Diversity and inclusion at 11:FS
This year we’ve made a true commitment to double down on our D&I efforts across 11:FS, starting with a company-wide discovery phase led by Elysian, looking into the current makeup of the business and piloting a survey to dive deeper into the thoughts and opinions of our Elevens. 💭
We then brought those perceptions to life in D&I workshops hosted by Sonya Barlow, designed to create a safe and non-judgemental space for honest dialogue and reflection, developing courage and commitment to lead inclusively, disrupt exclusion and most effectively be an ally.
Through this discovery, we’ve educated ourselves, reviewed best practices in other businesses and within our industry to set our approach for the future of D&I at 11:FS.
Our mission statement
This Pride Month, we’re proud to officially publish our D&I mission statement; an ethos we’re taking with us on our journey beyond Eleven 🚀
"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."
Ultimately, we want to build an organisation where everyone feels at home in doing their best work and we’re recognising our differences as strengths.
Of course, it’s a much larger societal issue, but that means we all have a part to play. We want to create the conditions where all of us feel inspired to learn, acknowledge the differences and play an active role in shaping the future of our business and the broader community.
Guiding principles
So, what have been our guiding principles?
Practicality; we’ve looked at the 1% changes, both the processes and behaviours we can be making throughout the employee life cycle to drive greater inclusion and diversity. Although a 1% change may not sound significant, it’s the combination of all of these 1% changes which ultimately create a lasting impact on our mission.
a one-off initiative doesn’t work
There is no silver bullet; we believe a one-off initiative doesn’t work. An effective, sustainable solution covers all aspects of a company - the culture, the processes and the people.
It’s a journey, not a destination; this is an ongoing commitment to educate, listen and inspire all of our Elevens.
1% changes
As always, actions speak louder than words, and here are some examples of the 1% changes we’ve implemented since the beginning of 2021.
Attraction & recruitment
London living wage accreditation for all roles, including our internships
Applicant diversity survey in our ATS to help us understand who our applicants are and where we should be targeting to attract a more diverse talent pool
Job advert and job description review ensuring we’re using inclusive language
All hiring managers are adopting more inclusive and comprehensive interview scorecards to help reduce unconscious bias.
We’ve made a commitment to ensure that candidates are seeing diverse representation in interview panels
Relaunching our internal mobility policy which in turn helps enable social mobility
Internal interview training for all interviewers at all levels
Onboarding, education & events
Creating our internal D&I community so D&I champions can meet monthly to crowdsource ideas, discuss inspiration and oversee our D&I calendar
Implementing Donut so our Elevens can join our lunch roulette and get to know each other whilst working remotely
Showcasing our internal networks at induction including our D&I community, Wellbeing committee, Future of Work working group & our Parents & Carers network
- “Diversity Dialogues”, guest speaker lightning talks
We loved our recent e session with Marissa Ellis on Unlocking Potential With Inclusive Intelligence
- “Courageous Conversations”, showcasing internal employee experiences
Reward & recognition
We launched our Internal promotion policy promoting equal opportunities for our Elevens.
Enhanced family friendly policies
We have refreshed our reward committee and calibration process for fairness and consistency
And we’re currently underway with a full benefits review to make sure we’re meeting the needs of our team members
we’re gaining regular feedback from our employees on what’s going well and where we could be doing better
Ways of working
We’re looking at how we can make hybrid working more inclusive
Introduction of gender neutral toilets in our office
At the start of this year we launched 11:Voice, our internal employee feedback channel to ensure we’re gaining regular feedback from our employees on what’s going well and where we could be doing better in order to take action to improve the employee experience here at 11:FS.
Podcasts
Interested in exploring industry D&I content? Have a listen to some of our podcasts.
Episode 70: LGBT+ and insurance - Make no assumptions
Episode 408: Women in fintech: has anything changed?
Episode 433: Financial services community take a stand in support of Black Lives Matter
Episode 471: Klarna face backlash & Killer Mike launches a bank to support black businesses
Episode 495: The VC gender investment gap
Episode 509: Do financial assistants need a gender?
What’s next?
We have used Pride month to reflect on where we are, where we want to be, and how we get there. Whilst we’ve made huge inroads in the first 6 months of this year, we’re just getting started! We’ve committed to feeding back to our Eleven’s throughout the year on our progress with D&I on how as a business we’re performing against our vision.
Ultimately, we believe every Eleven is responsible for taking action and creating the conditions where all of us feel inspired to learn, acknowledge the differences and play an active role in shaping the future of our business and the broader community.
Interested in joining us? Head over to our vacancies page to see our open roles.
