Case study: How Coventry Building Society promotes a culture of responsible banking among its employees

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

The Society’s Stakeholders
The Society’s sustainability efforts are rooted in understanding and responding to the perspectives of its stakeholders. In 2019, the Society’s Board formally identified its key stakeholder groups as members and customers, colleagues, investors, suppliers, community groups, and the environment. This identification was based on an assessment of the Society’s activities and the groups significantly impacted by those activities. To facilitate this understanding, the Society employs a variety of formal and informal mechanisms to gather stakeholder feedback. This engagement ensures that relevant parts of the Society, including the Board, are aware of stakeholder views to support informed decision-making.

Stakeholder Engagement Activities
The Society maintains regular engagement with its stakeholders through multiple channels. These include the annual general meeting, direct discussions with members on key issues via the Members Panel, supplier relationship management meetings, internal research, external benchmarking, and employee feedback through the Great Place to Work Trust Index survey. The Treasury team also regularly interacts with primary wholesale investors and ratings agencies through formal channels. The Deputy Chair, Jo Kenrick, is responsible for understanding colleagues’ views and ensuring they are represented to the Board. Additionally, Brendan O’Connor, one of the Society’s Non-Executive Directors, has a designated role to represent members’ perspectives at the Board level. The Society’s Community Team engages with community groups and partners through facilitated discussions to understand what matters most to them.

Stakeholder engagement plays a crucial role as the Society addresses its environmental footprint. Coventry Building Society is actively collaborating with suppliers to reduce emissions associated with the products and services it purchases. As its second-largest source of emissions, Coventry Building Society aims to partner with its suppliers to achieve a decarbonization target of between 5% and 25% from 2021 to 2030.

While the Society is committed to taking positive action to support a just transition to Net Zero, tackling the climate challenges facing the UK’s housing stock cannot be achieved by the Society alone. It requires collaboration with stakeholders across government, the utilities sector, and housebuilders to reach this goal. In 2023, Coventry Building Society engaged with industry peers on this issue and continued collaborative efforts throughout 2024 and beyond. Given the current geopolitical environment, its subsequent impact on energy prices, and the cost of living crisis, it is more important than ever to focus on improving the energy efficiency of UK housing.

Regular stakeholder engagement helps Coventry Building Society identify the most relevant sustainability issues, ensures its strategy aligns with those priorities, and informs its broader decision-making process. This ongoing process is supported by Coventry Building Society’s annual materiality assessments.

How does Coventry Building Society promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees?

In its 2024 PRB Report Coventry Building Society reports that it took the following actions to promote a culture of responsible banking among its employees:

Coventry Building Society’s strategic priority includes creating an inspiring environment that better reflects the diversity of its city and communities. The Society aims to provide a safe, inclusive, and engaging workplace for its employees, supporting their health and wellbeing. This begins with a set of shared goals, approved by the Board, that guide the actions of colleagues throughout the Society.

Effective communication is essential, and Coventry Building Society dedicates time and effort to foster understanding of its ambitions, goals, and the impact each individual can have. This includes numerous opportunities for colleagues to share their opinions, whether through engagement sessions with the Board and Executive, all-Society surveys, or via representative bodies such as Unite the Union and My Society, its employee forum.

Values: Coventry Building Society’s culture is rooted in its shared ‘CARES’ values, which focus on being Caring, Ambitious, Responsible, Empowering, and Straightforward in interactions with each other, members, customers, and other stakeholders. These values serve as a key driver of employee engagement and help sustain a strong organizational culture. The Society’s approach to its people is guided by its purpose and values, shaping all aspects of talent acquisition, personal and career development, wellbeing, and the overall colleague experience.

Coventry Building Society is a place to grow, develop, and learn. In 2023, the Society achieved these ambitions through initiatives such as:

• Filling 43% of roles with existing colleagues;
• Expanding its colleague-led Networks to include Asian and Carers networks;
• Introducing the “Time for You” allowance, enabling colleagues to dedicate time to wellbeing and development;
• Employing 36 interns, 77 apprentices, and 9 graduates;
• Facilitating 4,800 hours of learning each month.

Reward: Coventry Building Society’s reward proposition reflects its shared values and focus on wellbeing. Compensation is benchmarked externally against comparable roles within financial services. For customer-facing roles, the Society operates pay accreditation schemes that offer opportunities for pay increases as colleagues develop role-specific skills and capabilities. The Society is committed to pay equity and conducts regular reviews to ensure fair compensation for all employees performing similar work. Benefits are available to all staff, regardless of whether they work full-time or part-time.

The Society does not offer individual bonuses to employees, as such awards could pose risks to its culture and potentially shift focus onto individual priorities. Instead, it operates a Success Share scheme overseen by the Remuneration Committee, which is aligned with the Society’s strategic scorecard. This scheme includes a range of measures spanning financial, risk, customer and people. Under Success Share, every employee, regardless of role, receives the same percentage award.

Employee Code of Conduct: Coventry Building Society’s Employee Code of Conduct outlines its commitments to doing the right thing. This document is designed to ensure all colleagues: (i) act professionally, cooperatively, courteously, and inclusively in the performance of their duties; (ii) behave with honesty and integrity; (iii) conduct both their personal and professional lives in a manner that does not pose a risk to the Society or its reputation; (iv) understand the standards of behaviour and conduct expected by regulators and the potential consequences of failing to meet these standards; and (v) appropriately manage and report conflicts of interest. This underscores the broader principle that all colleagues contribute to shaping the Society’s culture.

Policies: Coventry Building Society has a range of policies aimed at fostering a culture of responsible behaviour among its employees, including the Anti-Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Facilitation of Tax Evasion Risk Management Policy; the Anti-Bribery and Inducements Policy; the Whistleblowing Policy; and the Data Protection Policy. Responsible business conduct toward the Society’s customers is outlined in the Society’s Conduct Risk Framework. Behaviour between colleagues is detailed in the Employee Handbook, which also sets expectations for engagement with customers. Responsible conduct toward suppliers is covered in the Society’s Supplier Code of Conduct.

Training: All employees, whether temporary or permanent, are required to complete training on financial crime prevention, including anti-money laundering (AML), fraud, and anti-corruption. Additional mandatory training programmes include whistleblowing procedures, which explain how concerns can be raised—anonymously if desired—along with data protection and cyber security awareness in the workplace.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Coventry Building Society, located at the link 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 link:

https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/content/dam/cbs/member/pdfs/esg/sustainability/Principles-for-Responsible-Banking-Report-2024.pdf

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