Financial Service Leaders struggle on Diversity

Although fully committed to creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace, leaders of financial service institutions are struggling what actions to take which create the biggest impact according to new research by BAI

475 financial service employees and human resource leaders were surveyed to better understand what their views were on Diversity and Inclusion and where they see further progress. 86% responded positively that they believe their organisations as committed to diversity, which is well above the norm for other industries. This view is shared amongst people of minorities and females within those organisations to further reinforce the data.

A key finding from the research is the inconsistency in how DEI initiatives are measured. While most financial services organizations are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in important and visible ways, many of the respondents are not measuring empirical data tied to DEI efforts. Gender, job function and hierarchy are the most common criteria financial services leaders use to segment hiring metrics, however, segmenting by race and ethnicity is less common. Additionally, while most financial services organizations have diversity goals in place, fewer reported inclusion and equity goals, and many are missing the opportunity to segment their employee engagement surveys by diverse employee groups.

“This research confirmed our observations that there is a high degree of leadership support of DEI initiatives in financial services organizations at the top of the house. But leadership support is not enough and there is much more work to do to make meaningful progress. The passion and energy are there to make changes, but financial services leaders must also develop concrete action-oriented plans and set goals that are supported by metrics to enable them to regularly assess progress,” said Debbie Bianucci, president and CEO at BAI. “It’s important for leaders to set specific goals not just for employment but also focused on professional development opportunities for workers of every gender, race, ethnicity and orientation. That’s what will really move the needle.”  

At Ohcul jobs, we promote diversity within the workplace through removing the opportunity for people’s unconscious bias to reflect in the recruitment process. Ohcul has been found on the basis of responsible recruitment and looks to remove structural racism out of the recruitment process.

Employee diversity provides a number of benefits to any organisation (large and small). Ethnically diverse companies perform 35% better than their industry median and gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to haver returns above the industry median. With the national customer base becoming more diverse, it is important that a company is representative to fully understand its clients’ needs and, according to the latest research, 67% of employees cite a diverse workforce is a key factor when looking at a role.

At Ohcul, we remove the opportunity for hidden bias from a CV review stage. Our unique tool removes identifying data from a clients CV allowing a recruiter to progress the best candidates.

If you would like some more information you can contact us on info@ohcul.com or visit the web site www.ohcul.com