The Financial Services Culture Board (FSCB) and Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC) have published a report on their survey of inclusivity in the financial services sector. The report contains data from the largest ever sector survey on inclusion in the UK, with responses from more than 3,000 employees.
The five principal findings were:
- 89% of employees are positive about their managers’ efforts to promote inclusion at work;
- 33% of participating firms do not currently discuss inclusion metrics at board level;
- 19% of respondents are concerned about being judged on their ability based on stereotypes about their identity or background;
- 17% of employees worry about the negative consequences or raising a concern; and
- 72% of employees said they had fair access to progression opportunities; 13% said they did not.
Participants made suggestions on how organisations could be more inclusive. Many of these suggestions related to recruitment, reward, progression and workload.
The report proposes four actions which organisations can take to help improve inclusion in the workplace:
- understand and measure inclusion, not just diversity;
- develop and demonstrate a culture of listening to employee feedback and learning from it;
- maintain and demonstrate fair and transparent processes and systems; and
- demonstrate strong leadership on inclusion, reflecting ambitions at all levels.