In Partnership with
Among equals
There’s still more to do to achieve true equity in the mortgage industry, be it in terms of gender, race, sexuality, physical ability, or neurodiversity, as Mortgage Introducer’s roundtable discovers
Gerard Vecchio
MarshBerry
Industry experts
Sidney Wager
Barclays UK
Kate Langton
Phoebus Software
Trevor Baldwin
Baldwin Risk Partners
Sidney Wager is Barclays UK’s intermediary markets director. He joined Barclays’ intermediary mortgage business in 2015, working to transform the journey for its broker partners. With over 20 years’ financial services experience, he has a track record of delivering sustainable growth and successfully leading teams through organisational change. Wager has previously led the Embrace Network and now co-chairs the Black Professional ERG. He was a founder member of the Race at Work (RaW) taskforce and subsequently worked on the strategic build of RaW for Barclays. His passion for equality and equity is superseded only by his love for Man Utd FC.
Barclays UK
Sidney Wager
Kate Langton is chief people officer at Phoebus Software. She joined Phoebus in July 2017, initially as HR manager, before being promoted to CPO in January 2021. Langton has experience in financial software, energy, manufacturing and 3PL industry. She has held HR positions in the UK and Europe for businesses such as Wincanton, ENI, Danone, and Equinor. Her specialties include strategic HR business partnering; performance, learning, and development; talent management; HR strategy and planning; and HR projects/organisational change. She is commercially focused, with the ability to understand business issues, and believes in building relationships, acting pragmatically, and consistently delivering results.
Phoebus Software
Kate Langton
“Where you have a diverse workforce, your business is likely to be significantly more profitable, especially in a downturn, than those that don’t.… Diverse thoughts will always deliver a better business outcome”
Sidney Wager,
Barclays
“We need to think about this in terms of the business case it offers, as well as the ethical and moral standpoint, which is that it’s the right thing for us to do as businesses”
Kate Langton,
Phoebus Software
Read on
Barclays is a committed intermediary leader that delivers a range of competitive, flexible, innovative purchase and remortgage options designed to provide long-term value. Through its existing customer Reward range, Barclays is also a major player in the retention space. New-build is a key focus – it is constantly developing its offering, and this includes a dedicated application support team, day-one valuations, and six-month offer extensions. Barclays’ green homes range is also an integral component within its overall lending proposition and is available for residential and buy-to-let purposes. As a lender, it is constantly striving for simplicity and to streamline the mortgage journey.
Find out more
Phoebus Software is a market-leading provider of agile technologies to the banking and lending servicing sectors. Headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands, it employs over 130 staff and is committed to delivery excellence and client satisfaction throughout the client lifecycle. Its award-winning solution offers servicing and originations capabilities for multiple lending and savings products in the retail and commercial sectors. This multi-currency solution is used in the UK and Ireland and its clients include building societies, banks, specialist lenders, and third-party administrators. There are now over £95bn of assets under management running on the Phoebus servicing solution for over 100 lender portfolios.
Find out more
“Where you have a diverse workforce, your business is likely to be significantly more profitable, especially in a downturn, than those that don’t.… Diverse thoughts will always deliver a better business outcome”
Sidney Wager,
Barclays
“We need to think about this in terms of the business case it offers, as well as the ethical and moral standpoint, which is that it’s the right thing for us to do as businesses”
Kate Langton, Phoebus Software
In Partnership with
Among equals
There’s still more to do to achieve true equity in the mortgage industry, be it in terms of gender, race, sexuality, physical ability, or neurodiversity, as Mortgage Introducer’s roundtable discovers
Read on
Kate Langton
Phoebus Software
Sidney Wager
Barclays UK
Industry experts
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, and inclusion is a hot topic in the workplace these days, and rightly so – it affects us all.
Certainly, ability is key, but any employee truly worth having on your team will value working in an environment that offers equal opportunities and is inclusive for all.
Nowhere is this more important than in the mortgage industry. It has traditionally employed greater numbers of (almost certainly white) male brokers, though the signs are that this is changing.
Yet open up a discussion in your office and you may still find some standard, not entirely encouraging responses:
“It’s not an issue at our firm, we hire the best people.”
“Most of those who apply are white males, so what can we do?”
“Why should we push an agenda for women or ethnic minorities to be favoured for jobs? Isn't that sexist or racist against white men?”
