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equal opportunities
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- Staff: Equal Opportunities
- Finalise and implement a recruitment and selection toolkit that supports the equal opportunities policy and which enables
a consistent approach to be adopted across the bank. TARGET ACHIEVED
- Having increased the number of staff from an ethnic minority within the Internet bank smile, expand the best practice from that initiative to future major recruitment campaigns. ACCEPTABLE PROGRESS
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performance
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- Brackets show total number of staff within each 'organisational level'
(Excludes staff on maternity leave or career break and all staff on relief
contracts)
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 (cf. 5.9% national economically active ethnic minority population,
Labour Force Survey, Spring 2001)
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Up to 35 years |
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36 to 45 years |
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46 years plus |
Number of Employees
Number of Employees
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commentary
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New initiatives To reinforce the bank's equal opportunities,
dignity at work and family friendly policiesi, the following
initiatives were undertaken during 2001:
- The bank produced a comprehensive recruitment and
selection toolkit to integrate equal opportunities into all
recruitment and selection processes. The toolkit is being
piloted in key business areas.
- The Personal Branch Network piloted an exit interview
process and subsequently interviews are now conducted
with all individuals leaving the Personal Branch Network.
This information will be used to monitor gender and ethnicity
trends and will enable the bank to review its procedures
and benefits.
Gender 62.6% of staff are women (cf. 44.6% of the general
workforce - Labour Force Survey, Autumn 2001). The bank
has been benchmarked by Opportunity Now and has been
rated as silver standard in their 2001/02 study (which is in line
with the financial services sector average). The number of
female managers continues to increase, particularly within the
'Delivering Business Plans' level. During 2001, 100 bank staff
participated in an Opportunity Now survey regarding the
aspirations of women in non-managerial positions. The results
will be published on their websiteii later in 2002.
Ethnic minorities The number of staff who consider
themselves to be from an ethnic minority has remained
constant at 2.5% during 2001. This is considered
unsatisfactory and contrasts with a background of small
improvements in each of the last three years. During 2001,
individual business areas have undertaken initiatives to
improve their workforce representation, working with the
Employment Service, local community groups, Race for
Opportunityiii and by using targeted media for advertising, e.g.
ethnic minority press and websites. To date, these initiatives
have had limited success. For example, the Personal Branch
Network placed advertisements for Personal Advisers in five
ethnic minority papers in the London area. These papers have
a combined readership of over 500,000 people in South Asian
and African-Caribbean Communities. Despite this wide
coverage, only ten enquiries resulted from the advertisements.
The bank is currently holding focus groups with its ethnic
minority staff to explore why it is finding it so difficult to attract
applications from the ethnic minority population, and is
consulting specialist advisers on the subject. Some areas of
the bank are more representative of the local community. For
example, 7.4% of staff within smile are from an ethnic minority.
Disability The number of staff informing the bank of a
disability has increased from 24 last year to 36. This can be
attributed to current staff declaring disabilities for the first time,
in response to the circulation of Personal Information forms
and to individual business areas actively encouraging
applications from disabled candidates. During 2001, smile, in
partnership with the Northwest Disability Service, held several
disability events and organised work
placements which resulted in disabled
individuals applying for permanent
positions. The reporting of numbers of
'reasonable adjustments' continues to be
an additional valuable measure of actual disability within the
bank. 55 new reasonable adjustments (cf. 54 in 2000) were
reported during 2001 and included changes to equipment and
to working patterns.
Age The bank continues to work closely with the Employers
Forum on Ageiv, a national campaign that promotes age
diversity. The decrease in the percentage of bank staff
under 35 is in line with the Labour Force Survey statistics
which show a decrease in the under 35 workforce (from 40%
in 2000 to 39% in 2001 - Labour Force Survey, Autumn 2000
and Autumn 2001).
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- www.co-operativebank.co.uk/about/about_employment_equal.html
- www.opportunitynow.org.uk
- www.raceforopportunity.org.uk
- www.efa.org.uk
To follow any of the links mentioned within the Partnership Report 2001, please visit the links page.
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new targets
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- Commission Race for Opportunity to undertake an independent review of all programmes and initiatives relating to the recruitment and retention of ethnic minorities.
- Establish an Ethnic Minorities Employment Steering Group with senior management representation from across the bank, chaired by an Executive Director.
Ken Lewis, Executive Director, Resources
- Complete the distribution of Personal Information forms to all staff to ensure all personal details are accurate.
Jan Lomas, Human Resources Business Relationships Manager
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