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POWER OF DIVERSITY
THE
INSIDE 02
INDEX PAGE
03 Michael Barrington-Hibbert Profile
The Talent Recognition List 2017
05 The Diversity Report
15 Case Study:
Why are UK companies failing
when it comes to diversity?
19 Case Study:
Middle-management and
the squeeze on diversity
INSIDE OUR REPORT
PROFILES 0403 PROFILES
Michael Barrington-Hibbert is the Chief Executive Officer of BHA. His current focus is on client relationships with a portfolio of FTSE 100 firms.
Michael is a leader in the field of diversity
awareness and equality, and is an active
contributor to press and television media
on executive recruitment practices and
inclusivity.
His tireless and on-going work as a mentor,
in part through the Government-backed
REACH programme to raise the aspirations
and achievements of young black men, has
been recognised in the JP Morgan/Thomson
Reuters PowerList, a comprehensive
compendium of the most influential black
people in Britain today.
Michael is a mentor for The Amos
Bursary which is committed to assisting
academically able British young men of
African and Caribbean descent; and is also
on the Board of Trustees for the Joanna
Simpson Foundation, a charity dedicated
to transforming the care, support and
protection of children affected by domestic
abuse and homicide.
Michael established the Barrington Hibbert
Association Scholarship in 2012, awarded to
outstanding young people from Inner City
schools in London. The programme does not
solely focus on candidates from black and
ethnic minority backgrounds, but is open to
all students from low-income areas. While
at University, the students receive an annual
bursary towards tuition fees and books.
The BHA Foundation also runs the
Inspire Through Sports programme,
which it launched in March 2014, to give
underprivileged children in Africa the chance
to reach their potential using sport as a
vehicle to education.
HIGHLIGHTS
Michael graduated from the University of
New York with a dual degree in Business and
Strategic Leadership, before joining Morgan
Stanley in New York.
In 2005, he moved to London where he
began his headhunting career with Odgers
Berndtson.
Michael founded Barrington Hibbert
Associates in 2010, focusing on primary
and secondary banking and markets
appointments, on both the sell and buy
sides. Client activity spans the developed
markets of EMEA, North America, Asia and
the Middle East.
He is responsible for key client relationships
for BHA, operating at Board and Global
Management Committee level. Clients
include Global Investment Banks, Insurance
Companies, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds,
Family Offices, and Private Equity Firms.
In 2014, Michael matriculated Oxford
University’s Said Business School, focusing
on Strategic Leadership.
In 2015, Michael was awarded the EY
Entrepreneur of the Year title.
THE TALENT RECOGNITION LIST 2017
In 2017, Michael launched the firm’s inaugural
Talent Recognition List, for professionals
under the age of 40, from Black and Minority
Ethnic backgrounds, who are exceptional in
their field.
As discussed in this report, by the middle-
management level, companies have suffered
a high level of attrition of BME executives,
from entry-level numbers that were meagre
to begin with. Candidates with five to ten
years’ experience are increasingly being
squeezed out.
The Programme’s aim is to highlight the
wealth of talent available to companies
seeking to bridge the gap in their workforce,
and to grow their business capability as
a result.
If you have any mid-tier executives
or professionals within your
organisation whom you think may
be eligible to be featured in the List,
please contact
+44 (0) 203 675 8300
with your nomination. Candidates can
be from any professional sector. The
full List will be published in Q3 2017.
REPORT 0605 REPORT
I started working in the city fifteen years ago. In that time, very little has changed; I am now at a point in my career where I have proven myself and continue to challenge myself, but for a young black man entering the workplace in 2017, the barriers to entry are unchanged from what I faced in 2002. There is no level playing field and the financial sector is still as resistant to fresh perspectives and energy.
I have now been advising UK financial
services clients on diversity for 12 years
and, despite a recognition of the financial
benefits of a diverse workforce, and indeed
a willingness to integrate more inclusive
hiring and retention policies into corporate
strategy, progress has been negligible.
It has been seven years since I last published
on diversity in the city, and that old report is
still as relevant today as it was in 2010. Softly
softly does not work: This is a call to action.
