Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is part of who we are. It is vital to the future of our business
To achieve our DE&I ambition, recognising that equity and inclusion is global and diversity is more nuanced locally, we have identified four overarching objectives for HSBC Asset Management:
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It has been over two years since I became the co-chair of HSBC Asset Management’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (‘DE&I’) programme. In my role the learning never stops, and it has been fascinating to discover just how vast and multifaceted the DE&I landscape is. The investment industry has certainly made some notable progress on improving DE&I, however, it started from a low base and there is still a lot of work to be done. Based on my own learnings, I have outlined five key actions that companies could aim to implement to further the progress of DE&I.
For international organisations, basing its DE&I strategy on definitions that are western centric may not be helpful. It is important that a company’s DE&I strategy reflects where an organisation is based and includes locally relevant initiatives. By way of an example, Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world, with more than 100 ethnic groups and 655 million people speaking over 1,000 languages and dialects. To be successful in this region, the DE&I initiatives need to reflect this exceptionally rich breadth of peoples, ethnicities, and creeds.
Diversity data is usually based on self-declaration and, in most cases, is incomplete and sensitive to handle. Without understanding the true starting point, it is difficult for an organisation to clearly define its progress. This will be tough to perfect and while working on gathering more data, companies should not wait to begin their initiatives.
Sometimes, targets set as a percentage of leadership being women or people of colour may risk masking some more inherent biases around the roles with influence in the company. What are the key decision-making roles and how can you build a diverse team within these roles? It is important to look at this level of detail.
While inclusion is very difficult to measure, there are tools out there that can help companies to gauge how their people are feeling on an ongoing basis. Technology can help you in this space.
On recruitment (and promotions), companies should consider recruitment channels from outside of their traditional bases. This can involve looking at candidates with transferrable skills in different sectors or creating programmes for people who may have left the industry, to make it easier for them to come back. Companies should also think about their long-term recruitment pipeline, and work on increasing the pool of applicants from the next generation.
To improve retention, it is important for companies to listen to minority voices and to demonstrate that they are being heard by taking action in response to their feedback. If heading up a large function, companies should ensure that they know who their talent is and try to get to know them personally. It is also important to consider the diversity of succession plans, and if finding it to be lacking, analyse why and use the levers to develop the right people.
Once people are in your organisation, there may be some that need more support, whether via learning and development programmes or sponsorship. Ultimately, however, visibility is the key to career progression, making it vital for organisations to identify ways of creating visibility for a wider pool of people and finding the hidden talents in the process.
DE&I needs to be fully embedded within the company’s strategy and not simply labelled as a side initiative. Just like any other strategic KPI, you must follow the progress made with your DE&I KPIs on an ongoing basis as part of regular business reviews.
Role-models are critical sources of inspiration. People like to see others like them in their organisation, both as peers but also as senior leaders.
When you feel different to everyone else in a meeting room or on a video call, much of your attention is focused on trying your best to ‘fit-in’. Your confidence builds when there are a few more others in the room who are also ‘different’ to the norm, which allows you to direct your energy towards developing new ideas and innovation. That is when cognitive diversity kicks in and companies can begin to reap the rewards of lots of different brains focusing on strategic plans and solving problems.
It is important for senior leaders from under-represented backgrounds to be visible and share their stories. They are your natural diversity influencers in the organisation. When working in diverse teams which are truly inclusive, companies can include many more viewpoints when focusing on the problem and avoid any blind spots. With innovation often being ignited through the intersection of disciplines and by bringing people from different lived experiences together, this also presents a great recipe for new idea generation.
The tone from the top is a key factor to success. Companies need their executive leadership team to endorse its DE&I programme and assign an accountable executive who will act as the voice of the collective group. Demonstrating commitment at that level helps to bring people together and incentivise teams to be more open and dedicated to creating real change.
I think I’ve always known. It was clear I wasn’t like anyone else I knew in some ways. Throughout my life, I was told to push it away. Act normal. Be normal. Drown it. Focus on school. Focus on work. I was told I’d be happier, I’d feel better. Stop, they would say, normal people don’t move that way. I’d dread every day. It’s mentally draining pretending to be someone you aren’t but you get good with practice.
