ABN Amro has 20% women directors, cites flexible working

Job sharing and part-time working are unusual in many areas of investment banking. New data from ABN Amro suggests they may help women to reach senior roles.

The bank says its proportion of female directors in investment bank roles has risen to 20%, from just 14% in 2001. Clare Field, ABN Amro's diversity coordinator, says an increase in flexible working is partly responsible.

The number of men in director level positions has fallen 11pct, while the number of women is up 26%.

Field says ABN is emphasising its Dutch cultural roots in building a flexible working culture, which includes job shares for female traders and more focus on work-life balance.

"We're engineering a cultural shift so that women feel comfortable in taking senior roles. A long hours culture is the reality at other houses. Quite frankly, this is not what our staff want," she says.

ABN Amro has also altered its maternity package, so that a 'return-to-work' bonus is now paid to all during maternity leave - regardless of whether they come back or not.

The removal of the incentive appears not to have discouraged returnees: Field says 92.5% of employees now return to the bank after maternity leave, compared to 85% before the policy was brought in.

There has been little improvement in women's representation at higher levels. Just 10.5% of executive director and managing director positions are currently filled by women, compared to 10% in 2001.

Field said: 'We hope to see an improvement in the MD category over the next year or so. It will take women a while to reach that level.'

"We hope to see an improvement in the number of women progressing to the highest levels of the organisation, including MD status, over the next year or so," says Field.

Although most banks have diversity policies, it is unusual for them to release figures showing their success, or lack of it.

In April the UK government introduced a statutory right for parents of children under six to request the right to work flexibly. A study by Lovells, the solicitors, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), suggests financial services employers have received more requests for flexible work than employers in other sectors.

However just 57% of financial services employers said they were willing to consider flexible working practices for all employees, compared to 91% across all industries.

The study coincides with a survey by the BBC which found that 56% of brokers, traders and analysts in the City of London had experienced or witnessed incidents of bullying, harassment, or discrimination at work.