He continued, “So, are we as far as we'd like to be? There's always going to be room for growth, but what I would say is the trajectory of change, of focus, and actually really nailing some of those key challenges and tabling them for discussion, I think, is first class. I think we're probably seeing more change now than we have seen for decades.”
Wager added, “We also need to acknowledge and be cognizant of the fact that the DEI covers a number of genres. It covers sexuality, it's gender, it's able-bodied, neurodiversity, it's ethnicity. It comes in various shapes and sizes.”
Langton agreed that everyone was on the path, though she said that no-one was yet winning the race.
“We all need to share our best practice and knowledge on this and ensure that we get the right end point,” she suggested.
“I think that's varied across different organisations within the mortgage industry and within financial services. But the trend is heading in the right direction. And I think that's very positive in the mortgage industry.
“Why is this such a big issue for us, and why do we care? I think the business case is very clear. The impact on creativity, innovation, and business opportunity has been proven, with a lot of research behind it, as well as retention and attraction of colleagues, future and current.”
Langton elaborated, “We need to think about this in terms of the business case it offers, as well as the ethical and moral standpoint, which is that it's the right thing for us to do as businesses, and lead the way in that respect as well – especially within such a large sector in the UK, and to have an impact globally as well.”
Wager concurred that the business case was compelling.
“Lots of studies show where you have a diverse workforce, your business is likely to be significantly more profitable, especially in a downturn, than those that don't,” he said. “What you're actually building are diverse thoughts. Diverse thoughts will always deliver a better business outcome, because [otherwise] you run the risk of creating an echo chamber, where everybody is the same. So if you can imagine putting a business problem on the table where everyone thinks, feels, and acts in the same way, how would you expect to find a different outcome?
“We are all – no matter which industry, no matter the business we're in – we’re in service of customers, clients, and the communities we live in, and those communities are diverse. Actually, we are heading into a generation where there is even more scrutiny at all levels around whether or not businesses share and have the same value set as the communities they serve.”
He added, “If there's anything more compelling than ensuring the sustainability of your business, I don't know what it is.
Of course, some people might dismiss this as a tick-box exercise – using positive discrimination to favour certain candidates from different backgrounds. How did the panel believe this perception could be overcome?
“It's about providing opportunities,” Wager offered, “to ensure everybody has the same access, the same vision, and the same privileges. So, is it about positive discrimination? No. It's about getting everybody onto the same, equal, level playing field.”
Langton, meanwhile, believed communication was key.
“One of the things that we're focusing on right now,” she said, “is how we can make candidates and potential job seekers aware of our culture – that we're working hard to ensure that our culture is inclusive, it's very supportive.
“For instance, things like job titles – the wording that we use in our adverts, the benefits that we focus on in our external job adverts as well, to ensure that reaches a variety of backgrounds, for people to understand whether or not they see themselves working with us.”
Wager said that people would naturally gravitate toward businesses where they could see others like themselves at all levels of an organisation. He raised some key questions.
“How diverse is the range of candidates applying?” Wager asked. “How diverse are your hiring managers? What sort of process do you put in place to actually ensure that you are getting the right people through the door? Ultimately, what do you then do subsequently in terms of development?”
He added, “I think the challenge of all of this is there isn't a single silver bullet. There are a number of steps, a number of interventions.”
Next, our panellists considered what their respective firms were doing to ensure that women felt comfortable in the workplace.
Wager explained that Barclays had set up an employee resource group for women and their allies, while also ensuring that it fully understood and celebrated events such as International Women's Day, so that they became part of the fabric of its culture.
“It really brings sharply into focus the agenda that says all genders should be treated equally,” he remarked. “But let's be clear about where that may not feel as equal potentially, and what we can do and what we are doing about that.”
Langton explained that as Phoebus Software was both a technology and financial services company, its workforce had tended to be more male, but that was changing. The firm was actively addressing gender equality, in terms of fair treatment and pay, but also looking at the benefits it offered.
“So we're enhancing maternity pay, offering flexibility in work location or part-time working,” she said. “And then also supporting issues such as the menopause, which I think is about raising awareness, providing support as a business, showing that we do care.”
To close our discussion, our experts were asked to share with Mortgage Introducer’s broker audience a tip for assessing and developing their own diversity, equity, and inclusion performance.
