Banking on diversity

1 March 2007

Top British bank Barclays’ commitment to helping disabled employees reach their full potential comes direct from the top. In his role as top “disability champion”, group chief executive John Varley not only consults with disabled employees at regular “listening lunches”, but has also led the creation of a disability mentoring scheme. Rolled out in 2005, the scheme is now spreading to Barclays’ global organisation.

Barclays wants to be an employer of choice for disabled people and sees itself at the forefront of developing good practice in this field, says senior manager (equality and diversity) Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe.

The bank’s charter says Barclays will integrate equality and diversity rationale into business, employment, supplier and community practices world-wide.

“This is not a nice and fluffy thing,” says Palmer-Edgecumbe. “There is commitment to the scheme from the top of Barclays, and it should be seen as an initiative that can improve business performance.”

Palmer-Edgecumbe was asked to form a project group and a fully accessible mentoring scheme within 100 days. The parameters for the project were the same as for any business-critical project, with “key deliverables and set timescales”. The team responsible for researching, designing and delivering the mentoring scheme included senior Barclays staff, some of whom had disabilities. The group consulted widely with employees and with external organisations experienced in disability issues and mentoring.

Barclays started from a position of heightened awareness, being a founder member of the Employers’ Forum on Disability, and knowing the Forum’s “Disability Confident” training tool.


One year into the scheme, Barclays is benefiting from a strong community of mentors and mentees. The number of employees with disabilities who have signed on for mentorship has more than doubled, from 35 to 80. There are now almost 200 mentors. “This acts as a supportive network where all sorts of issues around disability and diversity are raised,” says Palmer-Edgecumbe. 

 

Employees with a disability can receive help with: 

 

  •  identifying their strengths and weaknesses, 
  •  building their confidence, 
  •  identifying their career development, 
  •  developing their communication and 
  •  problem-solving skills and getting in touch with others who can help them achieve their goals. 


Key points:

 

  • Barclays takes a proactive approach to managing disability. It has a “reasonable adjustments” programme, the disability mentoring scheme, and a full time disability coordinator. Staff must be given time off for mentoring.
  • Developing the disability mentoring scheme was treated as a business-critical project
  • The scheme is fully accessible for people of diverse abilities. It is promoted on its own internet and intranet sites, various hard-copy formats, Braille, large print and telephone.
  • The scheme is intensively managed.
  • The focus is on adding value to the disabled employee’s relationship with Barclays, but the mentor stands to gain valuable skills too.
  • People with disabilities were consulted at every stage of the scheme’s development.
  • The mentoring scheme is led from the highest ranks of Barclays’ management. 
     

Barclays has its own internal newsletter on diversity and equality issues, and is committed to accessibility in all its services.
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The New Zealand financial sector is lagging far behind the Barclays’ model. Financial sector union Finsec launched a Better Banks campaign on January 10 to improve working conditions for bank employees. Major targets of the campaign are:

 

  • Equitable pay
  • Staffing
  • Workload.

 

The campaign seeks to introduce industry-wide standards across all banks around issues like pay and pay systems, targets, under staffing, stress, investment in staff training, and investment in high quality customer service.

As for supporting employees with disabilities, there is nothing that has the same level of detail, though most banks have got quite enlightened policies, says Finsec general secretary Andrew Casidy.

“Most employers in this sector have some broad policies on such matters but in order for them to become real, employers have to look at working closely with employees and their unions on the practical things that need to happen to make those policies a reality through all ranks of the workforce.”