Bank Austria has been committed to a fair and positive working environment for years and places strong emphasis on gender equality.
This is evidenced by the fact that UniCredit has already been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) twice. The inclusion occurred on the basis of a global threshold defined by Bloomberg, which UniCredit has reached and exceeded. The GEI also ensures a high level of transparency and engagement across the five pillars of the GEI assessment methodology. The 2021 GEI includes 380 companies from 44 countries and regions as well as 11 sectors.
Gender Balance
UniCredit has launched a Group-wide Gender Balance Programme aimed at creating fair and gender-equal workplaces for women and men and strengthening these values in the corporate culture. This measure is supported not least by the signing of the Women in Finance Charter in June 2018 in London by the CEO of UniCredit at the time.
Target achievement, particularly at the management levels, is measured in an annual dashboard for the Strategy & Nomination Committee. The proportion of women in the Supervisory Board remains at 36 per cent, but women also account for 33 per cent of the extended Management Board (Executive Committee). In the hiring process for management positions, great emphasis is placed on ensuring that there are candidates of both genders who have undergone a fair assessment for the given position.
We are firmly committed to achieving gender equality in the workplace through human resources processes – from inclusion in recruitment and targeted career development for female managers to continuous improvement in terms of equal pay and the development of our “speak up” culture. I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished and it shows that we are on the right track and encourages us to continue our journey.
30 percent women in senior management by 2023
The next target is to now achieve a 20 per cent share of women in senior management by 2022. Last year, UniCredit reiterated this important promise by defining an even more ambitious target of 30 per cent women in senior management by 2023.
This commitment by the bank is underscored by concrete Group-wide initiatives with ongoing monitoring. In 2019, the first cross-border and cross-industry international mentoring programme, WeFly, was established in order to support the professional development of female colleagues in middle management. Special inclusive leadership programmes and training courses about unconscious bias were introduced on a Group-wide basis for all managers in order to ensure that they have the right tools to continuously create a more inclusive working environment.
Both the assessment methodology and the GEI itself are voluntary and do not involve any costs. The GEI is a reference index and does not serve as a financial benchmark. There is no ranking within the GEI.
For more information, please visit the GEI website.