Barclays is a committed intermediary leader that delivers a range of competitive, flexible, innovative purchase and remortgage options designed to provide long-term value. Through its existing customer Reward range, Barclays is also a major player in the retention space. New-build is a key focus – it is constantly developing its offering, and this includes a dedicated application support team, day-one valuations, and six-month offer extensions. Barclays’ green homes range is also an integral component within its overall lending proposition and is available for residential and buy-to-let purposes. As a lender, it is constantly striving for simplicity and to streamline the mortgage journey.
Find out more
Phoebus Software is a market-leading provider of agile technologies to the banking and lending servicing sectors. Headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands, it employs over 130 staff and is committed to delivery excellence and client satisfaction throughout the client lifecycle. Its award-winning solution offers servicing and originations capabilities for multiple lending and savings products in the retail and commercial sectors. This multi-currency solution is used in the UK and Ireland and its clients include building societies, banks, specialist lenders, and third-party administrators. There are now over £95bn of assets under management running on the Phoebus servicing solution for over 100 lender portfolios.
Find out more
Sidney Wager is Barclays UK’s intermediary markets director. He joined Barclays’ intermediary mortgage business in 2015, working to transform the journey for its broker partners. With over 20 years’ financial services experience, he has a track record of delivering sustainable growth and successfully leading teams through organisational change. Wager has previously led the Embrace Network and now co-chairs the Black Professional ERG. He was a founder member of the Race at Work (RaW) taskforce and subsequently worked on the strategic build of RaW for Barclays. His passion for equality and equity is superseded only by his love for Man Utd FC.
Barclays UK
Sidney Wager
Kate Langton is chief people officer at Phoebus Software. She joined Phoebus in July 2017, initially as HR manager, before being promoted to CPO in January 2021. Langton has experience in financial software, energy, manufacturing and 3PL industry. She has held HR positions in the UK and Europe for businesses such as Wincanton, ENI, Danone, and Equinor. Her specialties include strategic HR business partnering; performance, learning, and development; talent management; HR strategy and planning; and HR projects/organisational change. She is commercially focused, with the ability to understand business issues, and believes in building relationships, acting pragmatically, and consistently delivering results.
Phoebus Software
Kate Langton
“Where you have a diverse workforce, your business is likely to be significantly more profitable, especially in a downturn, than those that don’t.… Diverse thoughts will always deliver a better business outcome”
Sidney Wager,
Barclays
“We need to think about this in terms of the business case it offers, as well as the ethical and moral standpoint, which is that it’s the right thing for us to do as businesses”
Kate Langton, Phoebus Software
In Partnership with
Among equals
There’s still more to do to achieve true equity in the mortgage industry, be it in terms of gender, race, sexuality, physical ability, or neurodiversity, as Mortgage Introducer’s roundtable discovers
Read on
Kate Langton
Phoebus Software
Sidney Wager
Barclays UK
Industry experts
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, and inclusion is a hot topic in the workplace these days, and rightly so – it affects us all.
Certainly, ability is key, but any employee truly worth having on your team will value working in an environment that offers equal opportunities and is inclusive for all.
Nowhere is this more important than in the mortgage industry. It has traditionally employed greater numbers of (almost certainly white) male brokers, though the signs are that this is changing.
Yet open up a discussion in your office and you may still find some standard, not entirely encouraging responses:
“It’s not an issue at our firm, we hire the best people.”
“Most of those who apply are white males, so what can we do?”
“Why should we push an agenda for women or ethnic minorities to be favoured for jobs? Isn't that sexist or racist against white men?”
He continued, “So, are we as far as we'd like to be? There's always going to be room for growth, but what I would say is the trajectory of change, of focus, and actually really nailing some of those key challenges and tabling them for discussion, I think, is first class. I think we're probably seeing more change now than we have seen for decades.”
Wager added, “We also need to acknowledge and be cognizant of the fact that the DEI covers a number of genres. It covers sexuality, it's gender, it's able-bodied, neurodiversity, it's ethnicity. It comes in various shapes and sizes.”
Langton agreed that everyone was on the path, though she said that no-one was yet winning the race.
“We all need to share our best practice and knowledge on this and ensure that we get the right end point,” she suggested.
“I think that's varied across different organisations within the mortgage industry and within financial services. But the trend is heading in the right direction. And I think that's very positive in the mortgage industry.
