Trailblazers: award-winning diversity and inclusion at Nationwide
Over the past couple of years, Nationwide Internal Audit (NIA) has made great strides in improving the diversity of its team and influencing diversity improvements across the wider organisation. Not only have the internal audit function’s own diversity metrics improved significantly, but it has also supported Nationwide’s focus on the challenges facing the organisation’s ethnically diverse colleagues and those with disabilities and long-term conditions.
These efforts won the team the Audit & Risk Award for Outstanding Contribution by Internal Audit to Enabling an Organisation to Gain Opportunities from its Diversity and Inclusion Agenda. Judges were impressed by the depth and breadth of the diversity initiatives that NIA has introduced, the metrics it has put in place to measure success, and the way in which it has supported and influenced change more widely.
The impetus behind the drive for better inclusion and diversity in the internal audit team began with the pandemic and the challenges of trying to recruit staff in 2020 and 2021. NIA saw introducing hybrid and flexible working approaches as an opportunity to appeal more widely to attract a more diverse pool of candidates to the team.
It therefore decided to capitalise on this by committing itself to receiving diverse candidate shortlists, introducing new online tests and piloting initiatives to advertise job vacancies differently. They sought advice and help from Evenbreak, an organisation that helps disabled candidates to seek employment with inclusive employers.
In addition, NIA redesigned its key people processes, introducing unconscious bias training for all hiring managers as well as scheduling regular team sessions to explore the importance of inclusion and diversity.
Members of the team were enthusiastic about the changes and the outcomes exceeded initial targets. Around 30 per cent of NIA are recent joiners. The number of women in senior positions has risen from 37.5 per cent to 41.7 per cent, while the proportion of ethnically diverse colleagues in the internal audit team has increased from 11.8 per cent to 17.6 per cent. The number of people who have declared that they have disabilities has risen from just 2.2 per cent to 10.2 per cent in the past year, and declarations of LGBTQIA+ status have shifted from 0 per cent to 1.9 per cent.
These figures, they say, show what they have already achieved and, even more importantly, where there is scope for further development.
The NIA’s experimental approach – based on learning what works and adapting what doesn’t – has helped to improve the “human experience” at Nationwide, according to Janice Byrne, audit director strategy & operations and NIA inclusion partner. She believes that the team’s commitment to becoming more inclusive and providing opportunities for everyone has resulted in consistently high colleague engagement scores and a strong culture that is itself attracting more diverse talent.
Leading by example
“Nationwide’s inclusion and diversity mission is to build an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive and for our society to reflect the diversity of the wider communities we serve,” she says.
This requires an organisation-wide approach to action and making leaders and teams across different communities fully accountable for taking action. “Through our monthly strategic inclusion and diversity action group, we share what is and isn’t working with other teams across the organisation, sharing what’s having an impact and working together to resolve challenges,” Byrne says.
Importantly, NIA has led by example. “We brought our philosophy of ‘inclusion first’ to life using new approaches and thinking differently. Our proactive approach and willingness to share and collaborate with others has helped teams across the organisation to act,” she explains. She believes that this is important to ensure that Nationwide as an organisation constantly evolves to meet the demands of the world as it is now and as it will be in future.
The team has also highlighted other ways in which its inclusion and diversity initiative has led to benefits. Chief among these, says Byrne, is a “mindset shift”. “We have prioritised inclusion and diversity as a key benefit to the team and ensured that everyone understands why an inclusive and diverse culture is so important,” she explains.
This has been complicated by the fact that not everyone is currently working in the office. “We have made great efforts to ensure colleagues can see and hear each other, feel supported, and share experiences. We have also made sure that training can be provided to everyone at home, in the office or in a hybrid environment,” she adds.
Culture and education
Culture, education and awareness lie at the heart of the whole initiative. Working closely with Nationwide’s people and culture team, NIA first improved the way in which inclusion and diversity data is collected, stored and accessed. This enables the team to monitor and report progress monthly.
It also launched cultural assessment surveys aligned to Nationwide’s values, which include a commitment to empower everyone in the organisation to achieve their potential. NIA’s performance goals for the team now include a specific inclusion and diversity goal, which encourages collective responsibility for attracting and retaining an inclusive and diverse team.