Now is the time.
GOVERNMENT TARGETS
The Government has set new targets for
diversity representation at board level in
FTSE 100 companies by 2021, notably in the
Davies Report, which focussed on women
on boards. Over the past few months,
the Parker Review Committee and the
McGregor-Smith Review have published
reports with a greater focus on Black and
Minority Ethnic (BME) employment. The
Sir John Parker Review recommends that,
“Each FTSE 100 Board should have at least
one director of colour by 2021; and each
FTSE 250 Board should have at least one
director of colour by 2024.”
While these reviews go a long way in
assessing pressures and challenges
facing businesses in benefitting from a
more diverse composition, and make
comprehensive recommendations on how
progress might be achieved in this area,
neither fully addresses how to attract, retain
and develop careers for BME employees.
The reports focus on BME hiring ratios, and
on BME representation at board level. But
what happens in between recruitment and
board-level leadership?
Rates of attrition of BME hires are a
fundamental problem: the few UK banks
that have 30% of graduate-level hires from
BME backgrounds will see that number
fall to between 5% and 8% of the intake
remaining after five years.
Barrington-Hibbert Associates’ data
suggests that a 30% diverse intake is best-
case in this industry; the norm is closer to
15%-18% at graduate level and, in a number
of notable cases, as low as 2% from the
outset. There is resultant void of BME
representation in middle-management roles
and above.
The 2021 targets are ambitious given
present practices, and the report tacitly
acknowledges them as such: [The targets…]
“would mean that (on average) each FTSE
100 company would need to appoint one
minority director in the period to 2021. By
comparison, at the time of its establishment,
the target set out by the Davies Review
necessitated (on average) one in three new
director appointees to be female.”
The Parker Review notes that, “During 2016,
at least two reports were published (one
by Green Park and the other by Audeliss
12.5% 10% 6%
1 in 8 of the working age
population is from a BME
background
BME individuals make up
10% of the workforce
BME individuals hold only
6% of top management
positions
SOURCE: The McGregor Smith Review 2016
REPORT 08
in conjunction with The Financial Times)
that highlighted hundreds of high-calibre,
‘Board- ready’ candidates who were from
minority ethnic backgrounds. The findings
of these reports have also been reinforced
by a number of executive search firms that
focus on senior-level appointments.”
So, there are, feasibly, qualified candidates
from BME backgrounds available to fulfil
board-level responsibilities. However, not
necessarily from within the given financial
sector; oftentimes these appointees will
need to be recruited from other industries
or internationally. They have not followed
the career progression familiar to other
board members. There are also limits on
how many boards an individual may sit on,
which further restricts the availability of
candidates.
How can we collectively expect to reach
the government targets of board-level
BME representation without fostering
an environment in which candidates
are given the opportunity to attain and
exceed their potential within the financial
services sector? To achieve government
targets, there is a need to focus on, and
better understand, the drivers of retention.
Investment in hiring BME graduates,
without attributing the necessary resources
to nurturing their progression and
development, results in a poor return on the
up-front recruiting costs, and is little more
than an expensive exercise in tokenism.
THE BENEFITS OF A
DIVERSE WORKPLACE
The case for diversity is manifold and
well documented; corporate social
responsibility, global economy and
international growth, innovation.
However, the bottom line is that a diverse
workforce is lucrative. McGregor-Smith’s
report emphasises, “That is the business
case as well as the moral case. Diverse
organisations that attract and develop
individuals from the widest pool of talent
FTSE 100
SIR JOHN PARKER REVIEW
20073 BLACK
DIRECTORS
20163 BLACK
DIRECTORS
2021100 BAME DIRECTOR
TARGET
Source: Sir John Parker Review 2016
consistently perform better.”
Based on UK Government 2016 data cited
in the report, “The potential benefit to the
UK economy from full representation of
BME individuals across the labour market,
through improved participation and
progression, is estimated to be £24 billion
a year, which represents 1.3% of GDP.”
