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. We've taken part in Inclusive Employers Standard to independently assess our progress and are proud to have been awarded Gold Standard, the highest level of accreditation available. 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 2024
When we signed up to the Charter in 2018, women made up 23% of our Board and 33% of our Senior Management.
We regularly review progress to our targets to ensure they are stretching and in 2023 updated our target to reflect our senior leadership population. For this group we have a target of 45% representation by 2026. As of end of year we have 31% female representation in this population and currently believe we are not on track to meet our Charter target of 45% by our deadline of 2026.
We are committed to making progress to our targets and supporting our inclusion and diversity agenda. You can read more about the activity we are undertaking in our end of year reporting.