As part of it’s commitment to the HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, The Co-operative Bank has released it’s targets for improving gender diversity in senior manager roles. 
The bank is aiming to meet a target of 40% female representation in senior management roles by 2020, which is an 8% rise on 2016. To meet this, the Bank is making changes to the way it recruits employees, introducing coaching schemes and encouraging more women to apply for senior management roles. It also aims to ensure equal pay for all genders over a whole career.
Of the Bank’s total employees, 59% are female, and just 32% of those are senior managers.
Steven Pickering, Chief Risk Officer and the Executive responsible for gender diversity, said:
“As a bank defined by its distinctive values and ethics, The Co-operative Bank is delighted to commit to this target, which we think is realistic and will deliver change within our organisation…The Charter helps improve opportunities and progression for women and ensuring that talent rises to the top in the finance sector regardless of gender.”
The Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Policy sets out the bank’s commitment to operating as an ethical workplace. It has a dedicated woman’s career network; Elevate, championed by the senior leadership team. The Co-op also holds awareness events for it’s colleagues, most recently as part of National Inclusion Week which took place last month.
Co-op Bank has also committed to publishing gender pay information as part of it’s 2017 annual reporting process. This has come after those with more than 250 employees were instructed by the government to reveal data on employees salaries, which will affect around 8,000 employers across the UK.
Latest figures suggest that women in the UK still earn on average 20% less than men.
