Many cultures, one goal

Attention and awareness

We want to be an organisation where talent feels welcome and safe. That is why we are devoting extra attention to biculturalism. We are raising awareness throughout the entire organisation of the need for a bicultural-friendly approach, and are giving more support to colleagues with a bicultural background. For example, by helping managers give everyone individually tailored supervision or supporting recruiters in more inclusive recruitment. We will thus create equal opportunities for everyone, including those born outside the Netherlands, or with one or both parents from another country.

Clear goals

We also want to appoint more people from a bicultural background to director and senior management positions. In 2018, we therefore signed the Talent to the Top charter, in which we undertook to recruit or promote more employees from non-Dutch backgrounds. By 2025, we hope that such individuals will account for at least 9% of our senior managers and 8% of our executive board.

Monitoring and refining

Cultural diversity is high on the agenda in all parts of ABN AMRO, including in our day to day operations. Each year, our business lines set themselves specific targets and an action plan, assisted by our Cultural Task Force. The Task Force consists of directors and senior managers with a bicultural background who meet to develop bank-wide plans and work out concrete initiatives. And each quarter, our Diversity Table charts the progress being made by our recruitment and promotion efforts.

Learning from each other’s culture

We have various programmes to help talents with a bicultural background with their career planning and journey to the top of our organisation. We also offer ‘cultural leadership’ training to help people preserve their (cultural) authenticity without missing out on career opportunities. For example, by making them aware of the unwritten rules within a large organisation through which they can extend and strengthen their network.