Diversity at NAG UK
Diversity at NAG UK
NAG UK is dedicated to creating an inclusive working environment which is conducive for people from every background, lifestyle and life stage to succeed within our organisation. It is important to us that we appropriately reflect the diversity of our customers and the communities in which we live and operate. Tracking the demographic of our employee population is made possible through equal opportunities questionnaires at the recruitment stage. In addition we have introduced a periodic diversity census to help us better understand the make up, needs and aspirations of our employees. This all contributes in making our business a more attractive place for people form all backgrounds to work in.
We aim to provide an inclusive working environment where everyone can fulfil their potential.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
We recognise that we have more work to do to ensure equality for all. In our quest to achieve this we have become diversity champion for Stonewall, which represents the interests of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-gender population.
Women
Women make up nearly half of the working population of the UK, the majority of the people who visit our branches, the majority of our branch employees and about half our branch managers. Lucinda Scott, Retail Regional Manager, says, “My experience of working for the bank is exceptional, I feel part of a community and genuinely feel I have a voice. The environment I work in is one of high support and high challenge, with the onus on making a difference for our stakeholders every day. Being a woman has had no negative impact on my career, the bank is constantly looking for people with talent, energy and passion these are the qualities which have driven my career and the people I see around me.” A mentoring programme for pre-management women has been introduced to help women gain confidence and progress their careers.
Ethnic Minorities
In the last 12 months, ethnic minorities have made up 7% of our new recruits against an average population in Scotland of 8% and in the UK of 9%. In London, where ethnic minorities make up 40% of the population and a similar percentage of small and medium businesses, we have established a business banking centre run and staffed in part by British Asians to cater for this market.
Disability
As a ‘two tick’ employer we continue to work with Job Centre Plus and more recently, Remploy, in the field of disability and with our recruitment agencies to ensure we get a diverse pool of candidates for all roles.
Our diversity programme
Our diversity programme concentrates on actions which will benefit the majority of our employees and remove factors which can indirectly result in disadvantage in the work place. Some examples are:
- Making flexible working work. This helps all employees achieve better work/life balance and has obvious benefits for working mothers. Flexible working is available for all, not just for those employees with caring responsibilities.
- Mentoring for high potential employees to help them increase their confidence in undertaking their current role and progress their career aspirations
- Improving the recruitment and promotion process with a focus on creating a more diverse field of candidates from our recruitment agencies and ensuring our recruiting managers are aware of the business benefits of having diversity of thought and background in their teams.
- Internal communication – a broad range of initiatives including sharing success stories and fostering diverse thinking with our own version of the TV programme Dragon’s Den, encouraging innovative ideas in the business and discussions with leadership teams throughout the business, networking events, dinners for women and master classes.
- A commercial business case for diversity - signed off by ExCo pointing out the bottom line value of a diverse leadership team and ensuring that creating that diversity remains a business priority, not just a nice to have.
Measuring progress
We believe that setting targets for the numbers of female appointees in roles can be counter productive – no one wants to be seen as the “quota “or “token” woman. Instead we ensure equality of opportunity by requiring diverse interview shortlists and interview panels.
To assess our progress we measure the extent to which our employees believe the organisation values diversity of thought, style and background – this score has gone up by 12% points since 2005. We also measure pay and promotion rates across the genders and the percentage of women in management and see these increasing steadily.
Providing opportunities
There is no point in attracting diverse talent unless we can also provide a platform for its voice and ideas to be heard, considered and acted on. We are interested in talent wherever it comes from and whatever it sounds like, and believe it is of the utmost importance than we strive to create opportunities for everyone to be heard and valued. A diverse perspective and rich and varied opinion is a great way to ensure that we don’t miss any potential opportunities which a less varied perspective might miss.
We don’t just have great policies – we continually act to make them real.
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