Bank of us celebrates diversity for International Women’s Day

Bank of us is Breaking the Bias this International Women’s Day reporting that over 57% of its leadership team identify as female.

Over the years, the face of retail banking has largely been female with many customer facing positions, like traditional tellers being filled by women.

And that is still apparent today, with The Financial Services Institute of Australasia disclosing in its October 2021 ‘The Gender Divide in Financial Services’ report that 52.3% of the financial and insurances services sector employees identify as female.

Although the percentage of female employees overall is higher, only 31% of key management positions are held by females.

A fact that isn’t replicated at Bank of us, where there are a higher number of women in leadership roles across the organisation. Currently the Bank of us Leadership Team consists of 57% female identifying staff.

Yet this wasn’t always the case said Chief Customer & People Officer, Ms Jill Jetson-Shumbusho.

“Bank of us was originally established in 1870 by a group of male citizens who saw a real need for housing financing in Launceston,” said Ms Jetson-Shumbusho.

“But now, 152 years later, while we still have that same passion for providing financial services to Tasmanians, we’re really determined to diversify the people in our leadership roles, and break the bias.

“We really believe that people make banking better, particularly when a diverse range of people with unique perspectives feel their voices are being heard,” said Ms Jetson-Shumbusho.

Bank of us also recently launched an internal initiative, ‘Proudly us’, which is centered around education and acceptance culture in an inclusive workplace. The first stage in this initiative is the option for staff to include pronouns on their business cards and in their email signatures.

“By introducing pronouns into our day-to-day lives, we are opening the door for a more inclusive workplace where people can feel safe to share their identity,” said Ms Jetson-Shumbusho.

This is the beginning of more diverse and inclusive initiatives from Bank of us.