Education and employment opportunities are key to changing people’s lives and are high on the development agendas of individuals and governments across our region.
We know that a good education leads to employment, and combined, they can make a significant and sustainable difference to the lives of disadvantaged groups and people that are under-represented in the workforce.
By actively improving the diversity of our staff, we are better able to understand and serve an increasingly wide range of customers across multiple countries and cultures. Ideas and views drawn from different backgrounds and life experiences also contribute to better decisions and innovation for our customers.
Advancing Women at Work
We have invested significantly over many years to develop an organisational culture that enables and promotes the advancement of women at ANZ.
This has included setting public targets to increase the number of women in management every year since 2005 and getting more women into strategic and line management roles:
- There are now three women on our Management Board of 12 executives, where in 2007 there was none.
- Five female country CEOs lead our business in important markets in Asia such as China, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
- Senior women now run key businesses including leading our operations in Bangalore, India; Private Bank in Australia and New Zealand; Retail and Wealth businesses in Asia and the Pacific; Global Capital Markets business; and our Global Shared Services function.
This year we increased the proportion of women in management from 36.8% to 38.4% and aim to have 40% female managers by 30 September 2011.
Despite steady progress, feedback from our own employees supports global research highlighting the challenges some women face in their careers, for example, the loss of career momentum and responsibilities after taking time out for family.
Affordability and access to childcare remain key issues for our employees, who are also asking us to further develop and embed flexible work arrangements across our business. In response, we announced a range of measures including a $4,000 childcare allowance for our Australian staff returning from parental leave and superannuation payments on all forms of their paid parental leave.
A Senior Executive Diversity Council chaired by our CEO, mentoring programs, a Gender Action Network and clear guidelines for recruitment, selection and remuneration of employees to reduce gender bias are among the initiatives in place to help to support, develop and promote women.
WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT 2009–2010
| Group | 2010 % | 2009 % |
|---|---|---|
| Senior executives | 23.9 | 24.7 |
| Senior managers | 27.6 | 27.6 |
| Managers | 40.6 | 38.3 |
| Total | 38.4 | 36.8 |
New ASX diversity requirements
ANZ is an early adopter of the recently announced Australian Stock Exchange’s (ASX) Governance Principles relating to diversity, having set and reported on public targets for women in management for the past five years. We also set measurable diversity objectives for the employment of Indigenous people, people with disability and refugees in our business.
Indigenous Traineeships Build Long-term Careers
Our traineeships are continuing to kick-start careers and provide a pathway to long-term prosperity for Indigenous Australians.
Spanning one to two years, the traineeships provide practical banking and workplace experience while developing participants’ capabilities and confidence to broaden their future employment or academic aspirations and opportunities.
This year we recruited 215 new trainees, with a total of 475 Indigenous youth participating since the program’s inception in 2003.
A priority is supporting participants to complete the full duration of their traineeship. We have enhanced interview and screening processes to include a voluntary week of work experience before the traineeship commences, helping the prospective trainees to decide if the program is right for them. Greater emphasis on managing expectations and selecting the most suitable candidates is also in place.
This year, around 70% of participants successfully completed the traineeship, well in excess of the non-trade Indigenous sector average of 30%, and on par with traineeship completion rates for non-Indigenous workers1.
1. National Centre for Vocational Education Research (2008).
ANZ INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM KEY FACTS:
| Traineeships since 2003 | 475 |
| Length of traineeship | 1 – 2 years |
| Completion rate for 2009/2010 traineeship programs | 70% |
| Trainees now employed at ANZ | 218 |
Improving Career Opportunities for People with Disability
Our second Disability Action Plan (DAP) was launched in May and reaffirms our long-term commitment to making ANZ a place that welcomes and supports customers and staff with disability.
Together with targets to employ more people with disability, we are boosting information and services to encourage greater awareness and understanding of disability, mental health and wellbeing so we can better support our staff and customers.
Progress against of first DAP (2008–2010) includes:
- exceeding our public target to employ an additional 35 people with disability;
- implementing flexible employment policies to support staff with a disability and those who care for family members with an impairment;
- delivering audio-enabling to more than 2,000 ATMs;
- making nine of our most commonly used product brochures available to customers in Braille, large print and audio CD format; and
- improving compliance with the WC3 accessibility standards for our intranet and external website.
A number of our Australian staff voluntarily participate in our Abilities Network, helping to find better ways to support staff with disability and their managers. Thirty-seven executives and senior managers also joined our ‘Willing and Able’ program providing mentoring and advice to assist students with a disability as they transition into full-time employment.
Employment opportunities can also be generated through procurement decisions. We are updating our sourcing criteria to encourage and develop more relationships with inclusive companies who employ and support people with disability.
“The Disability Action Plan demonstrates a true commitment to systemic change within ANZ towards disability and it also shows leadership on the same front to the sector and the community at large.”
Vision Australia: www.visionaustralia.org
Key Goals We Set Out To Achieve In 2010
| KEY GOALS WE SET OUT TO ACHIEVE IN 2010 | PERFORMANCE |
|---|---|
| Increase the percentage of women in management across all levels of our business. |
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| Employ an additional 180 Indigenous trainees. |
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| Employ an additional 35 people with disability across our global business. |
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Achieved or on track to achieve
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Partially achieved or in progress
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Did not achieve