HIRING
Though diversity in graduate recruitment
numbers is neither representative of UK
society nor anywhere near the targets
stated, getting BME candidates through
the door is – in many ways – the easy part.
The demand and motivation among BME
graduates is there.
Diversity is about hiring the best talent by
looking outside of the traditional places. It
goes across social and geographic barriers
to encompass non-traditional recruitment
methods; everything from access
programmes and mentoring schemes
to hiring senior people from different
industries.
We have to move away from ‘diversity
reporting’ that over-simplifies the concept,
and has distracted many organisations from
acting rather than analysing.
For many institutions, these are tick-box
CSR activities that bear little relation to
front-line operations.
Businesses need to examine their existing
hiring policies, focussing on identifying
the barriers to entry. Some banks already
have exceptional programmes to attract
graduates, which could be expanded
and improved. But, many UK financial
institutions are continuing to set their hiring
parameters on the terms that they are
familiar with; the same terms that the senior
decision makers were hired on historically.
In short, perpetuating the practice of hiring
people like themselves.
It is an understandable pattern; mitigating
the risk of the unknown. But it also limits
diversity and results in homogenised
trading floors.
Favouring Oxbridge or Russell group
universities – for instance – might seem
prudent to a company seeking the “best”
academic talent, but in that one step, the
company is acquiescing its own autonomy;
it is unconsciously adopting the access
and diversity principles of the institutions
from which it hires graduates. While these
educational institutions are also grappling
with their own diversity admissions
policies, as documented in the McGregor-
Smith case studies, banks are accepting
external preconceptions, eliminating good
candidates pre-emptively.
RETENTION AND
SUCCESS
The rates of attrition of BME candidates
are to be expected, when little is being
done in terms of retention investment. For
UK financial institutions, the prospect of
nurturing candidates from backgrounds
that are under-represented in the sector is
more problematic than initially introducing
diversity.
We are all familiar with the Einstein quip,
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish
by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its
whole life believing that it is stupid.”
While such wisdom, reduced, is self-evident,
there is an inherent human inclination to
judge on the standards that are familiar.
But if professional success is predicated
on being privately educated, privileged,
male and, yes, white, everyone else is
predetermined to fail; hence the rates of
attrition noted. If we are unwilling even
REPORT 1009 REPORT
to specify what the historical norms have
been, how can we hope to move beyond
them?
The McGregor-Smith Review sets out a
list of 26 recommendations for businesses
to achieve their diversity targets. Many
of these recommendations focus on
transparency, and also on mentoring
programmes.
Mentoring is, in our view, a fundamental
part of the jigsaw, but needs to be properly
implemented from the top leadership,
down through the organisation. Senior
management needs to be fully apprised
of, and onboard with, the mentoring
programmes, and indeed subject to the
reverse mentoring programmes whereby
they work closely with junior colleagues
from diverse backgrounds. Without hands-
on leadership, these policies become HR-
driven and less practicable.
The question of transparency is also
challenging; while I fully agree with both
reports, that a clear picture of diversity
composition of companies is important, the
fact is that the data simply does not exist.
The McGregor-Smith report underlines this
problem, “Only 74 FTSE 100 companies
responded and just over half of those were
able to provide data. For the companies
that responded, there were wide variations
in the type of data that companies collected
and the number of people who had
completed the ethnicity category.”
As this report notes, there is little reason
why companies should not know and also
publish their diversity data; it is a legal
requirement in the US and other regions.
The data we have on poor retention
rates of BME candidates is derived
from our own in-house analysis, and the
meager offerings available even from
the companies willing to document the
progression. We cannot find out where
these candidates’ career paths have taken
them because they are no longer in the
career upon which they embarked; post
hoc ergo propter hoc.
POTENTIAL ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF FULL BME REPRESENTATION :
1.3%OF GDP
£24 BILLION PER YEAR
Source: BEIS Analysis as cited in the McGregor-Smith Review
REPORT 1211 REPORT
INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE AND THE UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
I can say with some certainty that
there is no bank in the UK that actively
favours discrimination. The roadblocks
to representative diversity in the UK
financial sector are not intentional but have
become systemic over time. Institutional
discrimination persists. Why?
