Diversity

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Our approach

Building a diverse workplace

Our goal is to become a super regional bank across the Asia Pacific region and crucial to our success is building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate. This means creating a work environment where employee differences such as gender, age, culture, disability and lifestyle choice are valued.

We view diversity as a strategic asset, and believe that the perspectives, experiences and contributions of our people are the source of ANZ’s creativity, innovation and business success.

Diversity governance

The group-level Diversity Council guides strategies, and sponsors initiatives to create a more inclusive culture at ANZ. The Diversity Council is chaired by the CEO and is responsible for setting the strategic direction and identifying focus areas for improvement in diversity across our region. It is also a decision-making forum of senior executives who are working together to build a diverse workforce and inclusive culture to enhance ANZ’s business performance.

Our three-year diversity framework is designed to support the development of an outperformance culture and ANZ’s super regional strategy. Over this three-year period, our diversity agenda will include a more specific focus on ethnic and cultural diversity, an emphasis on internal execution of diversity strategies, and reflect a clear link between diversity and business results.

Specifically our framework covers:

• cultural background: increasing workforce ethnic and cultural diversity
• gender: creating a truly gender balanced business and increasing the representation of women in management
• disability: building a business that welcomes and supports customers and employees with disability
• flexibility: providing innovative policies and practices to enable employees to balance their work and life commitments and perform at their best.

Each year a budget is set by our Diversity Council to fund innovative diversity and inclusion projects that help us to meet our diversity agenda.

2011 results

In 2011, our Corporate Responsibility goals included specific targets to:

• Increase the percentage of women in management across all levels of the business and achieve at least 40% in total by 2011.
• Provide 100 additional traineeships to Indigenous Australians and convert at least 40% of those who complete the program to permanent ANZ employees.
• Support the advancement of people with disability through a business mentoring program by employing an additional 35 people with a self nominated disability across our global business; and achieve at least a 75% retention rate for our 2009-2011 intake.
• Achieve a 100% completion rate for the 15 participants in our Australian refugee employment pathway program.
• Achieve a 2% increase in the number of Maori graduates in our New Zealand internship program.

Women in management

Creating a workplace that attracts and fully capitalises on the talents of women has been an important focus for our business over a number of years.

Each year we report our progress against our public gender targets. In 2011, the representation of women in management positions has remained stable at  38.2% against a target of 40%.

Whilst this is a strong position, more innovative approaches are now required if we are to move beyond incremental improvements. A key goal is to ensure we are creating a workplace that values the unique skills, experiences and perspectives of all our people.

• Read more about our 2011 performance and initiatives

Indigenous employment in Australia

We recruited 111 new Indigenous trainees in the past year, with more than 588 Indigenous people participating since the program’s inception in 2003. In 2011, around 66% of participants successfully completed the traineeship, well in excess of the non-trade sector average of 30%, and on par with traineeship completion rates for non-Indigenous workers.

We recruited 54 Indigenous people into ANZ roles in the past year. Our Reconciliation Action Plan commitment is to recruit up to 356 Indigenous Australians into ANZ roles between December 2008 to December 2011.

People with disability

Each year we set public targets for the employment of people with disability. This year we have exceeded our target with a further 39 people with disability joining our company. The retention rate for employees recruited as part of this program from 2009 – 2011 is above 95%.

Find out more about the new initiatives introduced over the past year to improve the accessibility of our own operations, and products and services for people with disability.

Australian refugee employment program

Sixteen refugees have been recruited for the Given the Chance Refugee Employment program in 2011, including three placements in our branch network and our first participant joining in a non-entry level role. All participants are currently on track to complete the program. Of the 51 people who participated in Given the Chance since its inception in 2007, 70% remain employed at ANZ.

Maori graduate program

Maori graduates were specifically targeted by facilitating an induction day and liaising with MITE (Maori into Tertiary Education). This activity achieved a 1% increase on the 2011 intake, below the target of 2% increase. To make further improvements for future graduate intakes, we will review our recruitment and assessment processes to ensure no unconscious cultural bias exists.

The future

Diversity remains an important priority for our business and our stakeholders. A number of goals have been set to further this agenda within our business by 30 September 2012:

• Reach at least 40% representation of women in management, including maintaining or increasing the proportion of women in management at all levels.
• Achieve gender balance and greater cultural diversity in our key recruitment, talent development and learning programs.
• Provide 230 positions through our traineeships, graduate program and permanent employment to people from disadvantaged backgrounds, including Indigenous Australians, Maori, people with disability and refugees; and support their advancement through mentoring and cultural awareness programs amongst all employees.
• Advance the role of women in society through engagement on key public policy issues, including advocacy for more accessible, affordable and flexible childcare in Australia.

Additionally, we have set internal targets around improving age diversity across our business, and publicly reporting progress against our Indigenous Action Plan (formerly Reconciliation Action Plan) and Disability Action Plan.

