Diversity in ANZ Bank - Case Study Example

Diversity in ANZ Bank Name: Institution: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) is a retail and commercial dominated bank founded in 1835. It operates majorly in Australia and New Zealand, although it operates also in other thirty different nations. Although it is the third largest bank in Australia by market capitalization, it is the largest in New Zealand. In terms of reputation, ANZ has earned various recognitions, like in 2008, under the Dow Jones Sustainability Index; it was named the most sustainable bank in the whole world. Apart from dominating in retail and commercial banking, ANZ bank concentrates specifically in consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, global wealth management, mortgages, private equity, credit cards and investment management. Looking at diversity for such a banking institution is different compared to other corporations because almost every member of the bank interacts with different employees every day. Therefore, the concern for diversity does not only lie with the management, but also every single member of the institution, including casual workers like cleaners and security guards. Being a modern trend and concern to multinational corporations, this essay looks at how diversity is handled at ANZ bank Australia, with the aim of understanding various practices, policies and strategies put forward by the bank to help enhance its enforcement within the workforce (Tiong & Anantharaman, 2011, p12). The essay focuses on laid down structures, issues and possible improvements needed to be made in order to ensure effective diversity. This puts into consideration the fact that a banking institution deals with a whole range of diverse people in different aspects, both internally and externally. With over 48,239 employees in 2012, it is clear that diversity is a critical issue for this bank, not only within its internal operations, but also as it interacts with customers within Asia-Pacific Region. Being a bank that operates in over thirty two nations, it deals with people of different culture, age, religion, ethnicity, race, personality, gender, and sexual orientation, among other diversity aspects (Özbilgin & Tatli, 2011). More importantly, at all times, the bank must ensure that diversity is embraced in order to bring people to a unity. Modern organizations embrace diversity. This is a common trend with multinational corporations. There is a lot of evidence concerning how such corporations look at diversity. In the past, a lot of concentration was on ‘fighting racism, and gender inequality’ among other things. However, it was evident that this approach portrayed a negative vise and this was turned to ‘embracing diversity’ (Özbilgin & Tatli, 2011). Therefore, modern corporations focus on inclusion of every member. Trickier is the fact that for banking institutions, it is not only about the diversity of its employees, but also that of its customers. Current state of ANZ bank diversity One significant issue that is critical for the success of diversity approach in any organization is the management’s role. The management must be responsible for ensuring that some key elements of diversity are attained and given proper consideration (Kirton & Greene, 2010, p89). Therefore, organizations must concentrate on developing a diverse, workforce through ensuring an inclusive approach, alongside empowering stakeholders. Some of the key elements of workforce diversity include education, training and communication, behaviors and mindset, flexibility, measurement, diversity building mechanisms, and inclusion. In order to understand these key elements, it is essential to discuss them alongside what ANZ banking group is doing about them. Communication and Education Communication is a vital factor when dealing with workforce diversity. It is through how workers communicate with each other and the customers, that determine the success of a proper diversity adoption. More importantly, for successful workforce diversity strategies or policies, communication in all directions must be given consideration (Tiong & Anantharaman, 2011, p12). How managers communicate with other subordinates is very critical. Therefore, the first people who should be trained on diversity are the managers. When managers lead by example, employees will be able to follow suit, thereby leading to effective adoption of workforce diversity strategies and policies. ANZ is currently focusing on implementing diversity policies and processes. Important to note is the fact that ANZ is on record to be educating all its employees alongside all line managers for correct and consistent balance of employee priorities and organizational demands. Training is an effective way of communicating diversity since it gives insights to managers and employees on the importance of diversity, and how to practice it. When managers, especially the human resource managers, are properly trained on diversity, then recruitment, selection and training processes will be done smoothly. The aim of ANZ bank group is to ensure proper inclusion of diversity into these processes (Reinig & Tilt, 2012, p183). The banking institution understands that with operations in over 32 countries, its employees must be selected, training and introduced to embracing diversity right from the recruitment process. ANZ banking group understands that this will be able to bring up a new group of