Diversity at Barclays Bank Essay

There are four top leading Banks in UK, Barclays Bank is one of the leading banks. Barclays Bank considers honest prompting an atmosphere or environment where diversity is highly respected and accepted. Diversity as defined by (Dictionary, 2009) is said to be the reality or standard of being diverse (Rajan Amin, 2003) Says diversity contains personal individuality explained by age, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, sexual position. These differences are established and guarded by law. Diversity in workplace can also be viewed has the difference in qualities and attributes in people working in an organisation. Diversity in workplace can have positive influence in efficient and smooth running of an organisation and can cause chaos between the employees if not administered properly. In 1963 Late President of USA, John Kennedy met with the Americans leaders to discuss about (Drachsler, 2013) the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which was made law on June 19 of 1964 to focus on Equal opportunity commission and affirmative action and policies, which made the organisations, focus more on just complying on legislation imposed by law, it moved to another stage during the early 1980s to incorporate minors and women into workforce in the late 1980s it moved from just complying to rules and regulations and focuses more on business survival. In the late 1990s there is much shift from complying to laws and to focus on incorporating women and minors into workforce to including everyone in the workforce to know the differences in each employee in the workforce and to be sensitised about the needs and distinctions of others. Now in this century Diversity has shifted attention to inclusion and diversity to increase the efficiency, profitability, wide scope and all factors that can lead to business success. There are two types of workforce diversity Surface level diversity and deep level diversity 1. Surface level diversity as defined by (Kenneth Price H, 2002) as distinctions to each of more members of a team in an overt demographic feature. It is also said to be the different features in workforce that can be seen and observed such Age, Gender, Religion, and Ethnicity. Marital status was also listed as an factors to be considered as a surface level diversity and all these aforementioned examples of surface level diversity  are quantifiable 2. Deep level diversity is defined as distinctions between values, personality and preferences in work. It also defined by (Kenneth Price H, 2002) as the predetermined distinctions among members of a team’ personalities included psychological characteristics, values and attitudes. They factors here can only be felt and cannot be seen they are qualified they cannot be quantified. There are benefits derived from workforce diversity, In Employee management they make good utilization of talents, improved quality of team problem- solving efforts and strength to attract and retain employee’s organisations benefits. In Strategic problem solving skills such as prospective to improve sales volume and to increase market capital base of the organisation, good ethical behaviours ( knowing the right thing to do) . In Organisational Operation they derive good team spirit among the employees, good problem solving strength and lowering cost that is connected to absenteeism and law suit s. Diversity is a two edged sword (Chrobot-Mason, 2013) which means it has positive and negative advantage. There are challenges to workforce diversity such as communication in multicultural environments has mentioned by (Fatima Oliviera, july 2013) and diversity involves not only how employees see themselves but how they see others. That insight affects the way they interact. (Sreedhar, 2011) Highlighted that there is need for professionals in human resource department to consider and administer effectively with issues of change, communication and adaptability. (CHUA, 2013) Also discussed that as organisations become more culturally diverse, conflicts and tensions are bound to happen among employees or people that are from different cultural backgrounds. With all these above mentioned merits and demerits I think diversity is the management of differences in employees effectively and eliminating conflicts that might arise afterwards. Barclays has the believe that to be among the first four leading banks in the world they need a rock solid diversity and inclusion strategy programme and policy to be in place to give them a huge advantage among their rivals in the banking sector . They started by knowing that the foundation of their success is in the talented people they employ, whatsoever lifestyle, age, personality, religion, race, disability, gender or sexual orientation. Barclays focuses on six principal areas of diversity; Gender- is the most important of Barclays diversity and inclusion policy, promoted by the Barclays executive diversity group and it was aimed at increasing the number of women in the senior roles by doing all that is possible to make women in the organisation fulfil their career potential with Barclays increasing female portrayal to at least 20% by the end of last year and rising more to more than 25% by 2015 at the board level. Recruiting is based on merit, and gender diversity is considered seriously when exerting talents across the globe, from the future leader programmes to the most