Deutsche Bank is committed to an inclusive culture that respects, embraces and leverages the diversity of our people, our clients and our communities. We foster an inclusive and respectful work environment where every employee can be authentic, contribute his or her best work, and succeed based on merit. Such a work environment unleashes innovation, minimizes risk, leads to better decisions and positions us to create value for our clients and shareholders.

Deutsche Bank has made several commitments demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We made a voluntary declaration alongside other DAX-30 companies (in Germany) to substantially increase the representation of women, with a special focus on senior managers.

We recognize the need to accelerate progress on diversity and inclusion and have developed a variety of programs, practices, and policies to help us do this. The key to success is embedding inclusion and diversity principles in every aspect of the employee lifecycle. Our leadership is actively engaged in our efforts to attract and develop a diverse workforce and take complete ownership of the Bank’s commitment to the DAX -30 targets for diversity and inclusion

Our commitment towards promoting senior women leaders is clearly demonstrated with 38% women in Deutsche Bank’s India executive management team.

A broad overview of some of the best practices and programmes at our organization are:

Getting the right talent – Our talent acquisition team focuses on creating a diversity slate to propose a broader candidate pool for consideration for various jobs. It involves sensitizing hiring managers and recruiters to search and consider profiles of women through diverse sourcing channels.

During the selection process at least one woman interviewer engages and meets the women candidates for senior level roles. The intent is to offset any unconscious biases and also share a clear employee value proposition with insights to the bank’s culture, policies, and benefits and support environment for the prospective women leaders.

Mentoring and focused development – We identify and engage with the high potential middle-management women employees. Our programme, Mentoring Matters equips our talent with mentoring support where senior leaders play significant role as mentors.

On the job experiences and exposure sets them up for larger / more complex roles with a clear career progression path.

Women Global Leaders programme – This target programme for senior women employees aims to increase the pipeline of women in leadership positions by preparing them with the key skills needed for more senior roles while retaining the highest performers and visibly accelerating their careers. It uses research to understand the perceptions, behaviors and biases women may face in the workplace and provides effective strategies and solutions. In addition, it delivers sophisticated business and leadership concepts allowing participants to improve their skills and advance their careers and provides unique opportunity to interact with senior management.

Inclusion does not require a business case now. It impacts brand, corporate purpose and performance. Millennials, for example, see inclusion as a mandatory part of corporate culture directly influencing their perception of a brand. Shareholders and customers are taking a closer look at this. Despite this emphasis and scrutiny, most organizations see a reality gap. Awareness though important is not enough. Leaders at all levels need to be made accountable. Structural and institutional changes need to be made through implementing data-driven solutions. We need to educate our managers in how bias, both explicit and unconscious, impacts talent decisions and outcomes.

At Deutsche Bank, it is our continuous endeavor to develop and retain the best people from all cultures, countries, races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences.

By Madhavi Lall, Managing Director, Head – HR, India at Deutsche Bank