Fostering a Gender-Equal Workforce | Best Practice by UBS
Would you like to design a powerful employee network to help drive your company’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy? Do you want to learn about an impactful way to mobilize people to help you meet your gender equality goals? Learn how UBS harnesses the power of their people and cultivates collaboration between the women’s employee network, the business and DE&I.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2022.
At UBS, we know that a gender-equal workforce, inclusive culture and equitable practices are crucial to our long-term success. One of our strategic priorities is to increase our gender diversity and enable women to build long and satisfying careers here. We are especially working to increase the representation of women at senior management levels. To reach this, we focus on hiring more, promoting more and losing less women, with the aim to achieve 30% of Director and above roles held by women by 2025 across the firm.
While we have the strategy, objectives, and processes in place to attain this goal, we know that there is one factor that is indispensable to bringing this to life: the initiative of our employees. We consider our employee networks essential for building cross-business relationships and creating an inclusive culture in which all our employees thrive. The partnership with our women’s employee network helps us to increase our pipeline of female leaders and to build an inclusive environment and a sense of community.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Specialist at UBS
Our women’s employee network ‘All Bar None’ stands for All (Everyone) Bar (Excluding) None (No-one). Since 2003, ABN has helped foster a diverse and inclusive culture aligned with the firm’s values and strategic objectives.
ABN is open to all employees who strive for gender equality in the workplace. With over 2’700 members across our locations, it is the largest employee network in Switzerland. Its networking, mentoring, and leadership opportunities support members’ professional and personal development. Members get together regularly for career development workshops, social events and panel discussions.
Aligned with our DE&I strategy, ABN’s activities support the organization by increasing cultural awareness and appreciation of the benefits of a diverse workforce. They bring together ideas from different business areas and cover a range of topics, including women’s wealth, male allies, part-time work, job-sharing/top sharing, and parents at work. ABN’s core initiatives are structured around three themes – Educate, Engage, Empower.
One of the initiatives that ABN believes can make a real difference is the mentoring program. Each year, senior men and women volunteer as mentors for female colleagues who are at an earlier stage in their career and roughly 200 women each year benefit from the program.
While men have been part of the network from the early stages, the ABN Male Allies program was set up to get more men purposefully engaged in efforts to advance gender inclusion. Since 2020, senior male leaders have been partnering with ABN to actively learn more about the firm’s gender strategy and the challenges faced by women in our industry. Each year 24 male allies are nominated, and they are encouraged to support gender equality efforts within their business functions and to motivate others to join them and take action.
“Being an ABN Male Ally is the perfect opportunity to share my experience and to discuss with my male colleagues how we can support a more diverse and inclusive culture – including addressing fears and hesitations around the subject. This was my motivation to be part of the ABN Male Ally program, which is also a lot of fun and helps me to broaden my network within the firm,” states ABN Male Ally Roger Bieri. Male allies have participated in and led several awareness-raising events. In addition, male allies get training opportunities. For instance, ABN recently added a ‘Rush hour of life’ toolkit to help address challenges employees in their 30s and 40s face in balancing the demands of work and personal life. The toolkit helps leaders to provide support during this period.
Finally, ABN Marketplace is the network’s largest annual event. Up to 200 participants explore our business divisions and Group functions and grow their network. They also learn about strategic initiatives implemented across the firm. The main objectives are to foster internal mobility and strengthen global career opportunities for women.
Achieving gender equality is a marathon, not a sprint. Maintaining momentum requires constant work, recruiting and promoting female talent, learning and engagement, and role modelling and sponsorship. We invest in ABN because we are convinced that having both a diverse workforce and inclusive culture are key to our success as a firm. Through ABN our Human Resources, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion specialists, senior executive sponsors and the businesses work in collaboration to advance gender equality and provide guidance, strategic advice, and support.
Over the years we have seen an increase in membership and participation in various ABN organized workshops and events. The various initiatives contribute to an increased community cohesion, a sense of belonging and ultimately greater career satisfaction. Therefore, a strong network like ABN continues to be an important platform for women at UBS, positively challenging the status quo to bring about change and to advance equal opportunity for women in the financial sector.
Learn more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UBS by clicking the button below:
Kathrin Troxler (Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion UBS Switzerland) kindly offered her availability for an exchange to interested Advance member companies. Feel free to contact her at kathrin.troxler@ubs.com.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2022.
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