Empowering our people: How Schroders' Employee Resource Groups foster support and growth (part 1)
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Our employee-led networks support our grassroots approach to building an inclusive culture. These Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) create spaces for networking, celebrating our differences, and raising awareness of challenges that underrepresented groups face.
In this series, we caught up with the Chairs of our ERGs to get a deeper insight into their objectives and achievements.
Socio-Economic Diversity – Danny Ribeiro
What is your objective/aim this year?
To create a network for socio-economic diversity! We’ve just launched this year, with the aim to:
- Improve awareness of the benefits of socio-economic diversity and increase representation of people from low socio-economic backgrounds.
- Level the playing field for all creating a business where everyone has fair access to opportunities.
- Help drive transparency and change, improving data disclosure.
How do you feel ERGs make a difference at Schroders?
The ERGs provide a community for important discussions about the topics that matter to employees. They bring everyone together, creating an inclusive environment and raising awareness of these important topics.
ERGs also demonstrate the importance and benefits of inclusion and diversity to those who may be less informed. They create a channel between employees and HR for open discussion making Schroders feel more inclusive.
How does Schroders support your group?
Schroders provides us with the platform to create ERGs and facilitates open discussions. They provide funding to support our initiatives and take the feedback and input from the ERG to the wider firm and outwardly across our industry.
For the Socio-Economic Diversity ERG more directly, they’ve started collecting socio-economic diversity data points which are helping us build and understand the picture of socio-economic diversity.
East Asian Society - Michael Devereux
What is your objective/aim this year?
We strive to highlight topics and causes relevant to the Schroders east Asian community and ensure their voice is heard, while highlighting and promoting different cultures.
What have you achieved?
We have promoted the community and our cultures through a series of events tied to East Asian celebrations such as Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. We’re also striving to provide support for East Asian colleagues in their careers and to counter some of the negative stereotypes portrayed in the media.
Why is inclusion important to you?
Inclusion is a critical factor in what makes a great team; diversity across backgrounds, education and perspective all help to make for better team judgements.
Personally, it also makes coming into work such a joy; we get along well because we understand and respect each other’s differences, but also bond over our collective passions.
Schroders Minds - Helena Conway
What is your objective/aim this year?
Minds aims to normalise and destigmatise mental health conversations. We strive to equip every colleague with the resources to manage their mental health as effectively as their physical health.
What have you achieved?
Notable guests such as members of the leadership team have opened up about the importance of mental health in our panel discussions – reminding us that we all need support sometimes.
Why is inclusion important to you?
Inclusion means everyone feels safe to bring the best version of themselves to work.
Related news:
- Breaking the Class Ceiling: how we can all help increase socio-economic diversity in the financial services sector
- Playing our Part: Championing our people and their wellbeing this World Mental Health Day
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