives on their challenges in order to maximise their potential and achieve their
goals, objectives and productivity. With a passion for transformation of self and others,
Marcia combines her coaching skills with her HR management experience of working
with executives, the business and individuals to facilitate wholeness and transformation
of self or any situation to achieve a positive desired outcome.
Frank Douglas was the Executive President, Group Human Resources Director for
Misys, a global technology company. Prior to that role, he was the Group HR Director
for Transport for London/TfL. Frank has also served as the Executive Vice President,
Group Human Resources Director and Pension Trustee, for Scottish and Newcastle
Plc (S&N). He also served in senior HR roles at Royal Dutch Shell, based in The
Hague. In 2011, Frank was listed as amongst the 30 most influential HR Directors
in the UK. In addition, he is a Non-Executive Director of the Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development/CIPD, which is the governing and accreditation body
for HR professionals in the UK. Also, Frank has been a judge for the HR Magazine
determination of the top HR practitioners in the UK. Frank came to the UK, from the
US in 1997 and worked for British Telecom. During Frank’s tenure at British Telecom,
he won the Chairman’s award for Excellence (only give to one employee a year). To
this day, he is still the only HR manager to ever obtain that accolade at BT. In addition,
Frank was the first FTSE HR Director invited to speak to members of the Royal
Household staff, at Buckingham Palace. Most recently, he addressed an audience
of senior business leaders at Stormont Parliament in Northern Ireland. Frank has a
strong passion for developing leaders and organisations in the UK, USA and emerging
markets. Frank is a certified Myler Campbell executive coach.
Tas is Senior Run Lead for Product Processing with the Lloyds Commercial Banking
CIO area. She is responsible for a portfolio of ~130 applications with a team of 40.
Prior to her current role Tas was responsible for supporting all Front Office applications.
She has been at Lloyds for 5 years. Before working for Lloyds Tas held numerous roles
at Barclays Capital during an 11 year career, ranging from Head of Global SAP Support
to Commodities Service Manager. Tas is committed to supporting junior resources and
ensuring that talented resources are given opportunities to flourish.
Rashni is the Regional Head of Supply Chain Management, Europe and Americas for
Standard Chartered Bank. She is responsible for managing third party spend across all
categories. Rashni has worked for Standard Chartered for over a decade. Rashni is also
Chair of the Standard Chartered Diversity and Inclusion Council for the UK, as such is
very much committed to equality and inclusivity in the workplace.
Steve Allen
Managing Director Global Head of Operations
Barclays Corporate Banking
Sam Cooper Gray
Head of Business Management
HSBC Commercial
Marcia Jones
Founder & Managing Director
Inspired1 Ltd
Frank Douglas
CEO
Caerus Executive
Taslin Boga
Product Processing | Run Senior Manager Commercial Banking CIO
Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking
We would like to thank all the individuals that participated in in
workshops and in the development of this report. We would also like
to thank some of the key contributors, who are highlighted below.
Rashni Chahal Holden
Regional Head of Supply Chain Management, Europe & Americas
Standard Chartered Bank
