The Barclays approach to promoting diversity


With this month’s launch of the 2014 Women in Business Awards, The Business Magazine spoke to Patrick Clackson (pictured), head of business transformation at Barclays, who also plays a key role in promoting the diversity agenda across its corporate and investment banking businesses. He explains how Barclays is flying the flag for women in the workplace


“I think diversity is a really important issue for any company, you have to treat it like other key business issues and put in place a structure, organisation, discipline and targets,“ said Clackson. “Without that, you run the risk that you generate lots of activity and enthusiasm, but diversity never really succeeds and, if the chips are down, does not get prioritised.


“It is a huge business issue – if you have a senior group of people which is lopsided because it is male-dominated, you tend to run a real risk of forgetting about caring for the needs of some customers.


“So if you think diversity is a ’nice to have’ politically-correct approach, then you are going to fail, it is a real commercial issue for success in the future.“


He is a strong advocate of the need to promote diversity in the workplace and says events such as the Women in Business Awards are not only good for those who enter and are recognised, but also for the wider organisation as a whole.


“It’s really important that there are more women role models within a business at all levels – they don’t all have to be on the board or be the chief executive; they need to be women whom others can relate to, whom you can recognise as dealing successfully with the same problems you’re going through,“ he continued.


“People owe it to their colleagues to put themselves forward for these awards and, if they do, they may well see that the ripple effect of their success is much greater than they initially realise.“


As part of its commitment to the diversity agenda, Barclays has achieved its target of having board-level female representation of at least 20% by the end of 2013 and the plan is to increase this to more than 25% by the end of next year. It has also recently set detailed goals to increase the number of women in executive positions across the firm to 26% by the end of 2018 as part of their balanced scorecard - treating diversity as any other business metric.


Given that in five years’ time, it is anticipated that 75% of all graduates will be female, Clackson says it’s vitally important to improve diversity


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JUNE 2014


now in order to attract and retain female employees in the future.


Barclays’ response has included an ongoing training programme for all 8,500 of its executive population, using actors, experts and psychologists to help people understand why they act the way they do. It has also developed women’s initiative networks worldwide, launched a Women in Banking global conference and instituted a targeted mentoring programme for female directors.


Combined with encouraging employees to value emotional intelligence and a caring approach – typically a more female trait – alongside traditional business characteristics, such as logic and obedience, Clackson hopes these initiatives will result in more women reaching senior levels.


“You have to make it clear this is everyone’s responsibility. In big organisations there is a culture of working towards targets, people need to know that their efforts to meet these targets will be noted and rewarded,“ he concluded.


“It is not going to happen overnight, it takes a lot of effort and people can tell when you are paying lip service or doing it for real.“


It’s this focus on the importance of diversity that led Barclays to launch in 2013, in conjunction with The Business Magazine, the Women in Business Awards.


To recognise women who have made an outstanding contribution to business within the Thames Valley and Solent regions.


Categories for 2014:


• Woman of the Year (Large Business) – over £10m turnover


• Woman of the Year (SME) – under £10m turnover


• Rising Star – under the age of 30


• Outstanding Contribution to Diversity – to be awarded to the project, campaign, company or individual that has excelled in this field in the past 12 months.


Ian Workman, head of corporate banking for Solent, said: “Barclays is working hard to celebrate and support diversity across the local corporate community. In last year’s inaugural awards, we were overwhelmed by the number of nominations and were highly impressed with the quality, enthusiasm and diversity of the applicants.


“As Patrick says, we want to promote role models for the next generation of successful females in business, to encourage those younger females to realise their potential and at the same time celebrate today’s high achievers in order to promote diversity in the workplaces of the future.


“We look forward to receiving many more applications this year and hope everyone will do their best to encourage colleagues and contacts from all areas of business to enter and share their success on a very exciting platform.“


For more information on Women in Business and details of how to enter, visit the website.


Details: www.businessmag.co.uk/women-in-business


The views expressed in this article are the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Barclays Bank PLC Group nor should they be taken as statements of policy or intent of the Barclays Bank PLC Group. The Barclays Bank PLC Group takes no responsibility for the veracity of information contained in the third part guides or articles and no warranties or undertakings of any kind, whether express or implied, regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information given. The Barclays Bank PLC Group takes no liability for the impact of any decisions made based on information contained and views expressed.


www.businessmag.co.uk


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