employees who understand how to handle different kinds of people without discrimination or prejudice. Behaviors and Mindset Behavior and mindset is a critical issue in diversity. How the employees behave significantly tells a lot about diversity policies and strategies in a company. Therefore, an organization must first determine how to help employees change their behaviors and mindset. Of more importance to banking institutions is the customer’s behavior and mindset (Tiong & Anantharaman, 2011, p12). With the banking industry, customers come with different mindsets and behaviors every single day and the employees are obliged to give them the best services at all cost. Therefore, for such banks as ANZ group banking, developing policies that sharpen behaviors and mindsets is unavoidable. Changing an employee’s mindset and behavior starts from the recruitment process. Significantly, the daily activities within the organization also create a certain mindset to employees, thereby determining how to deal with diversity issues likely to arise. Therefore, it is paramount that policies, strategies and programs be developed and reviewed, occasionally, to check their compatibility with people’s behaviors and mindsets. ANZ group bank in Australia is in the verge of reviewing its policies, processes and programs aimed at addressing unconscious bias within them. One such way of changing mindset and behavior is through its concerted program. This program is aimed at addressing issues concerning the biasness within its policies, practices, processes and systems (Reinig & Tilt, 2012, p180). This program also targets identifying talent programs, leadership pathways, recruitment processes alongside its reward and promotion procedures and criteria. A revelation of such a process indicates that the company acknowledges that its past policies and processes needs to be reviewed. This is the approach that can ensure that diversity is fully implemented in this banking company. Therefore, from this aspect, it is evident that the company considers improving its diversity from the relevance of its policies, practices, systems and processes (Harorimana, 2012, p30). This is essential since these policies determine the day to day operations within the organization hence, the mindset and behavior of stakeholders. Flexibility and Measurement After developing proper and complex policies, with current issues at hand, their viability and success is determined only through measurements, in other words, the results. Policies and strategies can be nice on paper, but their practicability is highly significant (Heron & Charlesworth, 2012, p214). Therefore, there should be a platform to measure the ability of these policies or strategies to yield positive results. This is always checked through surveys, done by either the company or, more appropriately, independent firms or bodies concentrating on research and survey. In addition, the company must look at the flexibility of these policies and strategies. How well the strategies affect the daily operations of the company and balancing their positive and negative outcomes is crucial. There is need for every organization to support and encourage a flexible working environment that makes it easier for employees to improve and embrace a better lifecycle (Stockport, et al., 2012, p 35). The company has a management board, a diversity committee and corporate social sustainability as the structures in place to deal with diversity. Through the diversity committee, it is evident that a lot of efforts are made on embracing diversity through checking on what to prioritize and current issues likely to affect diversity within. For example, the survey conducted in 2013 dubbed as ‘My Voice Employee’ survey, was aimed at reviewing the effectiveness of diversity strategies within the organization. This was based on the fact that the company adopted a super regional strategy (Heron & Charlesworth, 2012, p214). Over 40,000 employees of different cultural background were involved in the survey. They represented more than 200 cultural backgrounds. This demographic survey was a critical measurement mechanism that helped the company to determine its workforce diversity. The company indicated that the exercise was able to help it assess and understand employee engagement level and the implications of having an inclusive diverse workforce (Tiong & Anantharaman, 2011, p12). Evidently, this was an indication that ANZ is striving towards creating and understanding diversity in a comprehensive manner. Gender identity and Sexual orientation inclusion Of all the diversity problems that organizations are struggling to handle, gender identity and sexual orientation currently lead. Since time immemorial, efforts have been made to ensure gender equality and fairness remain the core pillars of diversity alongside cultural integration and inclusion (Nayak & Venkatraman, 2011, p281-301). The stereotypes concerning the role of women in organizations still pose serious difficulties to organizations. The existence of the glass ceiling as a barrier to women attaining certain positions in organizations still exists despite the efforts to break it. In most circumstances, the success and recognitions of companies on diversity always peg a lot of weight on gender equality efforts (Stockport, et al., 2012, p 38). Therefore, gender representation is a serious aspect to look at when discussing about diversity in ANZ banking