Case Study: Training and Development - Bank of Scotland Corporate

In 2003 the Bank of Scotland appointed a dedicated Women in Business team to support and encourage women to start and grow their own businesses and to ensure that the Bank’s services met the requirements of the company’s Equality and Diversity strategy.

In March 2006 the Women in Business team developed and launched an internal programme ‘Corporate Savvy’ to provide support and advice for female colleagues working within the bank. An online survey enabled colleagues from across the division to say what they would like the programme to deliver, when and how. The programme aims to provide real, added value to longer term career development through a variety of media such as online information, events, sample training courses, reference data and networking A comprehensive colleague website has been designed not only as background to the programme but also to facilitate access to the resources and events.

Since its launch the internal programme has quickly become a popular addition to the development opportunities available. The result has been a fully-booked series of events across the UK, where female colleagues are given the chance to put their questions to senior women over lunch, or meet like-minded colleagues at lunchtime training sessions.

Feedback from all events and activities shows that they are considered valuable for career development and a welcome addition to the mainstream opportunities available – the last lunch event returned an overall 96.2% success rate. Feedback from the events has also provided several useful suggestions for future sessions, one of which is a new assertive communication course designed specifically for women – this will be piloted in the autumn.

Developing a strong brand for the programme, helped by having an intranet site and regular branded email communications, has been important in raising awareness and creating positive word of mouth across the business and ensuring that events are well received and populated.  Full attendance has been recorded at every session, with many requiring waiting lists to accommodate interested colleagues.  BOS Corporate has measured hits/visitors to the intranet site which has provided valuable information on the successful reach and pull of activities.

As a result of the work carried out over the last 12 months, Bank of Scotland Women in Business were invited to become a member of the Established Women's Network which shares best practice on internal women's development programmes and optimises regional centres for events Other attendees include BT, PwC, Morgan Stanley, Shell, The Post Office and Ford


Contact Point

Elaine Duff