I am black, I am from South London, from
a working-class background, and I went to
a top-tier university. My colleague is also
black, from South London, from a similar
background and well educated. On paper,
you would think we have a lot in common;
but I am ten years older than him and find
it hard to relate to him in a lot of ways.
Imagine how hard it is then, for colleagues
of different generations, backgrounds,
ethnicities and cultures to work together
cohesively?
McGregor-Smith’s report is direct about
the implications of institutional racism:
“Overt racism that we associate with the
1970s does still disgracefully occur, but
unconscious bias is much more pervasive
and potentially more insidious because of
the difficulty in identifying it or calling it
out.”
She also adds, “I have to question how
much of this bias is truly ‘unconscious’ and
by terming it ‘unconscious’, how much it
allows us to hide behind it.”
While McGregor-Smith is perhaps more
cynical than I am about the levels of
consciousness, the indicators for change
are nonetheless evident. I have personally
experienced a level of discomfort when
dealing with some clients, though they are
clearly not aware that their language and
demeanour is inappropriate and, in the
worst cases, sometimes outright offensive.
My colleagues have had similar experiences.
There are also the organisations that
recognise their lack of diversity, but have
not yet rectified it. A few years ago I was
invited by a client to do a presentation to
graduate trainees – all from inner-city areas.
I was asked because there was no internal
representative of a sufficiently high level at
the institution to make the presentation.
With such poor integration and support
policies, it is unsurprising that the top
tier of management is predominantly and
continuingly white:
• As it stands, 53 of the FTSE 100 have no
directors of colour at all.
• There are 1,087 director positions in this
group; only 8% of them are from BME
backgrounds.
• Just seven companies account for
40% of directors of colour at the FTSE
100; five of those seven are historically
headquartered outside of the UK.
• There are only three black directors in
FTSE 100 companies; this number has
not changed since 2007.
For the few BME candidates who do make
it beyond a few years within a financial
institution, they are squeezed from every
direction; to progress further, they must
face the biases that have preceded them,
while there is also an increasing onus on this
tier of middle-management to implement
the diversity policies and be trailblazers for
junior members of the organisation.
It is laudable for reviews and reports
to recognise biases, but organisational
cultural change requires a different level
of institutional engagement; it goes to the
heart of a company’s strategy. There is no
easy fix.
The reports’ recommendations, while all
sound, are in many cases too far advanced
from the actual operational realities.
Suggestions of introducing guides on
talking about race, and an overhaul of
how job specifications are written to be
more accessible and inclusive, are both
practicable starting points.
However, mandating more diversity
in interview panels and mentoring
programmes suggests that there are
sufficient BME candidates operating at that
middle-management level to conduct the
interviews. In short, there are not.
While it would be productive to publish “a
breakdown of employees by race and pay
band,” it is impossible to publish data which
does not exist.
The one-year review to assess the impact
of such studies is short-sighted. Although
constant monitoring will aid development,
five, ten and fifteen-year trajectories are
more realistic indicators for change.
MEETING AND
EXCEEDING TARGETS
FOR DIVERSITY AND
PROFITABILITY
As insightful as some of the recent
reports may be, they are painted in broad
brushstrokes. There will be no buy-in from
institutions and senior-level decision makers
if we try to change everything overnight.
In my experience, the companies which have
been the most successful at creating a diverse
workplace, and those which have benefitted
most financially from these practices, have
started with small projects, where change can
be measured and risk managed.
A good starting place for companies is to
review the profile of their own HR teams.
The need for representative diversity is not
about quotas and targets – it is about hiring
talented people, on merit.
Enlarging the talent pool to include people
of different backgrounds and experience
means institutions must step outside of
their comfort zones. They must widen the Source: BEIS Analysis as cited in the McGregor-Smith Review
REPORT 14
net by looking in different places; or by
accepting that candidates might not tick all
of the historic boxes. Indeed, by re-drawing
the parameters of those boxes.
