Barclays launched a comprehensive equality and diversity program with the goal of making the company a leader in inclusive policies and practices worldwide. A diversity survey of 10,000 employees identified priorities like building an inclusive culture, addressing inappropriate behaviors, merit-based hiring, and work-life balance. The executive committee set 4-year goals to double the number of women in senior roles and increase ethnic minority representation in senior positions. Barclays implemented various initiatives like diversity champions, employee networks, and training to promote diversity and inclusion. The company saw business benefits like cost savings, innovation, and improved services from a more diverse workforce.

1. Equality and Diversity Management Programme
GAURAV SINGH

2.  Barclays launched a ground-breaking Equality
and Diversity programme, accompanied by the
Barclays Charter for Equality and Diversity.
 This marked its commitment to making Barclays
a beacon of enlightened equality and diversity
policies and practices worldwide

3.  The diversity strategy was based on a diversity and equality
survey of 10,000 employees.
Feedback from the survey pinpointed the need for action
in four priority areas:
 building an inclusive culture,
 dealing within appropriate behaviours,
 merit-based recruitment,
 and work–life balance.

4.  To ensure concerted progress towards this goal, the
Group’s Executive Committee set four-year objectives in
two particular areas:
 to double the number of women in the most senior
positions from 11% to 22%
 to increase the number of people from ethnic minorities
in the most senior positions from 0.6% to 3%.
 However, Barclays’ stance on equality and diversity did not
rest on numerical representation. How employees felt was a
critical measure for success in progressing equality and
diversity.

5.  Equality and Diversity Director leads a team of ten people to run
the central programme.
 It has a properly allocated budget and is steered by the Global
Diversity Council, who provide strategic guidance and monitor
progress against plan.
 Members of the Global Diversity Council includes four Executive
Committee members.
 All Barclays business areas are required to report progress to the
Global Diversity Council, who in turn report to the board every six
months.

6. To help progress diversity there is a senior
diversity champion for each of the following:
 gender – Head of Channel Transformation
 race – Chief Executive of Barclays Private Clients
 disability – Director of Community and Consumer Affairs
 sexual orientation – Chief Executive of Barclaycard
 age – Chief Information Officer

7. STRUCTURE
 Each diversity champion is supported by a member of the
Equality and Diversity team, and there are taskforces
of employee volunteers across the organisation who have
an important influence on the diversity strategy and
programme’s priorities.

8. Vital to the success of the diversity
programme
 Communication
 Engagement
 Consultation

9. MANAGING DIVERSITY PRACTICE
 career development events for ethnic minority employees
 multi-faith rooms for staff
 a full policy review to ensure fair treatment in employee benefits,
regardless of marital status or sexual orientation
 an extended retirement age 60 to 65 on a voluntary basis
 active recruitment of people aged over 60
 an online job register to assist employees to find a job-share partner
 a career break scheme for all employees.

10. MANAGING DIVERSITY PRACTICE
 A pilot recruitment and a career development event for employees
with disabilities.
 providing training on interview technique and IT skills to help
meet the Barclays benchmark.
 a car policy enhanced to adapt cars for senior managers with
disabilities.
 regular work–life balance seminars.
 a sexual orientation network, Spectrum.

11. MANAGING DIVERSITY PRACTICE
 In addition, Barclays have taken full advantage of the many
external networks, voluntary and diversity initiatives to
make diversity progress such as
 Race for Opportunity,
 The Employers’ Forum on Disability and
 Opportunity Now.
 They are a Government Age Positive Champion and a Stone
wall diversity champion, and are involved in the CRE
Business Advisory Group.

12. BUSINESS BENEFITS
 The rapid globalisation and diversification of financial service providers makes
a focus on managing diversity imperative, with intense competition to recruit
and retain the best people, develop new approaches, understand increasingly
complex and diverse cultures, and drive down costs.
 New sources of innovation, insight and resource are harnessed as a central part
of the Group’s strategy for success through actively managing diversity.
 It makes economic sense for both society and the company if they can help
maximise the number of people from different backgrounds in employment.
 The presence of people with different backgrounds in the workforce has also
challenged stereotypical thinking and overcome barriers.
 Revenues have increased by improving services to deliver to a more diverse
customer base through tapping into the knowledge of people with non-
traditional backgrounds.
 Managing diversity has helped to broaden knowledge about age, gender,
ethnicity and disability in ways that have improved staff morale and retention
rates