Attract
- Work with regulators to modernise the criteria used to assess applicants for SMF (Senior Management Function) to encourage more appointment of applicants with relevant experience from outside our industry
- Increasing opportunities for ‘mid-career’ apprenticeships to ensure talented people previously unable to access training or qualifications at the point they were school leavers can still progress later in life.
- Offer more positions to career-changers and older people. Consider creating a dedicated hiring process for career returners.
Grow
- Become a signatory of ABI’s Making Flexible Work Campaign and Charter.
- Consider appointing Executive Sponsors for other protected characteristics, as age, or to champion specific aspects of your DEI strategy.
- Ensure that employees are made fully aware of when and how they can request reasonable adjustments and ensure that, when these are requested, they are notified of the outcome within two weeks.
- Pro-actively plan for a structured pipeline of opportunities for secondments and mid-career apprenticeships (such as when filling parental leave and other career-breaks/sabbaticals offered to colleagues) so as to offer opportunities to people who may not automatically apply for a permanent promotion.
Advance
- Expand existing surveying of employees to a broader range of characteristics and ensure the results of these are published in an accessible format (for instance, within annual reports).
- Further enrich your understanding of inclusion in your organisation consistently by aiming to progress towards Level Three and Level Four of the Financial Services Skills Commission’s inclusion measurement guide.
- Encourage all employees to participate in data collections, ensuring they are given adequate time to complete any surveys. Ensure employees understand what the data will be used for and allow them to not answer any questions with which they are uncomfortable.