When I was young, my classmates would make sure to let me know when I wasn’t properly observing unwritten gender rules – colours, favourite fictional characters, clothes, and so much more. I learned to fear that part of me. I learned to hate it. Later, I grew up reading stories online from transgender and broad LGBTQ+ experiences. People losing family and dear friends, becoming homeless, or being fired. I absorbed that, we become open to misrepresentation, assumptions, and hate when we come out.
I’ve worked with religious and secular counselors, psychiatrists, doctors for 10 years. We tried different solutions because I wished for other solutions. Because I didn’t wish to face that part of me. I really tried. And finally, I crashed. I had nothing more. I was ready to leave. Someone pulled me back. Years ago, I started medically transitioning. But that story is for another time. I was told to write about my transition but I’m not ready.
The transgender community generally includes transgender men, transgender women, and non binary people. Transgender men (“transmen”) are those who transition to men, vice versa for transgender women (“transwomen”), and non binary people (N-b or “enby”) are those who prefer not to be identified with either gender.
To date, only Canada has attempted to include transgender people in official national censuses. There, in 2021, transgender people made up approximately 0.3% of the 15+ population. Representative survey based data from Belgium and New Zealand have shown similar statistics1 but it is possible that these figures understate reality. Some people choose not to come out and others can blend in so – sometimes – they prefer not to call themselves transgender. The 2021 Canadian census also found that amongst transgender individuals, 28% were transgender men, 31% were transgender women, and 41% were non binary. I feel this is important to highlight because I perceive media tends to focus on journeys and challenges relating to only one group.
Since our population is small, I don’t expect most people to understand. Even with more common issues, it’s hard to fully convey how something feels. Can left handed people explain to right handed people why they prefer their dominant hand? Understanding requires trust and empathy. Not everyone can give this right now. But not understanding something doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t exist.
Now that you know some basics, I will move on to try to express how I feel through rough analogies.
By birth, I gained citizenship of one country. When my parents were in their 30’s, they decided to immigrate. Through legal processes, I transitioned to being a citizen of another country. Where I live, people refer to themselves as one group in day to day situations as well as on most government forms, regardless of what their skin colour is or what their genes say. This was not always so, however. If I go back 100 years, there were at least two developed world countries that created laws against people of my racial background from immigrating legally. Back then, some would have been disgusted at how my parents and I can call ourselves citizens of my adoptive country today. Some leaders of that era saw people of my racial background as menaces to society. Some may not even have seen us as human. Essentially, back then, what I was at birth would’ve stopped us from immigrating – which is just another form of transitioning.
Now, no analogies are perfect. Biology is often raised when transgender transitions are discussed. I’m not a biologist. But I live in my society. Today, in my country, when adoptive parents give their gift of love and new life to their children, they become parents. In census data for countries of my region, they are grouped as parents. At school, they’re not challenged as non parents. Even between adoptive families and their medical providers, outside of exceptional circumstances, adoptive parents are parents.
I cannot say definitively but this is likely what “transmen are men, transwomen are women” was trying to express. I am not entirely comfortable with that phrase. I personally feel there are some exceptional circumstances. But I that underlying sentiment resonates with me. There is room in society to accept transgender people. But I know it’s going to take time for acceptance. I don’t know how long nor what compromises need to be made though. I don’t have every answer about being transgender.
As I wrote above, my journey has almost been 10 years now. But I have chosen invisibility during past and present Days of Transgender Visibility. It’s tiring enough to transition. As much as it’s important to be visible, I’ve also seen other transgender people in our industry burn out and speak at too many events when they come out.
Just as with every minority experience, standing out and coming out means people may re assess my character. They may forget every kind gesture, support, or help I’ve given before. They may assume my opinions on unrelated issues just because I am transgender. I may actually have no well formed opinion on some transgender related matters. I don’t claim that I know everything about my adoptive or birth country. Why does being transgender have to be any different?
Being an immigrant is part of who I am. Working in HSBC Asset Management is part of who I am. They are facets of who I am but no single dimension should define me. Just as it should be with any other person and in any society. Ideal, I know…. Acceptance of diversity will take lots of time and work. I just wish to be me.
