Standard Bank, based in Jersey, has become the first bank in the Channel Islands to be awarded the DIFERA employer accreditation, demonstrating their credentials as a diverse, inclusive, fair, equal, respectful and accepting place to work.
The charity Liberate conducted an audit of the bank’s policies and procedures and surveyed employees in Jersey and the Isle of Man to find out how diverse the workforce is, what it is like to work for, how employees feel about DIFERA and how fairly development opportunities including promotion, remuneration and training are distributed across the workforce.
From these results, Liberate produced a comprehensive report that will act as the benchmark from which to measure Standard Bank’s journey on the DIFERA scheme.
Vic Tanner Davy, CEO of Liberate, said: “Standard Bank’s results were very encouraging and showed a culture of respect and acceptance within the bank. The bank’s policies and procedures were particularly comprehensive and well-written with, for example, a maternity policy that is more generous for pregnant employees than statute. This type of provision supports women in particular within the workplace, helps retain that talent through pregnancy and afterwards, and attracts more women to work for Standard Bank, widening their choice of candidates.”
Liberate presented their report to the Executive Team at Standard Bank in a meeting that discussed a wide range of initiatives including ways to recruit more disabled people to work for the bank and ways to increase the number of women at senior levels.
Tina Monro, Head of Human Capital for Standard Bank Wealth International, said: “We committed to this review process with the hope of gaining insights into our culture and what our people were thinking and feeling about the bank as an inclusive workplace, but came out of it with a very detailed analysis across a range of inputs and a clear action plan for improvements. Liberate’s work was thorough, diligent and very professional.”
Will Thorp, CEO for Standard Bank Wealth International, said: “We are delighted to have been able to have this resource available to us, particularly through a charity. This work has been invaluable to us and we are looking forward to continuing with this partnership as we focus on our organisational culture.”
