Intercultural Capability

Our business strategy means ANZ’s workforce will increasingly be required to understand and support customers within and across the Asia Pacific region. In building our workforce of the future, we have focused on recruiting and developing inspiring, values-based leaders and a diverse and inclusive team.

Around 73% of our top 181 executives have significant international experience comprising a minimum of three to five years working outside their home country.

ANZ’s workforce represents in excess of 120 cultural backgrounds, speaks more than 90 languages and follows over 80 different religions. Networks, mentoring schemes and a ‘sister branch’ program, connect employees in Australia and New Zealand with peers across Asia Pacific. We also offer short-term secondments and promote culturally-focused festivals to help our people develop relationships, build customer insights and increase cross-border/divisional customer referrals.

At a community level, our CEO heads AsiaLink’s Asia Capable Workplace strategy and our employees participate in their Asia Literacy for Schools program in Australia. We are a lead sponsor of the Diversity Council of Australia and the Australian Government’s inaugural research into cultural diversity and capability of Australian Boards and businesses.

Gender Equality In Leadership

Increasing the proportion of women at all levels of management will enable ANZ to tap into a broader range of talents, leadership styles and skill-sets to manage our business and serve our customers. This year we aimed to increase the representation of women in management to 40%, however we remained steady at around 38%. While we did not achieve our overall goal, there was progress at senior levels. Three women sit on our Management Board while others lead major global businesses and key countries in our growth strategy. In our Australia Division
women hold 43% of all management positions.

Developing a strong pipeline of senior female leaders is a priority. We provide opportunities for high potential women to gain experience in key banking roles, necessary for future careers as senior leaders in the industry. Women represent 44% of participants in our Generalist Banker accelerated development program; 53% of our upcoming 2013 graduate intake; and 46% of participants in our Leadership Pathway development programs.

We work at a community level with organisations such as Chief Executive Women; the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s Male Champions for Change Initiative; and Melbourne Business School to promote gender equality in business, better understanding the conditions and culture that enable women to thrive in leadership.

In March, our approach and progress in creating a more gender balanced business was recognised through our citation as Employer of Choice for Women for the eighth time from the Equal Opportunity in the Workplace Agency of Australia (EOWA).

Recruiting and Developing Employees From Disadvantaged Communities

Education and employment enhance livelihoods, and are high on the development agendas of governments across our Region. As a large employer, our employment decisions can significantly benefit the lives of disadvantaged and under-represented individuals, including people with disability, and among Indigenous and refugee communities.

Since we introduced our disability employment program in 2008, ANZ has employed 131 people with a self-disclosed disability, with a retention rate of 74%. In 2012, we employed 38 people with disability – 13 in Australia, 15 in India, two in the Philippines and eight in New Zealand.

Our Abilities team helps us make banking easier for customers. For example, our vision-impaired team enhanced our award-winning ANZ goMoney™ app for iPhone, introducing voice-overs and zooms to ensure ease and accessibility. Since 2003 we have provided traineeships and employment to more than 650 Indigenous Australians. This year, we employed an additional 79 Indigenous trainees in our retail network; 23 Indigenous candidates were successfully recruited to full-time positions and 56 recruited via our Indigenous trainee program.

In 2012, ANZ was recognised by the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) for excellence in the employment of people with disability and Indigenous Australians.

ANZ participates in The Brotherhood of St Laurence’s Given the Chance refugee employment programs, providing refugees in Australia with skills and experience to enter the workforce. So far, 56 refugees have taken part in areas including Retail Products, Operations, Australian Branch Network, and the Australian Call Centre with a retention rate of 73%.

Supporting Employees Through Change

We experienced challenges meeting some of our employment targets this year due to economic conditions, low employment growth and restructures within our business, which meant we prioritised redeploying existing employees into available roles. These circumstances saw
the loss of around 1000 full-time roles, largely in our Australian business.

A comprehensive program was put in place to support affected employees. They received assistance finding alternative roles within ANZ through an active redeployment program, or outside of ANZ through outplacement services, which provide career coaching, job search training and professional support services. In addition, our New Career Training Fund offered grants of up to $10,000, enabling those impacted to retrain for careers outside banking.

Denysha Marshall, a Personal Banker in Western Australia and ANZ Indigenous Employment program participant initially joined the ANZ Indigenous School Based Traineeship. She says the program teaches people how to be ambitious from a young age.

Inspiring and Engaging Our Team

Amidst these challenging conditions, our annual ‘My Voice’ survey showed employee engagement levels steady ataround 70% – consistent with the banking sector average.

84% of employees feel their manager demonstrates through action the importance of customer service; 79% believe ANZ is creating a workforce that is open and accepting of individual difference; 76% believe their opinions count; and 80% believe their manager enables them to effectively manage their work and life commitments. Engagement amongst women overall is equal to men; while engagement among our most senior women increased from 75% to 82%.

Initiatives are in place to address the survey findings and achieve our best-practice employee engagement aims. Initiatives include a group-wide program to help employees deeply understand our super regional strategy and how their work contributes to our goals, alongside continual reinforcement of ANZ’s Values and Behaviours.