I am not just transgender.
1 The United States, UK, and Ireland have data from crowdsourcing and other non representative surveys. These surveys show transgender people make up approximately 0.5% of those countries’ population.
Dyslexia.
I was diagnosed with the condition at the age of three.
Fortunately, my condition was spotted early, so I attended a specialist Dyslexic school between the ages of six to nine. Here, I learned coping mechanisms to effectively deal with my condition, enabling me to perform to my true potential in an academic and professional setting. I am now fortunate enough to not require any adjustments in the workplace. Nonetheless, having access to 25% extra time in exams has been an indispensable adjustment in higher education and professional exams.
I am lucky in that I never felt barred from higher education due to my condition. However, throughout my education I perceived “being dyslexic” led to others labelling me as unable to attend the best institutions or do academically challenging subjects.
For context, dyslexia simply refers to an individual’s brain being “wired” differently. Illustrated by the physical manifestation of my condition: I am right-handed and left-footed!
Nonetheless, I believe my condition has benefited me in three significant ways:
Definitely.
The promotion of neuro-divergent thinking as an asset, as well as multiple high-profile individuals coming forward as dyslexic, has undoubtedly improved society’s view of the condition. A personal favourite is Richard Thaler, a founding father of behavioural economics and Nobel Prize recipient.
Pre-covid one of the biggest galas in the Hong Kong LGBT calendar was NGO, Community Business’ Annual LGBT Awards ceremony. Started in 2014, the evening celebrates LGBT inclusive companies and individuals who have moved the needle on making workplaces more inclusive. It was commonly dubbed Hong Kong’s “Gay Oscars”. I looked forward to it every year and in 2016 had the pleasure of meeting then CEO of HSBC HK, Ms. Diana Cesar. Community Business Hong Kong LGBT+ (Inclusion) Index ranks employers on their inclusion practices and since inception, HSBC has always consistently been at the top 2. The brief encounter left a deep impression on me because she was the first C-Suite of any major international bank to have graced the event. She sat at the HSBC sponsored table and stayed throughout. To see Ms. Cesar at the dinner validated in my mind the index’s findings. In 2017, when I was looking for a new career adventure I referenced past years’ indices and only considered firms which were consistently in the top 5. I used it as an objective barometer of the various companies’ culture. Later that year, I joined HSBC. I’m currently serving in Asset Management and am still enjoying my career journey with the bank.
My journey through the financial services industry:
There has been a fair amount of challenge, which constantly made me feel like my straight friends’ careers were taking off from well paved runways and I was still paving my own in order to take flight. I’ve had well-meaning straight and closeted mentors in my younger years who advised me not to be as out as I was with the good intensions of expediting my career progression. There was a shortage of visible role models who were/are in my position of being out and progressed into management. Under those settings I built my career and became determined to better the industry around me.
16 years ago as a young professional starting out, LGBT inclusion awareness was at its infancy in Asia and there was a form of “don’t ask, don’t tell” within the banking corporate culture. I was desperately looking for a role model whom I could relate to or more importantly to provide me with some sense of security that being out at work will not (at best) limit my career or (at worse) end it prematurely. I spent years looking for “her” (an out senior lesbian executive; a beacon of hope) and eventually gave up. I decided that if I couldn’t find her, I will become “her”.
Since then, on top of my demanding day job I’ve always held down multiple “gay jobs” throughout my career.
It will be inauthentic if I say it hasn’t been at times an exhausting and stressful journey. Everyone wants change, but few want to lead it. I’m constantly presented with situations and problems most people will never have to grapple with or think about. But it has molded my character and I am stronger for it. On a personal level I get satisfaction leaving a positive legacy by improving the lives of others. On a professional level I’ve gained a wide network of business contacts and exposures I otherwise wouldn’t get in my day job (e.g. Media exposure, public speaking, selling an idea/ addressing objections, rallying people around a common cause, project managing, creating and being on an industry platform etc.). These are all important management skillsets I see as pluses so that when the next bigger challenge comes along, I’m ready.