These attitudes, of course, wildly miss the point of creating a workplace that works for everyone.
While this is a moral issue, there is also a strong business case for reflecting different communities, not least to better serve a diverse customer base. But how do brokerages meaningfully succeed in this area? What changes are needed within those firms, and perhaps the mortgage industry as a whole?
With this in mind, Mortgage Introducer brought together two key industry professionals for a special discussion. Sidney Wager is intermediary markets director at Barclays, and Kate Langton is chief people officer at Phoebus Software.
Our panel began by giving their assessment of the mortgage industry's current approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
“Everybody is on this journey, both in companies within the UK and globally,” said Wager. “I don't think anybody's particularly got this nailed, as it were. I think it's about where you are on that journey in terms of maturity.
“If we think about our industry, I would say that there is absolutely no doubt that it now has more focus than ever before. You look at the number of initiatives that have been led through the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association [IMLA] or handled by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries [AMI]. So there's a lot going on at a trade-body level that's really saying we understand there’s a challenge – what do we need to do?”
“Why is this such a big issue for us, and why do we care? I think the business case is very clear. The impact on creativity, innovation, and business opportunity has been proven, with a lot of research behind it, as well as retention and attraction of colleagues, future and current.”
Langton elaborated, “We need to think about this in terms of the business case it offers, as well as the ethical and moral standpoint, which is that it's the right thing for us to do as businesses, and lead the way in that respect as well – especially within such a large sector in the UK, and to have an impact globally as well.”
Wager concurred that the business case was compelling.
“Lots of studies show where you have a diverse workforce, your business is likely to be significantly more profitable, especially in a downturn, than those that don't,” he said. “What you're actually building are diverse thoughts. Diverse thoughts will always deliver a better business outcome, because [otherwise] you run the risk of creating an echo chamber, where everybody is the same. So if you can imagine putting a business problem on the table where everyone thinks, feels, and acts in the same way, how would you expect to find a different outcome?
“We are all – no matter which industry, no matter the business we're in – we’re in service of customers, clients, and the communities we live in, and those communities are diverse. Actually, we are heading into a generation where there is even more scrutiny at all levels around whether or not businesses share and have the same value set as the communities they serve.”
He added, “If there's anything more compelling than ensuring the sustainability of your business, I don't know what it is.
Of course, some people might dismiss this as a tick-box exercise – using positive discrimination to favour certain candidates from different backgrounds. How did the panel believe this perception could be overcome?
“It's about providing opportunities,” Wager offered, “to ensure everybody has the same access, the same vision, and the same privileges. So, is it about positive discrimination? No. It's about getting everybody onto the same, equal, level playing field.”
Langton, meanwhile, believed communication was key.
“One of the things that we're focusing on right now,” she said, “is how we can make candidates and potential job seekers aware of our culture – that we're working hard to ensure that our culture is inclusive, it's very supportive.
“For instance, things like job titles – the wording that we use in our adverts, the benefits that we focus on in our external job adverts as well, to ensure that reaches a variety of backgrounds, for people to understand whether or not they see themselves working with us.”
Wager said that people would naturally gravitate toward businesses where they could see others like themselves at all levels of an organisation. He raised some key questions.
“How diverse is the range of candidates applying?” Wager asked. “How diverse are your hiring managers? What sort of process do you put in place to actually ensure that you are getting the right people through the door? Ultimately, what do you then do subsequently in terms of development?”
He added, “I think the challenge of all of this is there isn't a single silver bullet. There are a number of steps, a number of interventions.”
Next, our panellists considered what their respective firms were doing to ensure that women felt comfortable in the workplace.
Wager explained that Barclays had set up an employee resource group for women and their allies, while also ensuring that it fully understood and celebrated events such as International Women's Day, so that they became part of the fabric of its culture.
“It really brings sharply into focus the agenda that says all genders should be treated equally,” he remarked. “But let's be clear about where that may not feel as equal potentially, and what we can do and what we are doing about that.”
Langton explained that as Phoebus Software was both a technology and financial services company, its workforce had tended to be more male, but that was changing. The firm was actively addressing gender equality, in terms of fair treatment and pay, but also looking at the benefits it offered.
“So we're enhancing maternity pay, offering flexibility in work location or part-time working,” she said. “And then also supporting issues such as the menopause, which I think is about raising awareness, providing support as a business, showing that we do care.”