group. ANZ has managed to get its eighth recognition as the employer of choice for women and workplace gender equality agency (EOWA). United Nations Women Committee also recognized the New Zealand branch as an excellent company in terms of non-discrimination and equal opportunity considerations. In addition, sexual orientation has become a vibrant issue within organizations. Although various policies and campaigns tend to promote the inclusion of ‘disadvantaged’ sexual oriented groups like the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI), the reality of the concept is yet to be conceptualized in practice (Özbilgin & Tatli, 2011, p12240). The banking group is engulfed with the confusion since some of the countries it operates in do not legalize LGBTI while others do. This complicates the policy generation process. The company indicates to focus on priority segments such as age, gender, and cultural background alongside sexual orientation as some areas it focuses on in order to build an inclusive diverse society. The company is in the verge of building and promoting a culture of respect to others’ gender or sexual orientation through incorporating such issues into their organizational values. With priority given to culture respect, the company hopes to be in the forefront as some of them major diverse multinational corporations. The company focuses on education sessions and awareness creation concerning sexual orientation. This is a vibrant step towards embracing diversity. In addition, the company also focuses on providing resources, information and support through constant review of its policies. This exercise aims at removing any unconscious bias from the policies with the aim of building confidence, and community engagement through partnerships with other organizations. One such example is the partnership with Pride in Diversity (Nayak & Venkatraman, 2011, p281-301). This specific organization provides ANZ with information and resources alongside expertise to enable it inform its approach to gender identity and sexual orientation inclusion. Another significant issue that ANZ is working tirelessly to handle is the diversity in its customers’ preferences and culture. Currently it operates mostly in the Asian-Pacific region. This indicates that its policies are acceptable in this region. However, it is evident that the company has not given a lot of consideration to major parts of Europe, America and Africa. However, with operations in over 32 countries, it is conclusive to say that its diversity policies are accepted in most countries hence an advantage towards its diversity considerations (Reinig & Tilt, 2012, p170-176). In addition, ANZ banking group is also focusing on online banking, which characterizes modern banking systems. With this, the company is opening opportunities to other people from any part of the world to be their customers, hence widening its diversity approach to include people of different cultures among other aspects. Therefore, it is expected that the company will constantly review its diversity policies and strategies. In conclusion, it is evident that diversity is a current issue affecting both the internal and external operations of organizations. It is also evident that the manner in which organizations handle diversity determines their success and venture into other markets or region. ANZ banking group’s diversity strategy and efforts are appraisable. However, it is also evident from the analysis that embracing diversity for this bank is not only about management of its workforce, but also entails proper handling and provision of services to its customers. Being a multinational banking company, it is shown that the company has strived towards achieving an all inclusive diverse workforce with serious considerations of even off-showing expertise from other firms in order to hand sexual orientation and gender identity issues. However, as indicated, the complexities of its operations in different countries make it difficult to develop comprehensive policies that can be universally applied to all its branches. References: Stockport, G, J, Godley, M, Guagliado, D, Leung, O, Mercer, B, Varma, G & Wong, S, 2012, ‘ANZ Bank: Building a Strategy for Asia,’ South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 31-41. Reinig, C, J, & Tilt, C, A, 2012, ‘Corporate social responsibility issues in media releases: a stakeholder analysis of Australian banks,’ Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting, vol. 2, no.2, pp. 176-197. Tiong, P, N, & Anantharaman, R, N, 2011, ‘An examination of the sustainability disclosures of ANZ, NAB and Westpac,’ JASSA, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 12. Heron, A, & Charlesworth, S, 2012, ‘Working time and managing care under Labor: whose flexibility?’ Australian Bulletin of Labour, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 214. Harorimana Sr, D, 2012, ‘Impact of CRM Systems on Organizational Performance: A case study of ANZ Bank.’ Nayak, R, & Venkatraman, S 2011, ‘Does the business size matter on corporate sustainable performance? The Australian business case,’ World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 281-301. Kirton, G, & Greene, A, M 2010,  The dynamics of managing diversity, Routledge, London. Özbilgin, M, & Tatli, A 2011, ‘Mapping out the field of equality and diversity: rise of individualism and voluntarism,’ Human Relations, vol. 64, no. 9, pp. 1229-1253. Read More