Where to from here:
I’m currently focused on adding value to our Asset Management clients in the Liquidity space especially in this inflationary environment and look forward to supporting our colleagues who are launching innovative DE&I funds which will help further the global inclusion journey via impact investing. I’m also looking forward to taking more time for myself and continuing my personal development by enrolling for courses in B-schools in the coming year.
Stuart White, CEO UK & Global Head of Strategy, HSBC AM, has won the Human CEO of the Year award at the TLC Lions Being Human Awards 2023. The award recognises Stuart for his commitment to human leadership and the work he has done in humanising the workplace.
External Recognition and Awards: HSBC AM DE&I Programme
We are proud to support The Diversity Project which is an industry-wide initiative whose purpose is to accelerate progress towards an inclusive culture in the investment profession.
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Stuart White, Chief Executive Officer in the UK and HSBC Asset Management’s Global Head of Strategy is a member of the Diversity Project ( www.diversityproject.com ), a UK based cross-company initiative championing a more inclusive culture within the savings and investment profession. Stuart is a member of the Diversity Project’s Advisory Board and CEO committee and an active spokesperson for better diversity, equity and inclusion in the asset management industry. |
We want to be a role model in the industry by ensuring our workforce represents the communities that we serve.
As part of the HSBC Group, we signed up to join the 30 per cent Club in 2018 (to reach 30 per cent women in senior leadership roles by 2020), and we achieved 30.3 per cent in 2020. We have extended our aspirational target for women in senior leadership to achieve 35 per cent by 2025.
HSBC AM is also a signatory to the industry-wide 30 by 30 initiative by 30 per cent Club UK’s Investor Group (30 per cent of female PMs by 2030). We have several levers, programs and a strong culture of diversity and inclusion that have led to steady progress and a 22 per cent female PMs in our traditional asset classes, as of September 2023. We are therefore confident that we will reach and exceed the 30 per cent target well ahead of 2030.
We joined the 30 per cent Club Hong Kong Investor Group in 2022, pledging to support the targets to achieve 25 per cent female representation on boards of listed companies by 2025, and 30 per cent within six years (by 2028).
Some new and ongoing initiatives by the company in 2023-24 include:
We also aim to build more diverse investment committees to ensure that our female managers have as many opportunities to influence the decision-making process within our investment committees.
We are also committed to understanding the interplay, or intersectionality, between the areas such a gender, race, ability, sexual orientation and identity, mental health, social mobility and religion. We continue to work with external experts to learn more about how our colleagues who fall into more than one underrepresented group experience our working environment and what we can do to provide an inclusive culture that allows all colleagues to thrive.
We received the following awards for gender diversity and inclusion in 2023:
We want to be a role model in the industry by ensuring our workforce represents the communities that we serve. We also want to better understand the lived experiences, feelings of belonging, and barriers to career progression of employees who identify themselves as ethnic minorities.
Listening sessions, via an external consultancy, were conducted across our global employee base in 2021. We have used the feedback from the listening sessions to build a framework and action-plan for our initiatives. The core pillars of our strategy are:
We are enhancing our data to support an evidence-based approach to driving change, especially around our minorities balance commitments and senior leadership representation. A self-identification campaign was run throughout 2022-23 in countries where we are legally and culturally able to collect this information voluntarily from employees. In the UK, 73.14 per cent of employees have disclosed their ethnicity as of Q3 2023, of which 31 per cent are of a racial and ethnic minority background.
We are committed to the Diversity Project’s 90 per cent race and ethnicity diversity data disclosure goal by 2024.
We have an internal KPI in place to increase the percentage of ethnic minorities, including Black Heritage colleagues, in our workforce. We are aiming to increase percentage of black heritage colleagues and also target 1-2 to increase their GCB per year.
Our organisation has taken the following actions in 2023 to improve race and ethnicity DE&I, and will continue to add to these and evolve them further in 2024:
We are taking action to improve opportunities for black and ethnic minority employees through the Accelerating into Leadership programme. We are a signatory to the 10,000 Black Interns initiative (https://www.10000blackinterns.com/) and hired our first summer intern from this programme in 2022, who has since been successfully admitted on to the Graduate programme. In 2023, we hired one Intern in AM Alternatives from the 10,000 Black Interns pipeline.
