WOMEN IN FINANCE CHARTER

2019-12-05 17:10:15.0

BNP Paribas Personal Finance signed up to the Women in Finance Charter in September 2018, making a commitment to help improve gender diversity.  

Stephen Hunt, CEO BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, reflecting on the progress since signing up to the charter said;

‘When we signed up to the Charter in September 2018 we had 37% female representation within senior management. I’m pleased that this has now increased to 40% and we believe that with the continued focus and actions we have planned that we’re on track to meet our Charter target of 50%, by our deadline date of 30 September 2022.

We continue to be proud of the diverse and inclusive working environment that we’ve  created, and gender diversity is simply part of our culture. Our colleagues’ feedback in the annual Global People Survey further endorses this with scores over 90% on diversity questions.

It’s an important aspect of our commitment, particularly at senior levels within our organisation, and something that I am personally happy to take a leading role in driving.

Across our business currently our colleague base is split 56% male and 44% female. However, at senior management levels, females are less represented at 40% and I want to see a continued gender balance over the next two years.

I’ve been delighted to see lots of activity during the year including the introduction of our Women in Business Committee to mark International Women’s Day in 2019.  This network helps to support different ways of working, designed to encourage more women into senior positions. The Committee’s efforts are supported by opportunities for dedicated personal and professional development and support, mentoring and giving women more visibility across our business. The Committee also has two male Executive Team Sponsors, to further demonstrate the commitment of not just me but also senior representatives across our business.

We’re also proud that two of women within our senior management attended the first BNP Paribas RISE programme, dedicated to recognising and supporting the development of females in the business.

In 2019 we also introduced a new award category at our annual awards event; ‘Inspirational Woman of the Year’.  In deciding the criteria for this award we wanted to ensure we were celebrating and encouraging female talent across our business, as well as promoting and supporting gender balance at every level.

For the future we’ll continue to review and develop our people policies to ensure we adopt and reflect modern and agile working practices, supporting all colleagues where possible.  This includes the ability to work from home as well as offering flexible working hours, to further support improved work life balance. We’ll also be launching our new and expectant parents programme to ensure that both colleagues and their managers have the right support.

Finally, from a recruitment perspective we’re looking at new ways to encourage men and women into non-traditional roles as part of our HeforShe commitments and we continue to diversify our recruitment pipelines and have gender-balanced shortlists.

All in all we believe our diversity creates a stronger team, contributes to being a great place to work and ultimately drives our success.