People
As an employer, we value diversity, encourage inclusion and support staff wellbeing.
Diversity and inclusion go together
We’re working to create a workforce that reflects the diversity of the society we serve. And we think diversity and inclusion go hand-in-hand. So we’re also developing an inclusive workplace culture that allows people to be themselves at work and achieve their potential.
As part of his appointment as Governor, Andrew Bailey committed to leading an institution that is truly diverse. At the launch of the Meeting Varied People initiative in Spring 2021, Andrew highlighted that identity and cognitive diversity are equally important and that his desire to have an inclusive and open culture will mean people can speak up, ensuring we make better decisions.
We’re building a diverse workforce
Diversity targets
We’re building a diverse workforce because we believe it will allow us to build trust with the people we serve and help us make better decisions.
We set our original diversity targets in 2014 (revised in 2017), aiming to increase gender and ethnic diversity. By setting targets, we can be held accountable for our actions, and these actions will benefit all staff whatever their characteristics. Our new targets are set for end-February 2028 (with a review in 2025).
Our targets support focus on where progress is most needed and reflect our commitment to greater senior female and ethnic representation, both in appointments to senior management but also in ensuring that our pipeline of talent is diverse.
We have also introduced Black specific representation targets to address disproportionately low Black representation at the Bank, particularly at senior scales (this includes all staff with Black heritage).
Our new gender and ethnicity targets will be supported by the development of clear action plans and the introduction of processes to support truly effective accountability. Importantly, our targets are in no way a limit to our ambitions which, if our actions are effective, we can exceed.
While our targets are focused on gender and ethnicity, we also considered whether we expand our targets beyond gender and ethnicity and in National Inclusion Week 2020 we published our approach for disability and sexual orientation and gender identity.
We publish an update on our progress towards our diversity targets in our annual report.