Looking to other industries can also be
productive – firms such as Google, Microsoft
and other large but relatively young
businesses are unencumbered with pre-
existing norms and have succeeded in hiring
creative, dynamic individuals who can bring
immediate benefits.
Within the financial sector, compensation
linked to behaviour is more practicable than
in other industries. Consider rewarding those
that take risks. In these times of stretched
budgets, tightening on compensation and
decreased M&A activity, appropriately
resourcing and implementing diversity
initiatives might seem counter-intuitive. But
the cost of staff attrition and turnover, and
the losses posed to a business comparatively
with more diverse innovators is unquantified.
ACTION POINTS
Companies that genuinely want to attain the
government’s recommended targets are in
a difficult position, as the recommendations
are so broad. The successful companies in
this field have made small changes in the
first instance, rather than trying to change
organisational structure overnight. All of
these points are actionable quickly, if given
the appropriate resourcing:
• Look at your own HR team. How diverse
is it? This team is the gatekeeper to your
business. Does the unconscious bias
preclude entry from the outset? Consider
bringing in recruitment talent familiar
with diversity strategy, and reward those
who actively seek to widen the net.
• Mentoring programmes are effective
if they continue beyond probationary
periods. Set short, mid and long-term
goals. Entry-level candidates can benefit
from seeing someone from a similar
background succeed professionally.
• Reverse mentoring programmes are also
fundamental. Pair your leadership team,
including board members, with a young
employee from a different background.
Schedule quarterly meetings as a
starting point, if you are unsure how to
proceed.
• Who are your middle managers? What
is the diversity composition at this
level? When roles become available
at this level, look internally. Positive
discrimination here is only counter-
balancing the unconscious bias that
has caused problems in retaining BME
employees.
• Remember that the cost of losing
employees is greater than the cost of
adequately resourcing diversity policies.
• Consider outsourcing recruitment and
strategy formulation to specialists in the
field.
• Leadership and accountability starts
at the top, not in HR. The head of the
organisation needs to be actively and
visibly pushing the agenda, and taking
ownership of their company’s culture.
Investing in search partners who can
deliver change is an efficient use of limited
resources. Executive search is about
putting the right people in front of clients.
Good teams can always find someone
that meets a given brief but not all are
prepared to question whether it is fit for
purpose. Clients that are serious about
diversity should contemplate using a range
of partners, at least some of whom have
the capabilities and connectivity to explore
emerging talent and can deliver the process
as efficiently as clients expect.
CASE STUDY 1615 CASE STUDY
Case Study Why are UK companies failing when it comes to diversity?
As the report’s statistics demonstrate, the
UK’s workforce is not representative of
the population. We know from experience
and from the many government-funded
reports what some of the pressures are,
both internally and externally, on companies
in striving for a diverse workforce, but why
is it that other countries have been able to
succeed where we are failing?
Barrington Hibbert Associates has worked
closely with a black senior banking
professional to understand some of the
driving forces. He has 25 years in corporate
finance, investment banking, strategy and
resourcing, and has worked in a number of
regions internationally, and has provided
some insights from his time in the US and
EMEA, as well as the UK.
“Over the past quarter-century, I’ve seen a change in the diversity landscape and how it has become increasingly viewed as a priority in the UK,” he says, “but in reality, the stats haven’t changed in key markets.”
TRANS-ATLANTIC
COMPARISONS
Taking the US as a comparator, the executive
notes considerable differences. While some
of the factors at play are purely cultural, and
not easily transposed across the pond, other
operational strategies which have succeeded
in the US could prove illuminating to UK
corporations.
“The US has made decent progress versus the
UK, partly because its structure is so different.
The UK has a lack of consistency. The US is a
more homogenised market; it has a common
language, consistent education metrics, and
always an inherent sense that America comes
first. The UK is more transient in its make-up
and the banking sector is much more mixed
and always has been. Cultural value is less of a
priority.”
“Definitions are clearer in the US,” he explains.
“I am black. There is no ambiguity. But in the
UK there are four categories to choose from;
Black British, Black African, Black Caribbean,
Black Other. For people who are mixed race,
there is greater ambiguity. In terms of HR,
there needs to be a strategy built around each
category.”
