Lloyds Banking Group becomes first FTSE 100 Company to set target for ethnic minorities in senior roles

Lloyds Banking Group has today announced it will set a public target to increase the representation of B.A.M.E colleagues in senior management positions, the first target of its kind to be set by a FTSE 100 Company.

The group, which includes Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows, currently serves 10 per cent of the customers from a B.A.M.E background and it it said its long term ambition is to accurately reflect its customer base.

With the B.A.M.E population currently under represented across UK companies, the Group is working to remove barriers for talented B.A.M.E colleagues to help create a truly inclusive workforce.

The Group’s public commitment aims to increase representation of B.A.M.E colleagues to 8 per cent of senior management and, additionally, to 10 per cent of the total workforce by 2020. Currently, 8.3 per cent of all colleagues and 5.6 per cent of senior management are from a B.A.M.E background.

This compares to 12 per cent of the UK labour force and 14 per cent of the UK population.

The new target will be incorporated into the Group’s 2018 Helping Britain Prosper Plan, to be published on Wednesday 21 February, setting out significant public targets to help address some of the biggest social and economic issues facing Britain today.

In 2014, as part of its Helping Britain Prosper Plan, the Group made a public commitment to increase the engagement level of B.A.M.E colleagues to 70 per cent by 2020 and achieved this target ahead of schedule by reaching 73 per cent in 2017.

The Group has already made progress in improving racial and cultural diversity, through initiatives including:

• Career development programmes for B.A.M.E colleagues and leadership programmes for senior management

• Increasing visibility of B.A.M.E role models; the Group publishes an annual list of ethnicity role models and provides colleagues with opportunities to meet role models and hear their stories.

• A colleague network that aims to embrace the diversity of the Group’s race, ethnic and cultural heritage and offers an allies programme to help build supporter engagement and advocacy amongst colleagues.

Fiona Cannon, Lloyds Banking Group director of responsible business and inclusion, said: “What gets measured gets done and we are confident we can meet our diversity goals with the right focus and determination. We recognise that companies with diverse management teams perform better and have made a public commitment to create a truly inclusive workforce. It is our ambition to better reflect the customers and communities which we serve.

“Our data shows that while we are making good progress, we think this rate of progress is too slow, so we are committing to bring change sooner. We want to put into place the right building blocks that will enable us to build our diverse talent pipeline and deliver on our commitment to Help Britain Prosper.”