Specific investment in training included hiring specialist support to enable three NIA team members to become “healthy mind champions” (HMC). Sessions held throughout the year raise the team’s awareness of important topics such as mental health, the menopause and sexism. Feedback on these sessions has been positive and has led to ideas and suggestions for subsequent events and related developments.
Tone from the top
NIA’s team leaders are convinced that the key to their diversity and inclusion initiative’s success has been a strong “tone from the top” and they have promoted this at organisational level. Steve Evenden, Nationwide’s chief internal auditor, is the executive sponsor for the organisation’s disability employee network, ENABLE. He has also used opportunities to speak out about racism and has actively encouraged colleagues to support Nationwide’s ethnicity employee network.
Evenden says NIA conducts regular talent discussions with senior leaders to ensure they recognise the importance of encouraging, mentoring, developing and supporting junior colleagues from diverse backgrounds. The team has launched a mentor programme to support these efforts and is currently engaged in an external project to seek work placement opportunities for 1,000 black interns in the organisation this year. Working with Whizz-Kidz, the UK’s leading charity for young wheelchair users, it is also planning work experience opportunities for young people with physical disabilities.
One recent joiner, audit manager Shellon Rodney, has been impressed with the hands-on approach NIA has taken to promote inclusion and diversity. “It’s evident that NIA has risen to the organisation’s inclusion and diversity challenge. NIA has proactively engaged with the organisation’s employee network groups to have, and learn from, open and honest conversations about inclusion and diversity,” she says.
She points to the ways in which NIA has recognised the importance of turning those conversations into tangible actions – piloting initiatives, challenging internal processes and getting involved personally in broader organisational opportunities, such as the organisation’s ethnicity network Race Together Reciprocal Mentoring programme.
“Internal audit is committed to championing inclusion and diversity through agitating and accelerating change, continuously learning and reimagining the work environment,” she says.
Continuing the journey
But there is still more to be done. Evenden says that, while he is delighted with the success of NIA’s efforts, these are “only the first part of a long, continuous journey”. He argues that there is no excuse for any organisation not to try to be more inclusive or diverse.
“Employers are simply losing out if they fail to tap into skills and experience by not trying to recruit more broadly from society,” he points out.
“NIA has made massive progress in improving our diversity, creating an inclusive culture and celebrating difference, and it’s great that internal audit is seen to be leading the rest of the organisation in its approaches to diversity and inclusion,” he says.
“Diversity equips an internal audit team with the ability to consider fully and challenge a business risk or process from different angles and perspectives. This is why internal audit should be at the forefront of the inclusion and diversity agenda. The fact that there is a mainstream corporate focus on the topic is an opportunity for internal audit functions to share their experiences and celebrate their successes,” he says.
Evenden points out that the timing of the award coincided with the arrival of the new CEO, Debbie Crosbie. “It was therefore a positive experience, and an insight into her own values and views on inclusion and diversity, to see her message the internal audit leadership that same evening immediately after hearing the news of the award to congratulate us on our success,” he says.
In the future, Evenden says the team will continue to encourage more inclusion and diversity initiatives to improve NIA’s skills and to attract and retain talent. “We recognise there’s more to do,” he says. “A particular focus will be to seek more visible role models in all aspects of diversity as we move into a post-pandemic and hybrid working future.”
“Obviously, it’s been fantastic to be recognised with an award, and to have a reminder in the office of our achievement is an inspirational acknowledgement of the work we have all done, and the work we all still need to do,” says Evenden.
“Our community is a small one within Nationwide, but we reach far and wide both internally and within the profession and so we will continue to champion the causes in all spheres of our work.”
View from the audit committee chair
Phil Rivett, audit committee chair
“I am very impressed with how internal audit leads the way and seeks to role model the behaviours and attitudes required to achieve an inclusive and diverse culture. The leadership team recognise the importance of diversity and how this helps the internal audit team to be a better and more inclusive function. They embrace different views, actively seeking out alternative ideas and inviting contributions from the whole team. The diversity statistics tell a great story and I’m confident that the internal audit team will continue to push for not only a more diverse function, but also support the drive across the whole organisation.”
This article was published in November 2022.