In the UK, despite the sub-categories and
nomenclature, companies struggle even
to identify their diversity composition. The
Government’s FTSE 100 2016 data on this
subject is shamefully ill-populated, as cited in
the BHA report. At least in the US, companies
are legally obligated to publish complete data
on their diversity and employment.
Nonetheless, resourcing diversity policies is
problematic internationally.
“I have never seen the appetite in
any organisation to resource its
diversity strategy properly.”
“But in the UK, there is neither carrot nor stick
incentive. Most go as far as saying, ‘We’re
a great company, we’re inclusive, diverse,
great to work for,’ but for those who have a
few years’ experience, that is not enough to
demonstrate that the preconceptions of bias
aren’t there.”
THE SQUEEZED MIDDLE
The executive expands on the idea of the
squeeze on mid-tier management, and
identifies some of the problems. “For younger
professionals, they might be more willing
to take risks or be naïve to the biases. More
senior executives are wise to it and either
know how to handle it or are resigned to it.
The greatest problem is for those with five to
ten years’ experience who should be in the
leadership pipeline, but they’re hitting the
glass ceiling early.”
“After five years or so, a career isn’t just
dependent on aptitude, but more so on
internal relationships,” he continues. “Senior
level management is not well groomed to
manage the unconscious bias.”
“This tier of BME candidates struggles to
build relationships with higher levels of
management, and also with clients who are
not necessarily sensitive to a bank’s BME
agendas. It is important for the leadership
to help clients and the mid-tier build the
necessary relationships.”
REPORT
GOVERNMENT
INTERVENTION
Internationally, some regions have mandated
the types of recommendations made by
the Parker Review Committee and in the
McGregor-Smith Review.
“I’ve spent a significant part of my career working in emerging markets, and there is a lot more racial diversity in that sector.”
“Taking South Africa as an example, there is
a legislative incentive, the Black Economic
Empowerment plan. There’s a carrot incentive
too, but more effectively, the stick incentive
that if you don’t play by the rules, you’re out
of the game.”
Our executive spent significant time
working with financial corporations in the
region. “All firms, which mainly had a white male leadership, were forced to commit resources to diversity development. It was effective and
firms acted quickly in educating senior management and invested in learning how to integrate a diverse workforce properly.”
Though it is notable that diversity policy can
not only be implemented quickly, but also
adopted wholeheartedly, there is little solace
in recognising South Africa’s example. “It
is extremely unlikely that a UK government
would take legislative intervention measures,
especially in this populist trend. It would be
very unpopular,” he says.
The UK government reports, while
contextually sensitive and a source of sound
guidelines, they are essentially toothless if
companies do not adopt their principles or
make strategic choice that will enable them
to reach government targets. The problem is
that those targets are not incentivised, and
they are open to interpretation. Institutions
need to drive the changes themselves:
“In terms of self-legislation, it varies bank by
bank. Sure, all of them have a diversity policy,
but what that involves differs a lot.”
CASE STUDY 18
CASE STUDY 2019 CASE STUDY
“After I graduated from my masters in 2010,
I started to work for … [a large investment
bank]. I had an open mind about where my
career path in banking might go, but because
it was such a tough market, I didn’t want to
take any risks. My university friends were all
struggling to find jobs in the sectors they
were interested in; I felt I had to be wise
about my choices.”
INTERNSHIPS AS A
PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE
He notes that a lot of the more desirable roles
would go to graduates who had interned at
the bank during or after university.
“It’s already competitive, but when you’re
up against grads who have had internships,
they’re viewed as more valuable. It poses a
problem because the banks are missing out
on potential, they’re ignoring it.”
While some internships are paid, the practice
still often favours nepotistic entry. Internships
fed by certain universities, for instance,
perpetuate the lack of diversity. Moreover,
internships or work-experience programmes
which do not pay, or do not pay well, or only
pay expenses, automatically discriminate
against candidates from working-class
backgrounds, who cannot afford to shoulder
the expense, even in the short term.
