Approaching Diversity in Financial Services As a Small- or Mid-Sized Firm
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posted by CAPIS on 03/03/2021 at 10:28 am
by CAPIS on 03/03/2021
This article was penned by CAPIS Today, one of the best investments a financial services firm makes is in its diversity and inclusion efforts. The financial industry has been making some progress on this front, but still has a long way to go. The industry knows it needs to improve. Last year, the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services released its first report on Diversity and Inclusion, specifically looking at large banks — all 44 banks asked to participate acknowledged the need to do more. Earlier in the year, CAPIS’ Coleen Donohue spoke with Liz Whitehead and Heather Cox, co-founders of business consultancy Diversity Masterminds™, about what small- and medium-sized businesses can do to compete with large firms that have more resources to devote to D&I. They mentioned that for any business, investment in internal D&I efforts (like hiring practices), as well as external ones (like supplier diversity programs), leads to better performance of the business. We wanted to drill into that sentiment, especially since the bottom line will move even the most stubborn firm into action. The research is clear — more diverse firms do better. According to McKinsey, those companies in the top quartile for ethnic and racial…