Case study: Credit Suisse’s strategies and policies for attracting and retaining talent as an employer of choice, fostering diversity and inclusion

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report Credit Suisse identifies a range of material issues, such as company performance and stability, consumer and investor protection, corporate governance, environmental and social risk management, quality of services and advice, sustainable investments. However, Credit Suisse’s capacity to inspire trust and create client satisfaction is essential for its long-term success and this goal can only be achieved with skilled, responsible and motivated employees.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Credit Suisse engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

• In 2015 Credit Suisse validated its list of issues through discussions with representatives of selected external organizations as well as with internal experts, updating and, where necessary, revising the list of issues.

What actions were taken by Credit Suisse to attract and retain talent as an employer of choice, fostering diversity and inclusion?

In its 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report Credit Suisse reports that it took the following actions for attracting and retaining the most talented professionals as an employer of choice, fostering diversity and inclusion:

• Promoting a culture of performance and development
• Line managers are able, through a globally consistent performance management process, to assess the performance and development potential of employees on an annual basis.
• In 2015:
  • Credit Suisse assessed and documented the potential of 91% of its employees, to methodically identify and track their potential to assume future functions
  • 69% of Credit Suisse employees drew up a longer-term personal development plan
• Line managers attend various training courses, learning how to support team members in order to achieve their professional objectives.

• Making employee opinions count
• Every two years Credit Suisse conducts an employee engagement survey with an independent consulting firm to assess the engagement and enablement of employees and to better understand their views on work-related issues.
• The 2015 survey took place in May and 73% of employees responded to it.
  • With a result of 69%, the engagement score was slightly higher than in 2013 and exceeded the average among other companies in the financial services sector (64%).
  • 73% of employees who took part in the survey stated that they had the resources and means they needed to work efficiently (industry average 65%).

• Investing in campus recruiting
• Since 2011 the percentage of externally hired candidates beginning their careers at Credit Suisse has increased from 39% to 45%, with 19% joining directly from school or university and 26% coming to Credit Suisse with less than two years of professional experience.
• Credit Suisse works closely with leading universities to source graduate talent, running an extensive range of on-campus events to enable students to learn about careers at Credit Suisse. Students can also connect with Credit Suisse digitally through webinars, online career fairs and chat rooms.
• Credit Suisse’s internship programs offer students the opportunity to gain professional experience in the world of finance.
• Credit Suisse runs various programs to identify and selectively cultivate talent from diverse backgrounds: in the UK its award-winning “Steps to Success” program gives top-performing pre-university students an insight into banking by offering short-term internships and helping to fund their tuition fees.

• Providing equal opportunities for all employees regardless of ethnicity or nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, marital or family status or disability
• Credit Suisse employs people from 169 different nations.
• Credit Suisse’s internal experts work closely with its businesses across the globe to ensure that diversity and inclusion are firmly embedded in its corporate culture, partnering with managers on the planning and implementation of initiatives to support an inclusive working environment.
• Local Diversity Councils ensure that Credit Suisse implements appropriate measures.

• Creating an attractive working environment
• Credit Suisse’s office environment, designed according to the Smart Working concept, allows employees to choose their workspace based on their needs at a specific point in time.
• Approximately 14,000 employees work in Smart Working environments in different regions.
• Credit Suisse has internal policies in place to help guarantee its employment conditions meet the highest health and safety standards. Specialized teams ensure that safety improvements are continuously made in line with local legal requirements.
• In 2011 Credit Suisse became the first Swiss financial services provider to be awarded OHSAS 18001 certification (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) for its operations in Switzerland.
• To ensure that its employees’ needs and interests are properly taken into consideration and to encourage dialogue between employees and managers, Credit Suisse has worked closely, for many years, with organizations such as the European Works Council and the Credit Suisse Staff Council in Switzerland.
• Credit Suisse has developed, in consultation with various specialist units, offerings that help its employees combine their professional and personal commitments as efficiently as possible.

• Taking initiatives to attract talented professionals who have taken a career break
• Real Returns: this is an initiative, launched in 2014 and extended to Switzerland in 2015, that gives talented and experienced professionals who have taken an extended career break the opportunity to transition, through a structured paid program, back into the workplace, enabling participants to leverage their professional skills and networking capabilities through a program that combines challenging project work, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicators/Standards addressed in this case are:

1) G4-LA1: Total number and rates of new employee hires and employee turnover by age group, gender and region – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and employee turnover

2) G4-LA3: Return to work and retention rates after parental leave, by gender – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 401-3 Parental leave

3) G4-LA4: Minimum notice periods regarding operational changes, including whether these are specified in collective agreements – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 402-1 Minimum notice periods regarding operational changes

4) G4-LA5: Percentage of total workforce represented in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees that help monitor and advise on occupational health and safety programs – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-1 Workers representation in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees

5) G4-LA6: Type of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and total number of work-related fatalities, by region and by gender – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-2 Types of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities

6) G4-LA8: Health and safety topics covered in formal agreements with trade unions – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-4 Health and safety topics covered in formal agreements with trade unions

7) G4-LA9: Average hours of training per year per employee by gender, and by employee category – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 404-1 Average hours of training per year per employee

8) G4-LA10: Programs for skills management and lifelong learning that support the continued employability of employees and assist them in managing career endings – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 404-2 Programs for upgrading employee skills and transition assistance programs

9) G4-LA11: Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and career development reviews, by gender and by employee category – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 404-3 Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and career development reviews

10) G4-LA12: Composition of governance bodies and breakdown of employees per employee category according to gender, age group, minority group membership, and other indicators of diversity – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employees

11) G4-LA13: Ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men by employee category, by significant locations of operation – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 405-2 Ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men

Why diversity matters

• A diverse workforce drives both innovation and market growth for companies (Harvard Business Review)
• Employees from companies embracing diversity are 45 percent more likely to report that their company’s market share increased during the preceding year and 70 more likely to report that their company captured a new market (Harvard Business Review)
• Workplace diversity across a number of dimensions, like education or personality, improves a group’s performance and creativity (Stanford Graduate School of Business)
• Diversity enhances a group’s ability to manage conflict (Stanford Graduate School of Business)
• Gender-diverse teams are more productive compared to single-gender ones (MIT News)
• Switching from a single-sex office to a gender-diverse one could increase revenues by approximately 41% (MIT News)

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Credit Suisse, located at the links below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the following links:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/investor-relations/financial-disclosures/financial-reports/csg-crr-2015-en.pdf (2015 Corporate Responsibility Report by Credit Suisse)

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

5) https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation

6) https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/diverse-backgrounds-personalities-can-strengthen-groups

7) http://news.mit.edu/2014/workplace-diversity-can-help-bottom-line-1007

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