To close our discussion, our experts were asked to share with Mortgage Introducer’s broker audience a tip for assessing and developing their own diversity, equity, and inclusion performance.
Langton advised a strategic approach.
“Look at what your goal is – what do you want to achieve?” she said. “Then put some interventions in place to reach that goal and to measure the outcome. Using the measurement, you can review that process and see where you are, and what you need to do next.”
Wager agreed, and recommended focusing on priorities.
“This is a huge agenda. You can expend a lot of energy doing a lot of things and may not necessarily get to the sweet spots or get to your end point,” he pointed out.
“You run the risk of doing lots of things fairly well, as opposed to really nailing one or two things to make a fundamental difference. But only you will know that within your company.”
Wager concluded, “It's holding that mirror up to yourself, having a really good, hard, introspective look at what you do and how you do it – and then determining that priority.”
Barclays is a committed intermediary leader that delivers a range of competitive, flexible, innovative purchase and remortgage options designed to provide long-term value. Through its existing customer Reward range, Barclays is also a major player in the retention space. New-build is a key focus – it is constantly developing its offering, and this includes a dedicated application support team, day-one valuations, and six-month offer extensions. Barclays’ green homes range is also an integral component within its overall lending proposition and is available for residential and buy-to-let purposes. As a lender, it is constantly striving for simplicity and to streamline the mortgage journey.
Find out more
Phoebus Software is a market-leading provider of agile technologies to the banking and lending servicing sectors. Headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands, it employs over 130 staff and is committed to delivery excellence and client satisfaction throughout the client lifecycle. Its award-winning solution offers servicing and originations capabilities for multiple lending and savings products in the retail and commercial sectors. This multi-currency solution is used in the UK and Ireland and its clients include building societies, banks, specialist lenders, and third-party administrators. There are now over £95bn of assets under management running on the Phoebus servicing solution for over 100 lender portfolios.
Find out more
Kate Langton is chief people officer at Phoebus Software. She joined Phoebus in July 2017, initially as HR manager, before being promoted to CPO in January 2021. Langton has experience in financial software, energy, manufacturing and 3PL industry. She has held HR positions in the UK and Europe for businesses such as Wincanton, ENI, Danone, and Equinor. Her specialties include strategic HR business partnering; performance, learning, and development; talent management; HR strategy and planning; and HR projects/organisational change. She is commercially focused, with the ability to understand business issues, and believes in building relationships, acting pragmatically, and consistently delivering results.
Phoebus Software
Kate Langton
Sidney Wager is Barclays UK’s intermediary markets director. He joined Barclays’ intermediary mortgage business in 2015, working to transform the journey for its broker partners. With over 20 years’ financial services experience, he has a track record of delivering sustainable growth and successfully leading teams through organisational change. Wager has previously led the Embrace Network and now co-chairs the Black Professional ERG. He was a founder member of the Race at Work (RaW) taskforce and subsequently worked on the strategic build of RaW for Barclays. His passion for equality and equity is superseded only by his love for Man Utd FC.
Barclays UK
Sidney Wager
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Published 03 APR 2023
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Wager explained that Barclays had set up an employee resource group for women and their allies, while also ensuring that it fully
“Why is this such a big issue for us, and why do we care? I think the business case is very clear. The impact on creativity, innovation, and business opportunity has been proven, with a lot of research behind it, as well as retention and attraction of colleagues, future and current.”
Langton elaborated, “We need to think about this in terms of the business case it offers, as well as the ethical and moral standpoint, which is that it's the right thing for us to do as businesses, and lead the way in that respect as well – especially within such a large sector in the UK, and to have an impact globally as well.”
Wager concurred that the business case was compelling.
“Lots of studies show where you have a diverse workforce, your business is likely to be significantly more profitable, especially in a downturn, than those that don't,” he said. “What you're actually building are diverse thoughts. Diverse thoughts will always deliver a better business outcome, because [otherwise] you run the risk of creating an echo chamber, where everybody is the same. So if you can imagine putting a business problem on the table where everyone thinks, feels, and acts in the same way, how would you expect to find a different outcome?
“We are all – no matter which industry, no matter the business we're in – we’re in service of customers, clients, and the communities we live in, and those communities are diverse. Actually, we are heading into a generation where there is even more scrutiny at all levels around whether or not businesses share and have the same value set as the communities they serve.”
