Background

Danske serves the needs of c. 450k personal customers and 40k business customers across NI through its 42 branches, three regional business centres, digital banking and telephone banking channels.

Customers benefit from the strength of and continued investment from the parent company, combined with local management, strategy and decision- making. Senior management live and work in NI.

What Danske Bank did

To achieve the Bank’s vision to become the Best Bank in NI for Colleagues, Customers, Partners and Society, it recognised that it must ensure that employment policies and the Employer Brand enabled it to attract, develop and retain the brightest and the best. Equality, diversity and conscious inclusion (EDI) was deemed critical to achieving this ambition.

The Culture Wheel below has been embedded within all core HR interventions including L&D, resourcing, succession and talent development, and performance management. Updates on all aspects of EDI activity are reported at every meeting of our Responsible Business Board.  In this context, diversity and inclusion is vital part of the Danske Bank corporate ethos.

In the last two years, the Bank has placed particular focus on its ED&I agenda and, with leadership from the top of the organisation, has embedded the culture wheel in all that it does, carrying out a comprehensive audit and revamp of People policies relating to ED&I, and set key targets and measurement procedures in place to track progress.

Whilst Gender diversity provided a starting point for driving many of Danske Banks initiatives, the model established for gender diversity has been replicated across all key EDI workstreams and a movement created across the business.

Impacts and Outcomes

• 89% employee engagement score
• Six promotions resulted from the 10 week Women in Leadership programme
• Your Voice, skills in communication and presentation for female talent
• 104 attendees of Mindful Manager, programme to enable managers to support colleagues and promote good mental health
• Developed a suite of ‘Danske Families’ policies to support mums, dads and grandparents
• 90% taken part in CBT learning
• NIs first JAM Card friendly bank
• Developed partnerships with Women in Business, Lean In, Working with Pride, Stonewall, AMH, NOW Group, Business Disability Forum
• Sponsor of Danske Premiership and Danske Women’s Premiership, Schools rugby and GAA, Friend of Belfast Mela 2019 and TedX, to support ED&I agenda

For more information, please email orla.king@danskebank.co.uk