Being You, Transforming Us: our commitment to inclusion and diversity

At Leeds Building Society we’re creating a culture where inclusion and diversity are at the heart of our business. From our leadership to our talented colleagues, we’re better equipped to understand the needs of our current and future members if we have a diverse team of people which represents the communities we serve. We want the Society to be a place where difference is embraced, and all colleagues feel included and valued for who they are and the unique perspectives they bring.

Our Being You, Transforming Us inclusion and diversity strategy is focused on embedding inclusive practices into everything we do, creating a truly collaborative environment where diverse perspectives are sought to fuel innovation and deliver our purpose. We know that having diversity of skills, experience, background and opinions means we can achieve more and provide a better service to our members

We’re backing our words with action, and this year we took part in the Inclusive Employers Standard to independently assess our progress. We're proud to have been awarded Gold Standard, the highest level of accreditation available, and we were the first building society to achieve this. We were able to do this through:

  • Demonstrating our efforts to recruit, develop and retain the best diverse talent
  • Showcasing our learning offer that supports our colleagues on their own allyship journeys
  • Promoting the work of our five colleague-led forums covering disability, gender, LGBTQ+, race and wellbeing

Our Board are committed to leading this agenda and invest meaningful time both collectively and individually. This includes the sponsoring of an external Non-Executive Director (NED) network which is focused on supporting diverse talent transition towards future NED roles. Members of our Board also regularly attend forum meetings and have hosted networking events for our diverse community groups

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made but we know there’s still work to do. Our agenda is led by Andrew Greenwood, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, who is our accountable executive for inclusion and diversity. The Nominations Committee reports annually in the corporate governance section of the Leeds Building Society Report & Accounts on the agreed objectives and progress made.

You can read how our inclusion and diversity activity also supports our communities across 2023 in our Purpose Impact Report.

Women in Finance Charter

Updated December 2023

When we signed up to the Charter in 2018, women made up 23% of our Board and 33% of our Senior Management.

At the end of 2022 our female representation at Senior Management level reached our 2025 target of 35%.

Due to this progress, we reviewed our approach and agreed the following updates:

  • Our definition of Senior Management shifted to include our Executive Committee and two levels below instead of three levels below. This was to bring us more in line with other Women in Finance Signatories.
  • We also reviewed our target aspirations. For this population, our target is 45% representation by 2026. At the end of 2023, we have 40% female representation in this population.

We believe we're on track to meet our Charter target of 45% by 31 December 2026.

You can read about our inclusion and diversity efforts in our Purpose Impact Report and annual report.