He added, “If there's anything more compelling than ensuring the sustainability of your business, I don't know what it is.
Of course, some people might dismiss this as a tick-box exercise – using positive discrimination to favour certain candidates from different backgrounds. How did the panel believe this perception could be overcome?
“It's about providing opportunities,” Wager offered, “to ensure everybody has the same access, the same vision, and the same privileges. So, is it about positive discrimination? No. It's about getting everybody onto the same, equal, level playing field.”
Langton, meanwhile, believed communication was key.
He continued, “So, are we as far as we'd like to be? There's always going to be room for growth, but what I would say is the trajectory of change, of focus, and actually really nailing some of those key challenges and tabling them for discussion, I think, is first class. I think we're probably seeing more change now than we have seen for decades.”
Wager added, “We also need to acknowledge and be cognizant of the fact that the DEI covers a number of genres. It covers sexuality, it's gender, it's able-bodied, neurodiversity, it's ethnicity. It comes in various shapes and sizes.”
Langton agreed that everyone was on the path, though she said that no-one was yet winning the race.
“We all need to share our best practice and knowledge on this and ensure that we get the right end point,” she suggested.
“I think that's varied across different organisations within the mortgage industry and within financial services. But the trend is heading in the right direction. And I think that's very positive in the mortgage industry.
These attitudes, of course, wildly miss the point of creating a workplace that works for everyone.
While this is a moral issue, there is also a strong business case for reflecting different communities, not least to better serve a diverse customer base. But how do brokerages meaningfully succeed in this area? What changes are needed within those firms, and perhaps the mortgage industry as a whole?
With this in mind, Mortgage Introducer brought together two key industry professionals for a special discussion. Sidney Wager is intermediary markets director at Barclays, and Kate Langton is chief people officer at Phoebus Software.
Our panel began by giving their assessment of the mortgage industry's current approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
“Everybody is on this journey, both in companies within the UK and globally,” said Wager. “I don't think anybody's particularly got this nailed, as it were. I think it's about where you are on that journey in terms of maturity.
“If we think about our industry, I would say that there is absolutely no doubt that it now has more focus than ever before. You look at the number of initiatives that have been led through the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association [IMLA] or handled by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries [AMI]. So there's a lot going on at a trade-body level that's really saying we understand there’s a challenge – what do we need to do?”
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, and inclusion is a hot topic in the workplace these days, and rightly so – it affects us all.
Certainly, ability is key, but any employee truly worth having on your team will value working in an environment that offers equal opportunities and is inclusive for all.
Nowhere is this more important than in the mortgage industry. It has traditionally employed greater numbers of (almost certainly white) male brokers, though the signs are that this is changing.
Yet open up a discussion in your office and you may still find some standard, not entirely encouraging responses:
“It’s not an issue at our firm, we hire the best people.”
“Most of those who apply are white males, so what can we do?”
“Why should we push an agenda for women or ethnic minorities to be favoured for jobs? Isn't that sexist or racist against white men?”
To close our discussion, our experts were asked to share with Mortgage Introducer’s broker audience a tip for assessing and developing their own diversity, equity, and inclusion performance.
Langton advised a strategic approach.
“Look at what your goal is – what do you want to achieve?” she said. “Then put some interventions in place to reach that goal and to measure the outcome. Using the measurement, you can review that process and see where you are, and what you need to do next.”
Wager agreed, and recommended focusing on priorities.
“This is a huge agenda. You can expend a lot of energy doing a lot of things and may not necessarily get to the sweet spots or get to your end point,” he pointed out.
“You run the risk of doing lots of things fairly well, as opposed to really nailing one or two things to make a fundamental difference. But only you will know that within your company.”
Wager concluded, “It's holding that mirror up to yourself, having a really good, hard, introspective look at what you do and how you do it – and then determining that priority.”
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These are three closely linked values held by many organisations working to be supportive of different groups, including people of different races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations.
What makes up the composition of men, women, and nonbinary people in a given population?
Do people in a group share common national or cultural traditions, or do they represent different backgrounds?
Gender Diversity
Ethnic Diversity
Are people in a group mostly from one generation, or is there a mix of ages?
Age Diversity
Are the perspectives of people with disabilities, whether apparent or not, accounted for?
