Diversity and inclusion

At Handelsbanken, trust, respect, empowerment and responsibility underpin our commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture. Bringing together and valuing different perspectives is an important part of our success.

A foundation of our success

We aim to recruit, develop and retain employees with diverse backgrounds and perspectives while also reflecting the diversity of the communities we operate in, enhancing our ability to even better understand the market and adapt to a constantly changing society. We take pride in nurturing long-term relationships with our customers, employees, suppliers and local communities.

We believe that having customers and employees from a diverse range of backgrounds and expectations goes hand in hand with greater competitiveness. It drives innovation and strengthens our business. As an organisation that believes in having purpose that goes beyond profitability, we also simply feel it is the right thing to do.

A diverse and inclusive culture

All business plans include specific goals and activities that promote diversity and an inclusive culture. We recognise the power of colleague voice and  harness this through our Employee Resource Groups; providing space for colleague-led discussion, feedback and supporting on activities and initiatives and identify opportunities to celebrate individuality. Creating and promoting tools and resources that enable colleagues to increase their awareness and understanding at their own pace, is one of they key ways that we foster inclusive teams at Handelsbanken. We want our colleagues to feel empowered and equipped to take responsibility of their own development; so we take an inclusive and transparent approach at Handelsbanken, where every colleague (irrespective of role) can access a comprehensive library of resources to support personal and career development.

We understand providing the right support for colleagues allows them to continue to develop their careers in a way which also helps them better balance their work and personal lives. In support of this, as of January 2023, we take a gender-neutral approach to our family-friendly offering. This means that all of our colleagues, regardless of gender or how they become a parent, will receive the same level of enhanced leave and pay. We’ve also introduced grandparents leave, because we know that many new parents rely on grandparents for childcare when they return to work.

Partnering with the Women in Finance charter

By 2026 Handelsbanken aims to have 40% female leaders. We have partnered with the Women in Finance Charter to support our goals and track our progress. The charter is a pledge for gender balance across the UK financial services industry, based on the recommendations of a review published in March 2016 by HM Treasury.

Gender pay gap reporting

We are pleased to support and participate in the annual reporting of our overall gender pay gap information. 

As equality is important to us, each year we analyse where any pay gaps are, put in place actions to reduce the gaps as part of our business plans, and maintain focus on this throughout the year at all levels of the business.