2010 results

In 2010, our Corporate Responsibility goals included specific-targets to:

• increase the percentage of women in management across all levels of the business and achieve at least 40% in total by 2011
• employ an additional 180 Indigenous trainees
• employ an additional 35 people with disability

Women in management

Women are core to our growth strategy. We have set public targets to increase the number of women in management every year since 2005, and we continue to demonstrate progress in getting more women into strategic and line management roles:

• There are three women on our Management Board of 12 executives, where in 2007 there was none.
• Five female country CEOs lead our business in important markets in Asia such as China and Hong Kong.
• Senior women lead some of our key businesses including our Bangalore operation in India; Private Bank in Australia and New Zealand; Retail and Wealth businesses in Asia and the Pacific; Global Capital Markets business; and our Global Shared Services function.

In 2010, we increased the proportion of women in management from 36.8% to 38.38% and aim to have 40% female managers by 30 September 2011.

We launched the Gender Action Network which helps connect men and women in ANZ who are passionate about gender diversity and are prepared to turn this passion into personal action to increase the representation of women in the workforce. Networks have been established in Australia, New Zealand, India, Asia, the Pacific, Europe and America. To date, the network has over 200 members.

In 2010, we also announced measures to support Australian staff returning from parental leave, including a $4,000 childcare allowance for our Australian staff returning from parental leave and superannuation payments on all forms of their paid parental leave.

Indigenous employment

We recruited 215 new Indigenous trainees in the past year, with more than 500 Indigenous  people participating since the program’s inception in 2003. In 2010, around 70% of participants successfully completed the traineeship, well in excess of the non-trade sector average of 30%, and on par with traineeship completion rates for non-Indigenous workers.

We recruited 56 Indigenous people into ANZ roles in the past year with a total of 83 Indigenous employees working at ANZ  Our RAP commitment is to recruit up to 356 Indigenous Australians into ANZ roles between Dec 2008 to Dec 2011.

People with disability 

Our third Disability Action Plan was launched in May 2010 and reaffirms our long-term commitment to making ANZ a place that welcomes and supports customers and staff with disability. We exceeded our public target to employ an additional 35 additional people with disability, employing 38 and implementing flexible employment practices to support these staff members as well as those who care for family members with disability.

The future

Diversity remains an important priority for our business and our stakeholders. A number of goals have been set to further this agenda within our business by 30 September 2011:

• Increase the proportion of women in management at all levels of the organisation and achieve at least 40% in total.
• Provide 100 additional traineeships to Indigenous people and convert at least 65% of those who complete the program to permanent ANZ employees.
• Support the advancement of people with disability through a business mentoring program; by employing an additional 35 people with a self-nominated disability, and achieve at least a 75% retention rate for our 2009–11 intake.
• Achieve a 100% completion rate for the 15 participants in our Australian refugee employment pathway program.
• Achieve a 2% increase in the number of Maori graduates in our New Zealand internship program.

2009 results

In 2009 our Corporate Responsibility goals contained specific targets to:

• achieve a 2-3% increase in women in management positions in all major geographies
• employ an additional 35 people with a disability globally, including 30 people in Australia
• employ an additional 100 indigenous trainees.

Women in management

Our total percentage of women in management positions has remained steady at 36.7%. Women at Senior Manager level showed small improvement (1.6%) while numbers at Executive and Manager level declined slightly. ANZ now has three women on its Management Board with a fourth (Anne Weatherston – Chief Information Officer) joining in January 2010.

People with a disability

An additional 39 people who self-nominated as having a disability joined ANZ in 2009. Twenty-nine of these new recruits were employed in Australia, eight in New Zealand, one in India and one in our Asia Pacific Division.

Through our pilot partnership with specialist employment agencies and our first hand experience we have identified improvements that we can make to ANZ's support of employees with a disability. We will provide greater education and support for line managers recruiting people with disability and offer more flexible options for employees who need modifications to their workspace.

Indigenous trainees

ANZ recruited 102 indigenous trainees in 2009. An important focus has been improving the recruitment process to ensure candidates have the support they need to successfully complete their traineeship. Retention rates for this year are at 83% compared to 78% the same time last year, improving the sustainability of the program.

The future

Our 2010 Corporate Responsibility goals contain specific targets to:

• increase the percentage of women in management across all levels of our business
• employ an additional 35 people with a disability across our global business
• employ 180 indigenous trainees.

2008 results

In January 2008 the Diversity Council's charter was expanded to include leveraging employee diversity to increase business success. The Council also implemented a global Diversity scorecard that sets Divisional diversity targets in the areas of gender, cultural/ethnic diversity, disability, indigenous and mature age.

The scorecard aims to increase management accountability and deliver improved diversity outcomes in the coming years.

In November 2007, more than 13,500 employees globally responded to ANZ's My Difference Survey - a follow-up to the 2005 Survey.

The Survey provides us with a demographic snapshot of our global workforce, feedback on how our people perceive diversity and inclusion, together with a measure of the progress we have made in building a diverse and inclusive workplace at ANZ.

Some of the key findings were:

• employees identify with 134 cultural backgrounds and speak 91 languages with 34% speaking a language other than English
• most employees understand the importance of diversity and are aware of our diversity policies - however, a gap still exists between policy and practice
• there were only minor differences between male and female perceptions of gender equality - career progression and inclusion remain areas for action.

The future

Our 2009 Corporate Responsibility goals contain specific targets to:

• achieve a 2-3% increase in women in management positions in all major geographies
• employ an additional 35 people with a disability globally, including 30 people in Australia
• employ an additional 100 indigenous trainees.