“If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks.”
According to the Abrivia 2017 Salary Survey and Economic Commentary, 44% of employees in the Finance, Banking and Insurance (FB&I) sector feel that the importance of diversity management has increased whilst 51% said it had stayed the same. The remaining 5% felt it decreased.
On a positive note, 83% of employees in the FB&I sector are comfortable with “the diversity of workforce” in their workplace
In regards the biggest challenges to diversity in the FB&I sector 33% of FB&I employees cited the lack of race diversity, 30% cited the lack of age diversity and 23% the lack of gender diversity whilst 10% cited the lack of diversity in sexual orientation
An impressive 62% in the FB&I sector feel that their HR department has provided sufficient support for diversity management
How do the attitudes to diversity in the FB&I sector compare to overall results and to other sectors?
0verall, across all sectors, 30% of employees said that the importance of gender diversity management in their company had increased in the past year whereas in the FB&I sector this figure was 44%. Unlike employers, they see race diversity as the biggest challenge, followed by gender, and then age. 38% of employees felt that their HR department was not providing sufficient support for diversity management in their workplace.
In keeping with the trend across all sectors amongst employees, gender diversity was not regarded as the biggest challenge in the FB&I sector. In fact, it was in third place behind age diversity and race diversity. Race diversity was seen as the biggest challenge amongst FB&I employees.Gender diversity in the FB&I sector was seen as the biggest challenge by a mere 23% of employee respondents in this sector. This is compared to a massive 37% in the ICT sector and 34% in the Human Resource sector which saw gender diversity as the biggest challenge. In fact, gender diversity had the lowest recorded answers in the FB&I sector when compared to all other sectors. On the other hand, the challenge of race diversity had the biggest employee response rate in the FB&I sector when compared to any other sector.
Do employees and employers share the same view in regards diversity in the FB&I sector?
The simple answer is no. Gender, age and then race are the three main challenges to diversity in the FB&I sector cited by employers. Whereas with employees, it is race which is considered the biggest challenge, followed by age and then gender.
31% of employers see gender as the biggest challenge whereas only 22% view gender diversity as the biggest challenge.
Summary:
One has to bear in mind when observing the findings from a FB&I sector viewpoint that they are reviewing a sector that is heavily regulated vis-vis the employees working in the sector. It is, because of the risk averse nature of the area slow and cautious and in fairness much less nimble when considering change.
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