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.
Our former Governor Mark Carney explained our approach in a speech called ‘Reflecting diversity, choosing Inclusion’ in February 2017. He outlined our progress so far Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window in a letter to the Treasury Select Committee in February 2018.
In September 2019, Victoria Cleland, our Executive Director Banking Payments and Innovation, set out how we have developed our approach to inclusion.
We’re building a diverse workforce
End 2020 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.
In 2014, we set ourselves targets to increase gender and BAME (Black, Asian, minority ethnic) diversity. We revised these targets in 2017. We want:
- 50% of our employees below senior management, and 35% of our senior managers, to be female by end-2020
- 20% of our employees below senior management to be BAME by 2020, and 13% of our senior managers to be BAME by end-2022.
We have now reached the end date for three of four our diversity targets – gender at both senior management and below senior management, and ethnicity below senior management. We met one of our targets by the end of 2020 – our below senior management BAME target.
We acknowledge that we have not achieved our goal for 2020 for greater female representation. As other organisations are finding, meeting ambitious targets is taking longer than we would like. Now we are looking to the future and aspire to make greater progress than we have to date. This will come through our ever evolving diverse and inclusive culture and increasing accountability for the day-to-day decisions we make.
As at end-December 2020, the Bank of England was at the following position against its targets:
| June 2014 | End-November 2020 | End-2020 Target | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BAME Below Senior Management | 15% | 21.4% | 20% |
| BAME Senior Management | 3% | 8.2% | 10% (end 2020 interim) 13% (end-2022) |
| Female Below Senior Management | 43% | 46.0% | 50% |
| Female Senior Management | 20% | 31.7% | 35% |
We are currently reviewing and agreeing our new diversity targets and aim to publish in Summer 2021. While we finalise our new targets for gender and ethnicity, our commitment to diversity and inclusion remains a key priority for the Bank of England and we continue to pursue progression in increased representation of women and ethnic minorities, including at senior management.
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.
We publish all our diversity targets and our progress Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window on pages 57 to 61 in our annual report.
In 2016 we hosted the launch of the Women in Finance Charter Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window (WiF) and pledged our support by becoming a signatory of the Charter in 2017. It commits us to setting targets, linking executive director pay to gender progression, and giving responsibility for gender diversity to a senior executive. This person is Joanna Place, our Chief Operating Officer, who set out our progress in a speech in May 2019.
In addition to the Women in Finance Charter, we are a signatory of a further three Charters. In 2019, we signed both the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter and The Valuable 500, which aims to get disability on to the agenda of Boards. In early 2020, we launched our own Out and Proud Charter, a public commitment to support LGBT+ colleagues.
Our Career Returners Programme supports employees who’ve taken a career break, including many women and people from ethnic minorities.
In 2019, our work experience programme included 71 students from across London who do not have any personal connection to the Bank of England. We recruit these students through partner organisations such as Speakers for Schools Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window and Mayor’s Fund for London Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window and Social Mobility Foundation Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window. Find out more about our work experience programme on page 64 in our annual report Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window.
Diversity isn’t just about characteristics such as gender and ethnicity. It’s also about the way people think. We value and encourage this cognitive diversity too. We ran our first ‘Inclusion and Cognitive Diversity survey’ in April 2018 and published an overview of the results in July 2018.
And inclusive workplaces
We want everyone who works for us to feel that they can be themselves at work. We encourage a workplace culture that makes that happen. For example, we support many staff networks (shown below).
