Gender equality goals and progress

By 30 June 2021 Handelsbanken aims to have 30% female leaders and 40% female leaders by 2026.

In the UK Bank as a whole, there has been an increase of 13% (2016: 18%, 2024: 31%) of women in leadership positions since 30 June 2016, with women making up 52% of new recruits in 12 months to 30 June 2024.

• Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) lead on engagement and awareness – we’re proud to have five Employee Resource Groups at Handelsbanken: ‘Gender’, ‘LGBTQ+ and Allies’, ‘Wellbeing’, ‘Valuing Differences’ and ‘Neuro-Inclusion’. These groups of collective voices have been instrumental in driving awareness and engagement and will be an integral resource in driving action, within our diversity and inclusion strategy for 2025 and beyond.
• Enhancement of tools and resources to support awareness and knowledge –  in 2024, we enhanced our Diversity and Inclusion Portal and the Diversity and Inclusion Digital Library, to support colleagues with a blend of user-friendly learning and tools. This helps people to develop and increase knowledge at their own pace. We’ve also launched a range of resources aimed at encouraging local action and discussion.
• ‘Ignite Your Career’ – in 2024, we launched a series of learning focused on levers of career progression. As well as taking an inclusive approach to this learning, making content consistent and available to everyone, we’ll also run mixed sessions, including ones for female-only groups. By having gender-specific cohorts, we’ll be able to create environments where women feel more comfortable to share experiences and develop with people who’ve had similar experiences.
• Wellbeing – we’ve created a Wellbeing Action Plan to support increased engagement and awareness of our wellbeing offering. With the support of our Wellbeing ERG, we’ve also created tools that encourage colleagues to take a proactive approach to their wellbeing, and nurture wellness within teams. We’ve made more tools and mechanisms available to promote communication and feedback on wellbeing.

Please note: data used is as at 30 June 2016, 30 June 2017, 30 June 2018 ,30 June 2019, 30 June 2020, 30 June 2021, 30 June 2022, 30 June 2023 and 30 June 2024.