An HR scheme by Halifax has significantly increased its proportion of ethnic
minority staff in multi-cultural areas.
The bank set up targeted ethnic minority recruitment schemes in three
Yorkshire branches to make the workforce better reflect the customer base.
In the Keighley branch, the scheme trebled the proportion of its ethnic
minority staff. The bank set up a local race working party, which enabled
managers to meet with local community organisations and raise the profile of
the bank. It also tailored advertisements specifically to ethnic minorities and
recruited locally.
The number of ethnic minority staff has increased from 8.7 per cent to 25
per cent in one year.
Tyrone Jones, equal opportunities adviser at the Halifax, said, "The
working parties were set up to ensure our staff reflect the community they
serve. Equal opportunities also makes good business sense. People do business
with like people, and ethnic minority spending power is estimated at about
£15bn."
The bank has rolled out race working parties in Bradford and Halifax, and
plans to set up another in Manchester for the Chinese community.
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The race working parties is one part of the bank’s diversity strategy, which
has the backing of the board of directors.
Halifax employs 38,000 staff and has about 800 branches.
