I’m really proud to be part of NatWest Group’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) team - so let me start by telling you a bit about us. As a team we want to drive strategic and positive change across the organisation through our DE&I strategy - creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. Our approach is focused on gender, ethnicity, disability, LGBT+ and socio-economic diversity.
My role as the bank’s ethnicity lead
I’m the bank’s DE&I Consultant for ethnicity – a role I’m extremely passionate about. I lead and drive our ethnicity plan which aims to:
- Build ethnically diverse teams through recruitment retention and advancement of diverse colleagues
- Improve leadership and allyship capability – through education, and supporting leaders to use the tools we have available to nurture diverse talent
- Ensure collaboration and coordination of the bank’s ethnicity focused working groups - so that we create greater impact by aligning our focus
Collaboration is key
Teamwork and collaboration are key in our roles in the DE&I team. From a strategic perspective, I work with external thought leaders and organisations who advise on best practice policies and initiatives pertinent to the ethnicity agenda, which helps inform our ethnicity strategy for the bank.
On a day-to-day basis, I work with colleagues across NatWest Group including our Racial Equality Taskforce, our employee-led Multicultural Network, leaders across the bank and our ethnicity Exec Sponsors, to help drive initiatives and behaviours that will have a positive impact.
I also work with NatWest Group’s Ethnicity Advisory Council, who provide expertise and challenge on our ethnicity plans - they help us we’re moving in the right direction against our ethnicity and Black targets, which are to have 14% of colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds in our top four UK layers and 3% Black colleagues in our top five UK layers in the UK by 2025.