senior recruit and they do make sure that all those that provide recruitment support, supports the vision to lure in diverse candidates around the world. However, other banks all over the globe have innovated Women’s Initiative Networks but the Barclays Women of the year award identifies talented personal and Professional attainment from female employees globally, as well as identifying male em ployee who champion and be of support to female career development. Disability Barclays has shown commitment to being a disability self- assured organisation. Their aim is to lure more highly expertise people, aid disabilities or health defect by making available the equipment and accommodation that enable their employee to be outstanding. Awareness of employee with disability is giving the Bank to recognise modern ways of making products, service and facilities available to everyone an illustration the organisation run disability listening groups, the forum provides staffs with disability with the chance to meet with high level employee and give materials into calculated transformation to improve the working society. Generational diversity Recognising generational diversity in workplace adds cognitive capital to Barclays bank, which promotes revolutions for employees, clients and the customers of the Bank. Barclays bank manages this by supporting the recruitment process and holding firm an age diverse workforce. Creating a workforce with no age limit on each vacant position at Barclays is set as a goal achievable. Merit is the criteria for any elevation; elevation is open to all employees through a yearly achievement and development review  procedure. They are among just few organisations that have taken the proactive measures to include multigenerational diverse workforce into the employee working tactics, the age employees also believes that skill, strength, capability and accomplishment are the backbone of all good performances, which is making the bank one of the leading banks in the world. Sexual Orientation Barclays has good records to encourage their Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered employees, customers and clients and the Bank have been known worldwide by numerous external establishments, Human Rights Campaign in the US are included. Barclays was at the stonewall workplace equality index (WEI) controlled by the United kingdom’s chief Lesbian Gay Bisexual charity, and they were ranked number three in year 2011 in acknowledgment of the work been done to make sure their workplace, products and services are included. They achieved 100 percent in the 2011 Human Rights campaign corporate equality index in the USA and it 95percent in the UK. Multiculturalism This is a very important tool for organisations in the current global business world, Barclays works with a great cultural diversity sense. Barclays Employees are from all around the globe, the employees throughout the Barclays around the world set a footmark to make up a constantly changing pattern of nationalities, cultures and heritage. The distinctive approaches are immeasurable in making sure the organisation comprehend what the need of their customers and clients all around the world is, and with that they provide expert products and services to meet the needs. More to this is the Cultural Awareness Employee network which brings together employees within all Barclays to make sure the bank continue to find up to date method to examine the world with the motive of evaluating and leveraging differences. CONCLUSION Globalisation has made businesses to see diversity has a must do thing, to be successful in modern day business, diversity in workplace should not be treated as complying to law and regulations, it is now a thing of inclusion  and diversity to increase the efficiency, profitability, wide scope and all factors that can lead to business success. For Barclays Bank, Diversity and inclusion is much more than just complying with the law. It means stating and having an active policy in place to make the very best of their diverse staff to serve the clients, customers and benefit their employee to make them retain the height they are in the business world. RECOMMENDATION Having observed all the analysis of diversity and inclusion it is therefore suggested that the following be done to enjoy more benefits of diversity Minimise inequalities among employee to reduce conflicts among the employee. Training and re training programme on human relation should be put in place for employee to enable the employee to know how best to interact among their contemporary. Change is constant so therefore diversity policies and procedures guide lines should be amended yearly. Bibliography Chrobot-Mason, D. A. N. P., 2013. The psychological benefits of creating an affirming climate for workplace diversity. Professiona and management development training, 38(1059-6011), p. 31. CHUA, R. Y. J., 2013. The costs of ambient cultural disharmony: Indirect intercultural Conflicts in social environment undermine creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 56(0001-4273), p. 33. Dictionary, A. H., 2009. Mifflin Houghton. [Online] Available at: http://www.eref-trade.hmco.com/ [Accessed 21 01 2014]. Drachsler, D. A., 2013. Supreme court sets high bar for Title vii retaliation claims.. Labour law journal, 64(4-0023-6586), p. 6. Fatima Oliviera, M. d., july 2013. 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