Gender diversity

Improving female representation at senior management and director level is extremely important for the long-term sustainability of our Group. 

At Vanquis Banking Group we are committed to ensuring that our workforce is inclusive and diverse and reflects the broad diversity of the 1.75 million customers we serve and the communities where they live and work. A key element of this commitment is about ensuring that we deliver the targets we set by virtue of being a signatory of HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter.

Vanquis Banking Group became a signatory to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, a government initiative to improve gender diversity in senior positions within the financial services sector in March 2019.

We have set a target to have 40% female representation in the Group’s senior management population by December 2026. At the time we signed up to the Charter in 2019, we had 30% female representation in our senior management population.

As of July 2024, we had 35% female representation in this population. While we are seeing progress, we recognise we are not on track to meet our Charter target of 40% by our deadline of 2026. We intend to review our target next year, following the launch of our new strategy in March this year.

Since our last Charter submission in 2023, we have refreshed our purpose: to deliver caring banking so our customers can make the most of life’s opportunities. Our customer-led strategy is underpinned by rich, detailed understanding of the lives and needs of those we serve. We acknowledge and celebrate the diversity and individuality of modern society.  Together these create good foundations for us to nurture an inclusive culture, where our colleagues are empowered with the skills, career and culture that inspires great customer empathy and belief in our purpose.

Key deliverables

• Ensuring gender balanced shortlists when we recruit for senior leadership roles across Vanquis Banking Group. We also work in partnership with the recruitment agencies we use to ensure they are clear on our expectations regarding our inclusion and diversity commitments.
• Continue to nurture our professional women’s network to sponsor, connect and engage women across Vanquis Banking Group into and throughout their leadership journey.
• Delivery of our strategic initiative aimed at addressing gender balance within the Group’s Technology and Change functions. Initiatives are being delivered to create succession pipelines that will help to fill senior role vacancies when they become available.
• Continuing to adopt hybrid working models and enabling colleagues to work with greater flexibly, ensuring they have the support they need. This has also provided a wider talent pool with less geographical barriers.

Training and development

Making sure our colleagues undertake continued professional development (CPD) is an important contributor to the viability of our business. We place strong emphasis on supporting our customer-facing colleagues by equipping them with a broad range of skills so they’re well placed to support all customers, especially those in vulnerable situations. To support the training needs and personal development of our colleagues, we undertake performance appraisals throughout the course of the year which enable our teams to have regular conversations about the Group’s values, and individuals to discuss and document their personal objectives and career development plans.

Health and safety

Looking after the health, safety, and wellbeing of all our people, whether they are colleagues, contractors,
suppliers, or customers, working from home or in our offices, is always a high priority for us. The Group demonstrates its commitment by defining roles, allocating responsibilities and delegating authorities, to facilitate effective H&S management. 

During 2022, the People function health and safety team was restructured and re-aligned across the  Group ensuring a greater alignment of strategic priorities and an emphasis on driving better colleague health, safety, wellbeing, and engagement.

Supporting colleague mental health and wellbeing

We recognise the importance of supporting colleagues' mental health and wellbeing. Now, more than ever, mental well-being is a key contributor to our colleagues’ health and safety, their social wellbeing, and their ability to fulfil their potential at work.

By promoting the importance of and arranging targeted activities around maintaining good mental health, we are working to protect our colleagues while fostering an internal culture of resilience and openness.

Our focus is on exploring intersectionality across all areas of wellbeing and inclusion and focusing on building financial wellbeing. Activities have driven awareness of the tools and resources available to colleagues to help them make positive improvements to their mental wellbeing and to ease financial stress. Now, more than ever, financial wellbeing is a key contributor to our colleagues’ overall mental and physical health.

Working with our strategic partners, we have explored topics through webinars and internal communication, with colleagues sharing their experiences and experts offering guidance and advice, or sign posting for further support.

In partnership with the Bank Workers Charity, we delivered a series of webinars exploring key topics around improving and maintaining mental wellbeing. These live sessions are open to all colleagues and are also recorded for subsequent viewing. Topics included:

• Social Wellbeing and Loneliness; Wellbeing Through the Lens of Inclusion and Diversity; and
• What Is Good Financial Wellbeing?

We participated in the Money and Pension Service’s Talk Money Week, to encourage colleagues to open
up about their finances and helping to remove the stigma of seeking financial and debt support.

Employee Assistance Programme

All colleagues and their families have access to free confidential mental health and wellbeing support, available 24/7 through our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

EAP features include:

• a dedicated helpline with calls answered by experienced in-house counsellors, and legal and financial specialists; and
• a smartphone app and personalised online wellbeing content, including videos, webinars, mini health checks and health coaching.