Supporting diversity and inclusion in banking
There’s been a big push in recent years around diversity and inclusion in banking and the wider financial services sector.
Despite this, D&I policies for the financial industry as a whole still suffer from a distinct lack of diversity at board and management levels.
The underrepresentation of ethnic minorities and women is also closely tied to the issue of gender and ethnicity pay gaps that are also present within the sector.
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential Regulatory Authority and the Bank of England launched a consultation paper that looks into areas of business practices such as accountability, targets, scope and proportionality, and training.
It’s hoped that this outside pressure will motivate financial companies to make long-lasting positive changes instead of treating D&I as a tick box exercise.
Other organisations are also tackling D&I in their own way, creating tools to measure the effectiveness of initiatives to bring about change.
At MDA Training, we specialise in designing and delivering highly interactive and engaging recruitment, training and onboarding events that are closely aligned to support a client’s specific diversity and inclusion strategy.
Our bespoke solutions, will support your drive to attract individuals from a broad and diverse talent pool and help them to develop key skills to enhance and grow their careers.
How MDA Training can help with diversity and inclusion
Often, companies will look to diversify their teams without really knowing what they’re looking for. When we talk about diversity, many people tend to think only of race and gender, but when we do this, we fail to recognise other, marginalised groups.
Recognising differences in physical abilities, gender identity, and other underrepresented groups can help you identify how your company may need to adapt or change.
Likewise, visible diversity in the interview and onboarding process, or maybe, more importantly, a lack of it, can affect how welcomed underrepresented groups can feel.
It’s well documented that if a person can’t see themselves as welcomed and included in the company, they’ll be less likely to join.
It’s easy to imagine how a person from an underrespresented community might feel after spending most of a day in the interview process, meeting numerous senior staff members only not to meet another person from their community.
They might begin to wonder if there are any people in the company from their community, and if there are, question the reasons behind why they aren’t included in the recruitment or training process.
At MDA Training, we will work in close in partnership with you to help support your specific needs and objectives around diversity and inclusion creating a welcoming and inclusive recruitment and onboarding experience for your new and lateral hires.
We have a track record of designing insightful workshops and activities that are run by inspiring role models from our diverse training team, each with relevant banking and financial services experience.
Helping you to diversify your talent pool
For all the pressure put on the finance sector to diversify their workplaces from an equality standpoint, businesses with diverse teams perform better.
A 2015 Mckinsey report found that companies in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have greater returns above the industry average.
In addition to this, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry average.
Another study found that companies with diverse executive boards had a 95% higher return on equity when compared to boards that lacked any diversity. The bottom line is, diversity is highly beneficial for a business.
This is due to several factors, and notably, that when hiring people from diverse backgrounds, you also bring an array of perspectives to the table.
The diversity and benefits of fresh approaches can lead to better problem solving and increased productivity.
While changing how problems are traditionally approached can lead to fears of rocking the boat, the research has shown that diverse teams have seen a 60% improvement in decision-making abilities.
In a similar vein, the diversity of a workplace affects innovation. Understandably, a homogenous group is more likely to think alike and approach problems, in the same way, leading to a rutted way of thinking that makes it harder to challenge and encourage new solutions and tactics.
Heterogeneous groups are more likely to provide suggestions that lead to bigger and brighter changes. A study found that companies that scored well on diversity tended to be demonstrably more diverse.
Diversity and inclusion in recruitment and development of early careers
At MDA Training, we offer a range of experiential recruitment and onboarding solutions, and in particular, we have extensive expertise in early careers recruitment and development.
Working with you, our events and programmes will support your drive for diversity and inclusion in banking, attracting and retaining high calibre candidates and employees respectively, across a diverse talent pool.
Our practical events are centred around interactive activities and insightful learning experiences designed to help participants engage and connect with your bank, ultimately creating a positive, lasting impression.
If this sounds like something that would be beneficial to your business, please get in touch with us here to speak with one of our experts on how we can help.