Physical ability and neurodiversity
Equity
How the workforce experiences the workplace and the degree to which organizations embrace all employees and enable them to make meaningful contributions.
Inclusion
Fair treatment for all people, so that the norms, practices, and policies in place ensure identity is not predictive of opportunities or workplace outcomes.
Source: mckinsey.com
Diversity, equity, and inclusion in numbers
Companies where more than 30% of the executives were women were more likely to outperform companies where this percentage ranged from only 10% to 30%
“One of the things that we're focusing on right now,” she said, “is how we can make candidates and potential job seekers aware of our culture – that we're working hard to ensure that our culture is inclusive, it's very supportive.
“For instance, things like job titles – the wording that we use in our adverts, the benefits that we focus on in our external job adverts as well, to ensure that reaches a variety of backgrounds, for people to understand whether or not they see themselves working with us.”
Wager said that people would naturally gravitate toward businesses where they could see others like themselves at all levels of an organisation. He raised some key questions.
“How diverse is the range of candidates applying?” Wager asked. “How diverse are your hiring managers? What sort of process do you put in place to actually ensure that you are getting the right people through the door? Ultimately, what do you then do subsequently in terms of development?”
He added, “I think the challenge of all of this is there isn't a single silver bullet. There are a number of steps, a number of interventions.”
Next, our panellists considered what their respective firms were doing to ensure that women felt comfortable in the workplace.
Nearly 40% of those questioned said they had turned down or chosen not to pursue a job because of a perceived lack of inclusion at the organisation.
Over a third said their organisations don’t put enough effort into creating a diverse, inclusive environment – only 6% said too much was being done.
40% of those who identified as racial or ethnic minorities indicated they felt at least slightly uncomfortable discussing identity-related issues at work.
37% of LGBTQ+ respondents said they had had an uncomfortable experience coming out to colleagues.
What is diversity, equity, and inclusion?
Most employees support diversity, with overall sentiment on diversity 52% positive and 31% negative.
understood and celebrated events such as International Women's Day, so that they became part of the fabric of its culture.
“It really brings sharply into focus the agenda that says all genders should be treated equally,” he remarked. “But let's be clear about where that may not feel as equal potentially, and what we can do and what we are doing about that.”
Langton explained that as Phoebus Software was both a technology and financial services company, its workforce had tended to be more male, but that was changing. The firm was actively addressing gender equality, in terms of fair treatment and pay, but also looking at the benefits it offered.
“So we're enhancing maternity pay, offering flexibility in work location or part-time working,” she said. “And then also supporting issues such as the menopause, which I think is about raising awareness, providing support as a business, showing that we do care.”
Source: mckinsey.com
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These attitudes, of course, wildly miss the point of creating a workplace that works for everyone.
While this is a moral issue, there is also a strong business case for reflecting different communities, not least to better serve a diverse customer base. But how do brokerages meaningfully succeed in this area? What changes are needed within those firms, and perhaps the mortgage industry as a whole?
With this in mind, Mortgage Introducer brought together two key industry professionals for a special discussion. Sidney Wager is intermediary markets director at Barclays, and Kate Langton is chief people officer at Phoebus Software.
Our panel began by giving their assessment of the mortgage industry's current approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
“Everybody is on this journey, both in companies within the UK and globally,” said Wager. “I don't think anybody's particularly got this nailed, as it were. I think it's about where you are on that journey in terms of maturity.
“If we think about our industry, I would say that there is absolutely no doubt that it now has more focus than ever before. You look at the number of initiatives that have been led through the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association [IMLA] or handled by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries [AMI]. So there's a lot going on at a trade-body level that's really saying we understand there’s a challenge – what do we need to do?”
Langton advised a strategic approach.
“Look at what your goal is – what do you want to achieve?” she said. “Then put some interventions in place to reach that goal and to measure the outcome. Using the measurement, you can review that process and see where you are, and what you need to do next.”
Wager agreed, and recommended focusing on priorities.
“This is a huge agenda. You can expend a lot of energy doing a lot of things and may not necessarily get to the sweet spots or get to your end point,” he pointed out.
“You run the risk of doing lots of things fairly well, as opposed to really nailing one or two things to make a fundamental difference. But only you will know that within your company.”
Wager concluded, “It's holding that mirror up to yourself, having a really good, hard, introspective look at what you do and how you do it – and then determining that priority.”
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