Awards
In Women in Investments Awards 2023, we were finalists in ‘Investment Industry Initiative of the Year’ for our Ethnicity Initiative.
Social mobility is an area that is often overlooked as it may not be easily identified. Widening participation is a key focus for HSBC Asset Management, our Social Mobility workstream has educated all of us in how giving a chance to an individual could lead to a cohort of loyal and effective employees. Our aim is to bring in fresh perspectives and diversity of thought into our firm and disrupt any “group think” we may be having. We believe that “Talent is everywhere, but opportunities are not".
Our Social Mobility programme undertakes initiatives under three strands:
Despite 80 per cent of people acquiring a disability while in employment, the majority hide in plain sight. Only 6.3 per cent of them, according to Business Disability Forum, self declares as disabled. Without being aware, we may disregard the needs of our colleagues and make their contribution more difficult. Our goal is to highlight the importance of mainstreaming disability issues and encourage open dialogue about what it is to be different and how departments in Asset Management can support each team member’s needs. We are committed to the UK Government’s Disability Confidence (DC) scheme, of which the bank is classed as a Grade 3 - “Leader” and ensure regular training for new employees is implemented.
In 2023, we conducted ‘The inclusive workplace for people of all abilities’ – a series of listening sessions and one-on-one interviews. The aim was to better understand our colleagues with disability and to gather insights from them (and their line managers) on how we can further improve our workplace to be more inclusive.
We also published a variety of posts on social media and in our internal newsletters around Disability and Neurodiversity. We commemorated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDOPWD) and International Day of the Deaf and published posts on LinkedIn on hints and tips for managing this in the workplace.
These initiatives help not only ensure a strong culture of disability inclusion in HSBC Asset Management, and in the wider HSBC, but also in the Investment Industry in a meaningful way.
The workstream exists to facilitate the efforts by HSBC Asset Management to support the mental health and wellness of our colleagues. To that end, there has been increased senior leadership communication related to mental health related topics, including the need for adequate time off, increased flexibility around deadlines, ways of working and expectations around deliverables. Our Employee Assistance Programmes are available in all our locations as part of our benefits, and since 2022, our employees have free access to the Headspace application, with an aim to help build resilience through meditation.
The workstream publishes a monthly “Wellness Wednesday” newsletter to promote topics and awareness related to mental health and provide contact points for help and support on a global basis. We also have relevant trainings around mental health on HSBC University for every employee to access.
In 2022, we launched our Global Mental Health Ambassadors initiative, which included 13 colleagues who had volunteered to be ambassadors from across the world and make themselves available to colleagues who wish to reach out. This initiative aims to help remove the stigma around mental health and encourage all to speak up and seek timely support.
In 2023, we expanded our Mental Health Ambassador Initiative and now have 16 Mental Health Ambassadors across different geographies. Our new ambassadors underwent a three-hour training in mental health conducted by City Mental Health Alliance (CMHA) as well as the training available on HSBC University.
Key achievements: 2023
Our commitment to DE&I and the LGBTQI+ community remains robust as we strive towards building a more inclusive environment within HSBC AM.
As part of our LGBT+ DE&I Strategy, we have two HSBC AM ManCo members who are sponsors of the LGBT+ DE&I initiatives: Xavier Baraton, HSBC AM Global CIO, and Joanna Munro, CEO of HSBC Alternatives.
The LGBTQi+ workstream has two co-chairs who along with the working members work on the following:
Our Group policies are LGBT+ inclusive:
We have fostered a growing network of allies and are actively nurturing the importance of being ‘Out’. We support colleagues by providing opportunities through the OutLeadership / OutNext nomination to connect with emerging leaders to influence, drive change and be heard.
We have partnered with LGBT Great (https://www.lgbtgreat.com/) since 2022 to broaden our strategic focus on specialised training & awareness, grooming mentors and allies, and to leverage industry insights, policies and benchmarks.
