FSCS named as Trailblazing Company of the Year for its commitment to diversity and inclusion

In its 20^th anniversary year, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has been named as Trailblazing Company of the Year at the FT Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards 2021, and was highly commended for Championing Women’s Equality.

Underpinning its strategy to create a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can succeed in achieving their personal and professional goals, FSCS has implemented several diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives including:

Offering enhanced paternity leave of 20 weeks’ full pay.
Extending dependants paid leave to 20 days to address the challenges of juggling work and home-schooling during the pandemic.
Recently launching a new structured development programme, Career Pathways, to support employees to reach their full potential and remove any potential barriers to progression.
Launching the ‘Your Day Your Way’ approach centred around people taking ownership of their working day, allowing flexibility in where, when and how they work.

In FSCS’s latest full People Survey (April 2021) 92 per cent of employees described FSCS as an inclusive and caring employer. Its Board and Executive Team are now 60 per cent and 75 per cent female respectively, exceeding the targets FSCS set itself as part of the Women in Finance Charter.

FSCS has also recently achieved several accolades that further demonstrate its commitment to its strategy. Some of these include:

Placing on this year’s Times Top 50 Employers of Women, the UK’s most well-established listing of employers leading the way on workplace gender equality.
Being placed in The Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers for the second year running – FSCS is the UK’s twenty-sixth most inclusive employer for 2020/21, an increase of fourteen places from 2019.
Achieving Investors in People Gold – putting FSCS in the top 17 per cent of all the employers IIP work with.

Following the Black Lives Matter protests last year, FSCS ran a series of discussions across the organisation to help people understand the lived experiences of its Black colleagues, and to encourage open dialogue. Following these, FSCS held further discussions to understand how it could provide better support, which led to the establishment of four priorities, fully committed to by its Executive Team:

To launch a new survey to understand more about the experiences of its Black colleagues and how its employees understand the current discussion around race.
To no longer use the term BAME in its targets or reporting – instead this will be broken down by ethnicity.
To introduce sponsorship to support Black colleagues and increase their access to opportunities.
To host education sessions around race, making these essential for those in leadership positions.

Commenting on the value inclusion has brought to the organisation, FSCS’s Chair, Marshall Bailey said: “FSCS has built the leadership team of the future, with exceptional and highly qualified talent at all levels. A diverse team in all aspects has helped us to better understand and serve the wide variety of customers and stakeholders that FSCS supports.

“It matters that we challenge each other. We are confident that we consider a range of perspectives when making decisions and evaluating risks, thanks to the different life experiences our people bring to the table.

“I am extremely proud of this group of people and the passion they bring to work every day.”

Read more about the FT Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards on its website.

Media enquiries:
Email: publicrelations@fscs.org.uk
James Tweed, tel. 020 7375 8646

Notes for editors
For more information about the role of FSCS see our Notes for editors page.