Five fantastic network groups in the financial sector

As part of our series of employee network group articles, we’re shining a light on five fantastic network groups helping make the financial sector a more inclusive place - where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. There are many more networks doing incredible work - this article only touches the surface.

American Express: Disability Awareness Employee Network

The Disability Awareness Employee Network (DAN) provides support, education, and personal and professional growth opportunities to people with disabilities or disability interests, promotes open acceptance and inclusion, and creates a more accessible workplace.

Events hosted by the network include young adults from Whizz-Kidz, Albion in the Community, and St John’s School in Brighton coming together to participate in a morning of workshops hosted by a team of American Express volunteers. They also hosted a Disability Awareness event in May 2016, attended by organisations including Parkinson’s UK.

Since 1987, employee networks at American Express have brought together people with shared backgrounds and interests to engage with and learn from each other. With 16 networks and nearly 100 chapters globally, their employee networks encompass the full spectrum of diversity at American Express including disability, ethnicity, faith, gender, gender identity, generations, sexual orientation and veteran’s status. To find out more about American Express, please click here.

Barclays: Spectrum Network

Spectrum is the established lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employee network at Barclays. The network is active in communities around the UK with the network regional teams coordinating local employee and community engagement.

2016 was a big year for the network. As well as supporting lots of LGBT+ Pride events around the UK, including Pride in London and Glasgow Pride, the network also supported lots of charities.

Some of their fantastic charity engagement included collaborating with international law firm Cleary Gottlieb on a Transgender Day of Remembrance event. Funds raised from the event were donated to Mermaids UK, a charity that supports children and young people suffering from gender identity issues - as well as offering support to their families.

In October 2016 the network hosted their annual fundraising dinner that raised an impressive £130,000 for charity. The money raised will help fund Terrence Higgins Trust’s Work Positive programme, which supports unemployed people living with HIV get back to work.

Barclays also sponsored the LGBT Foundation ‘Heroes Awards’ in Manchester - enthusiastically supported by members of the network. The event celebrated and rewarded grass roots community heroes and diversity champions. To find out more about Barclays, please click here.

HSBC: Embrace Network

Re-launched in 2016, the network focuses on ensuring HSBC is a place where people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds can thrive.

In November 2016 Fiona Daniel, Senior Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager at HSBC and founder of the Embrace network, was a speaker at the Radius Business ‘The Future Evolution of Employee Networks’ conference where she shared lots of informative and useful insight with delegates.

HSBC has more than 50 employee networks covering areas such as gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and disability as well as underlying differences such as beliefs, ways of thinking, responsibilities and lifestyles.

To support their 50/50 recruitment target to increase the number of women moving into senior management roles, as part of its commitment to create a more diverse senior leadership team, HSBC launched the ASPIRE leadership development programme to support talented female, black, asian and minority ethnic senior managers at HSBC to become senior leaders. To find out more about HSBC, please click here.

Lloyds Banking Group: Breakthrough Network

Breakthrough is the award-winning women’s network at Lloyds Banking Group. The network is now the largest of its kind in the UK with 15,000 members and 4,000 mentors - pretty impressive.

In 2016 the network hosted more than 50 events for their members and stakeholders that focussed on career development and mentoring. In October 2016 the network collaborated with Bloomberg on an event with an aim to dispel the myths around imposter syndrome, helping women realise their full career potential. Just one example of their fantastic events.

In early January 2017 the network launched their advocacy campaign to encourage more men to actively and visibly support the diversity agenda. 2017 is sure to be another great year for the network.

Lloyds Banking Group were the first FTSE100 company to pledge that 40% of senior roles are held by women by 2020. To find out more about Lloyds Banking Group, please click here.

Nationwide: Veteran and Reservist Community Network

As more and more former Armed Forces personnel joined the Society, they felt that they and their colleagues would benefit from a network dedicated to supporting veterans, reservists and military families.

The network is coordinated by its members with support from a senior sponsor. Not only does the network offer support to its members, it also harnesses their enthusiasm and specialist knowledge driving activity that benefits various communities across the country.

More than 1,600 employees now belong to a network group in Nationwide, underlining just how important they are to their workforce.

In 2016 the Ministry of Defence awarded Nationwide the Employer Recognition Scheme’s Gold award in recognition of their support for former and serving armed forces personnel, including its leadership in removing barriers military families can face in buying a home of their own. To find out more about Nationwide, please click here.

VERCIDA works with over one hundred clients who are committed to creating an inclusive work environment. If you are an employer and interested in working with VERCIDA to promote your diversity and inclusion initiatives and attract the best candidates, please call 02037405973 or email [email protected] for more information.

We are also officially recommended by Disability Confident as a step on achieving Employer status, please click here for more information.