State Street learns to stay globally inclusive: International financial-services company promotes lasting workplace equality

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe an online inclusiveness-training initiative launched at global financial-services company State Street Corporation, which helped the company to earn a place among The Times Top 50 Employers for Women.

Design/methodology/approach

It explains the reasons for the program, the form it took and the results it achieved.

Findings

It reveals that State Street decided to include employees from every level of the company in the design, development and implementation of the training. Details how an Intranet site provides employees with additional learning resources and opportunities for discussion. It illustrates how management-level accountability for the up-take of the program helped to identify areas where further promotion was needed and instilled a sense of competition among team-leaders.

Practical implications

It highlights how female representation on the executive board of State Street, UK, has risen to 36 from 11 per cent and how, since the training began, 75 per cent of senior UK recruits have been women.

Social implications

It outlines how the company has maintained its commitment to improving workplace gender equality and reducing the gender wage gap.

Originality/value

It describes how managers from the company’s various international offices were logged into a “virtual classroom” in groups of 50, where they watched the training modules delivered live and conferred online with their “classmates” around the world.

Citation

Pollitt, M. (2014), "State Street learns to stay globally inclusive: International financial-services company promotes lasting workplace equality", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 22 No. 7, pp. 8-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-10-2014-0133