Case Study - Yorkshire Bank

Background

Championing Diversity was a West Yorkshire wide programme offered to employers to help them develop their management of diversity. This included an assessment of the company’s progress to date and extensive help over 18 months to move them in the direction they wanted to be in the future.

The Organisation

Shaping the companies into ‘Champions of Diversity’ in their industry, the programme worked with Julie Wade, UK Diversity Lead at Yorkshire Bank to develop their approach to diversity. Yorkshire Bank, part of the National Australia Bank Group, combines global strength with the local service of a well established regional bank. The Bank offers a range of services for personal and business customers, combining qualities developed in over 150 years of experience with a modern approach to financial services. It recognises that customers are evermore discerning and require value from their relationship with Yorkshire Bank through its everwidening range of products and services.

Impact "It has helped us to develop the action plan, and our next steps with reference to the diversity strategy. It got people thinking and confirmed where they were and what they were actually doing quite well"

What did we do?

• Developed an action plan to address the gaps in our diversity programme. • Developed our ‘Vintage’ programme to ensure that we make the most of our older workers. Various strategies have been developed including creative ways of recognising long service.

What did we learn?

That our approach has been the correct one to follow; to publicise and celebrate our successes and progress and to keep this up, as we have come along way in our journey and we have a lot to celebrate. To measure the impact of the changes by a survey to a targeted population of the workforce to assess how much progress has been made. To increase communication about different programmes widely within the organisation.