Section head
Abbey
Overview
Abbey is one of the UK's leading personal financial services companies employing almost 18,000 people and reaching over 18 million customers through a network of 712 branches and five main offices.
As part of Banco Santander, with a global team of over 130,000 people in over 40 countries, Abbey’s employees all have very different profiles, but share one very important thing - Abbey’s values: innovation, dynamism, strength, customer focus and professional ethics.
Motivation
Abbey has recently taken an invigorated approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) of which diversity and inclusion are key elements. As part of a global organisation with a geographically and culturally diverse workforce, Abbey's philosophy is simple: a person's individual characteristics, including their gender, should not dictate their ability to play a positive role within the organisation. Abbey believes this makes good business sense, through the positive contribution that its employees make, and that it is its duty as one of the UK's largest employers.
Success in action
Abbey constantly looks to advance its gender diversity programme to ensure that all staff are given an opportunity to contribute to the company's success regardless of their background and personal circumstances.
To reflect this commitment it offers a range of benefits that support employees to achieve a balance between their work and responsibilities as parents and carers. These include job share options, career breaks and part time employment. Abbey understands that sometimes pressures outside of the workplace can mount up for many reasons and so offers a 'reduced accountability career break' which allows staff to undertake a job with less accountability to enable them to cope with those additional demands. For employees thinking of becoming parents, Abbey offers full support throughout the duration of the pregnancy and beyond, offering an extended absence period for employees with longer service. Abbey also operates tailored policies for adoption, fostering and fertility treatment, as it understands that each experience is very unique and requires different support. Abbey offers a returner bonus, which is paid for two years following maternity leave, and a childcare voucher scheme.
Abbey extends its support for women by offering a comprehensive talent management programme. Abbey also supports Parentworks, a scheme that targets single parents and helps them develop the skills they need to enter the workforce.
Through its Charitable Trust, Abbey has provided support to MK Women and Work Group in Milton Keynes. The charity provides a range of services targeted at unemployed women and women in low paid/low skilled jobs, who want to gain or update skills through further education or training in order to improve their employability. Abbey's support has enabled the charity to provide much needed training courses.
Abbey wants its employees to feel valued and respected so that they can contribute their best everyday. It therefore believes that everyone needs to be aware of and understand their responsibilities to treat colleagues with respect, regardless of their background or personal circumstances. An e-learning programme will be rolled out during 2007 to all employees designed to raise diversity awareness.
The impact
It is these sorts of initiatives that make Abbey a place where women want to work and its percentage of female employees has shown a steady increase reaching 69% in 2006. The focus on developing strong diversity policies has been both valuable to Abbey employees and to Abbey as a business. Approximately 70% of employees who go on maternity leave return to Abbey. Abbey is proud of the diversity policies it offers and over the next 12 months will work to further develop its approach to gender inclusion with the support of Opportunity Now.