Diversity

Find out more about Diversity and HSBC.

Our Key Successes

Delivering our Brand Promise

Best Place to Work

Our Policies

We offer a range of policies designed to meet the changing priorities and requirements of our workforce.

Flexible Working

Family Friendly Policies

Childcare Scheme

Tailored Development Programmes

Mentoring Scheme

Equal Pay

Support for employees with a disability, illness or condition

Employee Networks and Assistance Services

Learning from Others

Our Key Successes

The launch of HSBC's Childcare Scheme in 1989 has proved highly successful in supporting the bank through the retention of skilled employees and assisting employees to combine their work and family responsibilities. Over 80% of women return to work after maternity leave.

Representation of women at senior management is steadily increasing and there are further ambitious targets in place through our Gender Plan to ensure this upwards trend continues. HSBC is proud to have received the 4Children Childcare Star Award and the Working Families Family Friendly Employer of the Year Award in 2005.

The bank continues to be a top quartile performer in the Opportunity Now benchmark and is also recognised as one of 107 UK Exemplar Employers in the field of gender equality. Exemplar is a joint initiative established between the Women and Equality Unit and Opportunity Now.

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Best Place to Work

HSBC is committed to becoming the Best Place to Bank, as determined by our customers. Becoming the Best Place to Work is the most important step in this process. Our people need to feel motivated to deliver the best possible service to our customers.

Through our 'Best Place' campaign and in line with our brand, we invite and embrace the unique and differing points of view from our people. We gage opinions in a number of ways, including regular employee surveys, focus groups and feedback via dedicated intranet sites.

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Flexible Working

A Flexible Working Policy is open to all employees and offers options such as job sharing, staggered hours and working from home. We understand that not everyone can and will work in the same way and flexible working removes disadvantage and discrimination to participation in work.

Around 24% of employees work a standard part time contract. This figure does not include the many more employees who work flexible hours, including varying the start/finish times, compressed hours or working from home. An on-line job share register is also available, which enables employees to form a professional job sharing partnership.

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Family Friendly Policies

The bank offers a range of family friendly policies to assist employees in balancing their work and home responsibilities. This includes family leave, which around 20% of employees use each year. This is paid time off in emergencies to look after sick children, elderly, disabled or chronically sick relatives or other close dependants.
HSBC offers a Priority Returner Scheme for employees who opt to take a break from employment to become a carer. This means that employees retain priority over external applicants for job vacancies when they apply to return to the company at the end of their break.

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Childcare Scheme

HSBC understands that helping employees with childcare is a proven way to attract and retain working parents. The bank's award winning Childcare Scheme provides access to over 500 nurseries UK wide. In addition, childcare assistance is now provided to parents with children up to the age of 16, with the introduction of a Childcare Voucher Scheme.
Employees can achieve huge savings on their childcare expenses from tax and National Insurance free benefits that are offered via a salary sacrifice scheme.

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Tailored Development Programmes

We offer dedicated development programmes to encourage more women to reach their full career potential. Our Women's Development Programme was introduced ten years ago to encourage more women to seek promotion and to participate in the leadership of the business.

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Mentoring Scheme

Our mentoring scheme is designed to provide an additional level of support to help employees make the most of their career. This enables more experienced colleagues to work with those at a different stage in their career in order to develop skills and knowledge to progress.

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Equal Pay

The bank has been a leading supporter of equal pay audits for over 20 years. Each year the bank reviews the distribution of performance appraisal ratings, salary increases, bonus awards and share allocations to ensure that there is no gender bias.

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Support for employees with a disability, illness or condition

A dedicated in-house Occupational Health team focus on meeting the needs of employees with a disability, illness or condition. Often, a creative solution and a slight change in working practices is all that is needed.

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Case Study 1
A visually impaired employee is recruited as a Marketing Manager in HSBC's Marketing Department. The bank employs the RNIB to undertake a workplace assessment of the employee's requirements.
Following the RNIB's recommendations, HSBC purchased a CCTV and installed specialist software, called ZoomText, onto the individual's PC. The bank also employed a specialist organisation, AbilityNet, to provide the employee with training to use this new software.

Outcome: The modified workstation now meets the employee's specific requirements and the CCTV enables the employee to read hard copy information in an enlarged format.

Case Study 2
A Customer Services Officer was diagnosed with motor neurone disease three years previously and uses a wheelchair, provided by the bank, as well as a specialist keyboard.
Following deterioration of her condition, AbilityNet was asked to conduct a workplace review. A new mouse and a wireless telephone headset microphone were purchased. Through AbilityNet, the bank was also able to provide guidance to the employee about facilities available within Windows, such as keyboard shortcuts, which would reduce the amount of keyboard work.

Outcome: Modifications help the employee to manage the continued deterioration of her condition. Simple adjustments, such as keyboard shortcuts, means that the employee is able to work more comfortably, reducing reliance on the keyboard.

Case Study 3
A Manager with rheumatoid arthritis takes a range of medication that can cause unpleasant side effects. The employee was taking the treatment at the weekend, but the side effects meant that she was often unwell and wasn't able to spend quality time with her two children. The bank arranged for the employee to take her medication on a Monday and she is equipped to work from home if the drug-induced symptoms became too intrusive.

Outcome: By proving a flexible home-working arrangement, the impact of the arthritis on the employee’s life outside of work, can be minimised.

Employee Networks and Assistance Services

Employee Networks are designed to provide networking opportunities for employees from a range of diverse groups and offer a chance to support and learn from others. HSBC’s networks include:

A variety of race and faith networks e.g. the Islamic Society and the Jewish Society
A disability and carers network called Choices
A working parents network
GLOBE, for Gay and lesbian employees

Open Line is HSBC's free, confidential counselling, advice and information service, which is available to employees 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service provides information and support on a wide range of work related and personal issues.

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Learning from Others

Partnerships with external organisations are vital as they help us to continually improve our business in terms of managing diversity. HSBC plays an active role in supporting these organisations through our membership and / or founder status.

We are proud to be associated with a number of external organisations, including the following:

We also participate in a number of Government initiatives and policy consultations.

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