Long tradition
Diversity and inclusion have a long tradition at Bank Austria. We firmly believe that diversity inspires and creates the right environment for innovation.
Therefore, we strive to foster a workplace culture that is inclusive and motivating.
We also promote and put this diversity into practice internally, for example in the course of the following programmes:
- Increasing the percentage of women in management positions,
- Measures to facilitate a healthy work-life balance,
- Accessibility measures, and
- Supporting the creation and growth of our Employee Networks
UniCredit is the only company in the banking sector to receive EDGE certification1 in Austria, Germany and Italy. As an award for its commitment to promoting gender equality and inclusion in the workplace. EDGE is the world's leading corporate certification for gender and intersectional equity. The certification process includes rigorous third-party verification.
Aniela Unguresan, Founder of EDGE Certified Foundation, says: “By obtaining the EDGE Assess and Move certifications UniCredit has made a clear commitment to achieving gender equity. It also reinforces UniCredit’s commitment to a broader ESG agenda as a crucial component of their business success. It is also important to point out that across all organizations, at every level, more women were identified as high performers than men. This high-quality, talented pool of women can anchor and accelerate progress toward a more gender-balanced workplace in the future.”
We want to promote economic growth and social progress. That is why UniCredit also joined The Valuable 500, a movement that aims to put disability on the global corporate governance agenda.
Disability Management
12 years ago, we decided to create an in-house disability management system for employees with disabilities. Today, an internal team of 60 people works to promote sustainable awareness of the needs and challenges of people with disabilities among all employees.
UniCredit - along with 380 other companies from 44 countries and 11 industries - has been included in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI) since 2020. It tracks the performance of listed companies that have committed to disclosing their activities. To promote gender equality through regulatory development, representation and transparency.
UniCredit has a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. Already in 2018, the bank joined the Women in Finance Charter and achieved a 20 percent share of women in senior management by 2022. Last year, UniCredit reaffirmed this important promise - with a more far-reaching target of 30 percent women in senior management by 2023.
1 EDGE Assess Certification in UniCredit Italy, UniCredit Bank Austria AG, UniCredit Services GmbH Austria and UniCredit SpA Branch Germany, and EDGE Move Certification in UniCredit Bank AG Germany.
Inclusive Teams
We foster diverse and inclusive teams. The talent a person has to offer has nothing to do with their culture, nationality, ethnic background, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, or experience. We firmly believe this and therefore promote a work climate in which everyone can freely realise their potential and feel like they belong.
We have been committed to a fair and positive working environment for all employees for many years and place strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion. In 2010, the Bank Austria Rainbow Group was established, which even won the MERITUS Award in 2011 as an example of outstanding diversity management.
The achievement of our diversity and inclusion goals is supported through the following measures:
- Focus on how we address candidates with a new employer branding strategy and our commitment to ensure transparency in the advertising of vacant positions.
- Introduction of several new training and learning programmes to help raise awareness and deal with the unconscious biases we all have, as well as promotion of inclusion and our most promising female managers.
- Further development of our promotion and nomination process.
- Continuation of our active support for the Disability Management Action Plan. In Austria, we have successfully supported the goals of diversity and inclusion for many years through various networks initiated by employees, particularly the Bank Austria Women’s Forum.
We are committed to maximising diversity by supporting international collaboration and teamwork across borders and functions.
In our journey to promote diversity and inclusion, we aim to recruit and hire candidates with different qualifications, support the careers of our colleagues, retain and develop them, strengthen our performance-oriented compensation systems, and foster an inclusive overall culture.
The more "diverse", the more flexible
Diverse companies can adapt to changing conditions more easily and quickly. Organisations that work with a diverse range of customers and employees every day are accustomed to dealing with cultures and needs that are continuously changing.
Bank Austria employs people of more than 40 different nationalities between the ages of 15 and 65 and the most people with disabilities by comparison – who now make up 3 per cent of the staff within the Group as a whole. But we are by no means resting on our laurels – we aim to push these figures even higher and integrate more people into our working environment. There is still a lot of room for improvement, especially when it comes to the support for all LGBTQIA+ issues, which we intend to utilise and improve in the coming years.