30 November 2021
The Financial Services Culture Board (FSCB) has partnered with the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC) to measure employee experiences of inclusion in financial services firms and produce comparative data across the sector.
The organisations have together created and piloted a survey informed by both the FSSC’s Inclusion Measurement Guide (launched in July 2021) and the FSCB’s dataset (gathered from running its assessment of culture and behaviour across the banking industry since 2016). The aim of the survey is to provide comparative, benchmarked data that helps financial services firms build a more inclusive culture in the sector.
The survey incorporates questions on inclusive leadership; safe and ‘speak-up’ cultures; inclusive systems and processes; and belonging and stereotyping. As such, it closely aligns with the ongoing FCA, PRA and Bank of England diversity and inclusion roadmap, helping firms to identify and build on existing inclusion data and measurement. Thirteen FSSC and FSCB member firms including banks, building societies, insurers, asset managers and chartered bodies are taking part.
Alison Cottrell, Chief Executive of the FSCB said:
“We are pleased to be partnering with the FSSC on this important step towards developing a baseline approach from which to better understand and improve inclusion across financial services. It is encouraging to see that so many firms are keen to build on their understanding of this issue, both as individual organisations and at the level of the sector as a whole, and we are grateful to all those who are participating in this exercise. We look forward to reporting back on our findings in the New Year.”
Claire Tunley, Chief Executive of the FSSC said:
“Financial services organisations are making good progress to improve diversity and inclusion, but there is still much more to be done. With the FSCB’s expertise in assessing organisational culture, this survey will be able to provide valuable insight and help firms directly assess and pinpoint areas for change and improvement. This in turn will help them to attract and retain highly skilled individuals as well as provide an industry first – a financial services inclusivity benchmark for all firms to build upon.”
The results will be published in aggregated and anonymised form in a summary report in spring 2022. The FSCB worked with Dr Aneeta Rattan, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School to design and test the survey questions.
Contact:
Laura Conaghan, Head of External Affairs, FSCB
Linsey White, Communications Director, FSSC
E: Linsey.White@financialservicesskills.org