DIVERSITY IS NOT ONLY
ABOUT SKIN COLOUR
The candidate accepted a role in operational
risk management; a back-office analytical role
supporting traders in their transactions. “HR
was reassuring about accepting the position.
They said that if I performed well, I could then
navigate within the bank to other divisions
and roles.”
At this phase, he did not feel that he was
disadvantaged from opportunities because he
is black, but he believes that diversity policies
need to recognise more than colour and
appearance, and that class and background
are equally important factors.
“I was quite fortunate that my division was
meritocratic. I wasn’t discriminated against
because I’m black. But sometimes my
upbringing, the fact that my experiences
were different, the way I talk, would lead
to misunderstanding; we would sometimes
interpret situations in different ways.”
“I grew up in [East London]. I’ve had to change the way I speak, it’s ok now, but when I first started, I would sometimes slip into slang.”
THE PARADOX FACING
HIGH PERFORMERS
Despite HR’s assurances of performance-
linked career progression, the candidate
remained in the same back-office division for
five years; his interest in other areas of the
bank’s operations, in client-facing, front-office
roles, was overlooked.
“You get pigeon-holed very quickly. After
a couple of years, your experience is only
recognised as being applicable to the same
roles, and isn’t transferable to other sectors.”
Additionally, the double-edged sword of
high performance meant that the candidate’s
line-managers were not supportive of lateral
moves within the organisation.
“I think career paths should be more fluid, but
I felt there wasn’t really any opportunity for
internal mobility for high performers; mangers
understandably want to keep the best talent
within their own team.”
Case Study Middle-management and the squeeze on diversity
We know from the statistics and government-
backed reporting that candidates from
BME backgrounds are not given the
same opportunities as their white British
counterparts, but there is very little empirical
understanding of the drivers of attrition.
Barrington Hibbert Associates has spoken
with a black corporate finance executive who
has direct experience of the challenges facing
BME professionals as they progress beyond
entry-level banking roles.
The candidate has requested anonymity in
providing his insights, and is candid in stating
his concern, that going on the record about
diversity in the sector could negatively impact
his career.
He is keen to point out that these restrictions
on candidates outgrowing roles after three to
five years are a universal challenge, and not a
question of diversity, but they are cumulative
pressures nonetheless.
MOVING OUT TO MOVE UP
“There are a lot of people in the position I was
in, who are not able to move internally, and so
leave the organisations they’re in, or leave the
sector entirely.”
“We’re given conflicting and inconsistent messages from managers about how to progress our careers. It’s one thing addressing issues of diversity, career progression and mobility, but it’s another thing to implement them.”
After working with Barrington Hibbert
Associates, the candidate secured a front-
office position at another bank; he had to
leave his organisation in order to further his
career path, despite similar roles existing
at his former employer. Since moving, two
years ago, the candidate has already been
promoted.
“Junior team members are often afraid to
approach managers, and there is a disconnect
between levels of seniority.”
SMALL STEPS TO BIG CHANGES
In his new organisation, there is a successful
reverse-mentoring programme in operation,
and the candidate believes that this kind of
small but effective action is what will change
the banking sector for the better.
“The reverse mentoring system here is not
diversity-specific, but it’s very productive in
exposing senior management to different
upbringings, different generations and
different ways of thinking. And the flip side is
that we, as junior and middle members of the
team, get direct access to influential mentors
and sponsors on a monthly basis.”
“There has been a 100% buy-in from
leadership to the programme. I was initially
quite sceptical about it; I thought it would be
a bit forced, and really an exercise in meeting
quotas. But my sponsor has been really
positive and interested; it’s hugely beneficial.”
Fundamentally, the candidate puts the
attrition rates of BME employees down to
demotivation. Though there are a lot of
forces at play, in terms of unconscious biases,
disadvantage and frustration at the lack of
opportunity, the bottom line is that banks are
bleeding talent through apathy.
“Demotivation feeds into performance. Poor performance leads to poor results. It’s not an easy issue to solve.”
CASE STUDY 22
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