A snapshot of diversity and inclusion at 11:FS in 2021
Continuous improvement is a huge focus at 11:FS. We’re always looking for the 1% improvements and 10x ideas (and everything in between) that will drive us forwards.
Whether it’s on an industry, company, team or individual level, spotting areas to develop is always on our minds. So how are we moving the needle on diversity and inclusion? I’m proud to have been a driving force in our D&I activities since I joined the 11:FS team. We’ve made great strides in our policies, education and communications on this front.
Back in July 2021 we committed to sharing updates with our Elevens throughout the year on our D&I progress and how we were performing against our vision. It’s super important to live by our values of communication, transparency and impact. By having open and honest conversations, we can hold ourselves accountable.
It’s super important to live by our values of communication, transparency and impact.
Part of this is having a diversity and inclusion statement:
Our clients and the customers we serve come from all walks of life and so should we. We’re passionate about hiring amazing, talented people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we believe we have an important role to play in shaping the future of our industry .
We firmly believe that a diverse team, where perspectives are valued, leads to richer experiences for our Elevens and better outcomes for our clients and us.
We recognise that diverse companies are more innovative, and to unleash talent we must create an environment where our Elevens feel safe, welcome, supported and valued.
In line with our commitment to the business, we took some time to report back on what we’d achieved in 2021. We also gave our Elevens the low-down on our current makeup and some goals that we’d like to achieve in 2022. We wanted to use this article to share this with you as well.
Our breakdown
In September 2021, we launched our Self-ID initiative. This encouraged our employees to share their dimensions of diversity with us so that we could gain a better understanding of what makes our team unique.
It was really helpful for us to have visibility of our current makeup as a business and areas where we’re under-represented when compared to the London average, where 11:FS is based.
Here are the results:
Figures rounded up to nearest whole number
Currently we sit at 61% male, 36% female, 1% non-binary, 1% transgender and 2% did not disclose.
Figures rounded up to nearest whole number
Currently we are 78% White, 8% Mixed/Multiple ethnic group, 8% Asian or Asian British, 6% Black, African, Caribbean or Black British and have 15 different nationalities across our team.
We wanted to highlight that we’ve doubled the number of people who come from mixed or multiple ethnic groups over the past 6 months by taking our time and actively curating diverse talent pools featuring a range of people from various backgrounds. Nearly 30% of our 2021 joiners have come from minority backgrounds.
However, we’re currently under-indexing on both Black employees (6% vs London Average 13%) and Asian Employees (8% vs London Average 18%).
Figures rounded up to nearest whole number
As of January 2022, the sexual orientation breakdown of our Elevens was: 79% heterosexual/straight, 3% bisexual, 2% gay man, 3% gay woman, 1% prefer to self-describe and 13% did not disclose.
Throughout 2022, we intend on focusing on how we can attract and retain candidates from multiple genders as well as both Asian or Asian British backgrounds and those from Black, African, Caribbean or Black British backgrounds. We know this is a challenge that needs to be addressed at an industry-wide level and we believe we have a role to play in raising awareness and inspiring people from minority backgrounds to pursue a career in fintech.
We have 15 different nationalities within our team, although 80% of our team are British.
So, why are we telling you this?
We think it’s super important to be open and honest about our diversity makeup, and what we’re doing to build on this and make 11:FS the most diverse and inclusive environment that it can be for all of our amazing Elevens.
Over the past year we’ve taken steps to make sure everyone is represented here at 11:FS by setting up our first ever D&I community who meet monthly. It’s important that our culture continues to be inclusive for all walks of life.
It’s important that our culture continues to be inclusive for all walks of life.
During 2021 we:
Invested in upgrading our recruitment platform so we can gain much deeper insights into who our applicants are and where we should be targeting our recruitment channels to attract a more diverse talent pool.
Refreshed our recruitment rituals, making improvements to our language in job descriptions, implementing scorecards and diverse interview panels.
Launched our internal mobility policy to create a fair and consistent approach to career growth at 11:FS, and our talent reviews ensure we’re continually supporting the growth of our Elevens.
Became a signatory of the Tech Talent Charter so that we can both learn from others and share our approaches to greater diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.
- Created some great internal initiatives ranging from our wellbeing committee to our internal D&I community. A personal favourite of mine is our Diversity Dialogues speaker sessions and some of my favourites talks have included:
Uche Ezichi covering All Of Us Are Better Than Some Of Us
The Power of Allies with Jenna Howieson
Outshining your inner imposter with Sarah Vang Nohr
And an #iamremarkable workshop with our very own Aga Oakes
Neurodiversity at work with Theo Smith
Where our focuses will be in 2022
While we’re proud of the foundations we laid in 2021, we’re keen to keep the momentum and continue on our journey of making 1% improvements.
We don’t believe setting quotas is the right approach to diversity and inclusion, as we don’t want anyone to feel like they’ve been hired to hit a target. The people at 11:FS are what makes it such a great place to work - and we want everyone here to feel welcomed and a true part of the team. So we’ll be aiming to have the most diverse pipeline of candidates possible for true representation throughout our interview process, and we’ll continue to bring in more talented individuals from varying walks of life.
We’ll be focusing on increasing representation within our teams, actively looking to have teams with more blended backgrounds. Through outreach events as well as partnering with organisations whose values align with our own, we’ll be proactively sourcing candidates to make sure we’re attracting and encouraging a range of applicants to apply to work here at 11:FS.
We also want to provide our Elevens with as many learning opportunities throughout the year as possible with diversity and inclusion in mind. We’ve planned sessions on inclusive leadership and as we navigate the new world of hybrid working, we want to ensure our culture evolves too. We’re currently mapping out other training sessions we can run throughout the year, with February’s focus on neurodiversity.
We also want to provide our Elevens with as many learning opportunities throughout the year as possible with diversity and inclusion in mind.
We’ve had time to reflect on not only the progress we’ve made in 2021 but where we can also improve. We’ll continue to monitor our internal makeup each year to hold ourselves accountable and really track how we’re improving. We’re committed to moving the needle on this important issue and I’m looking forward to sharing our progress over the course of this year.