Key events and initiatives in 2023
In 2023, we have continued the implementation of our LGBTQ+ DE&I strategy. We were recognised by LGBT Great with iiBT (Inclusion Index Benchmarking Tool) Gold Standard for our best-in-class LGBTQ+ DE&I culture and practice across the financial industry.
Highlights of the initiatives in 2023 are:
Awards and Recognitions
DE&I is an important part of the ‘S’ in our ESG evaluation and engagement with companies. Social factors encompass a variety of different issues including human capital management, health and safety, and supply chain labour standards. We consider product suitability, product safety and quality, and chemical safety as well as trusted data and technology depending on the company or sector. We also look at demographics and the digital divide, as well as financial exclusion, access to healthcare, and nutrition and health. We look at a company’s gender pay gap, the percentage of women in leadership positions and the policies around diversity and inclusion. We also have AI tools to screen ESG controversies where DE&I can be captured at the company level.
In terms of incorporating DE&I into how we invest, we cover both internal work and also our engagement with external companies, as below:
Disclaimer: Engagement and voting related data is estimated and not verified. Actual figures may vary, and you should not place reliance on this data.
The Working Parents Group creates a network to provide resources and support to address the priorities of ‘working parents’ and ‘carers’ of every parenting situation and at each stage of their journey. We work together with senior leaders to engage and influence HSBC policy and culture from the top down, offering guidance and education to address different biases that impact our colleagues.
We have surveyed in Q2 2023 new parents who have been through the journey at HSBC for Parental Leave to ascertain what HSBC do well during the huge transition for new parents and what they could do better.
Parental Transition Coaching: Since 2021, we have offered Parental Transition Coaching benefit for all employees. Expectant and new parents can take part in a parental transition coaching programme, aiming to help colleagues manage their career alongside a happy home life. It consists of online resources, workshops and individually tailored 1:1 coaching with external coaches. People managers, with team members who are taking parental leave, can attend a workshop for managers too. In 2022, Parental Transition Coaching has had an uptake of c56 people across the group with Asset Management being a part of this.
Parental Leave: We have sought to support and encourage the taking of paternity leave amongst our male employees. In 2023, 11 women in HSBC AM took maternity leave and 24 men took parental leave. From 2024, we have enhanced the parental leave for men from 2 weeks to 4 weeks.
On Global Day of Parents, we also supported the #LeaveLoudly campaign, but from a parent’s perspective. At the time of year where there are sports days / school plays, we wanted to encourage parents to get to these events and tell their teams without any feelings of guilt that they are away from their desks.
The Multi-Faith workstream was established to promote freedom of thought, conscience and religion across HSBC Asset Management. Our key objective is to share knowledge about the importance and benefits of multi-faith workplace where people of different beliefs and backgrounds can work together in harmony and respect, fostering a culture of inclusion that benefits everyone. Our initiatives include promotion of religious festivals to improve multi-faith understanding and also knowledge sharing from wider HSBC Group as well as from industry.
In 2023, the multi-faith workstream has provided thought leadership content for our internal newsletter on a wide range of topics and gave a platform for AM colleagues to understand and discuss wider topics influencing our well-being and inner peace.
The Veterans workstream of AM DE&I was created in 2022 with the aim of creating a 'best of breed' hiring programme to add exceptional talent from the veteran’s community into suitable roles within HSBC Asset Management, initially within the UK.
We launched our UK Veterans Hiring Programme in 2023 and have hired our first veteran through this scheme. We aim to hire further veterans incrementally on an ongoing basis, directly into open roles across the business.
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Nicolas Moreau, Global CEO |
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Stuart White, Global Head of Strategy & UK CEO; ManCo sponsor of the DE&I programme. Member of the Advisory Board of the Industry’s Diversity Project |
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Joanna Munro ,CEO of HSBC Alternatives |
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Xavier Baraton, Global Chief Investment Officer |
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Daisy Ho, CEO Asia Pacific |
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Thorsten Michalik, Global Head of Wholesale & Partnerships |
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Nirmal Kumar, Global Head of Human Resources |
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Edmund Stokes, Global Chief Operating Officer |
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Erin Leonard, Global Head of Sustainability |
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Alan Corr, Global Chief Financial Officer |
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Matteo Pardi, Head of International Markets |
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