The Way We Do Things Here
'T' Ain't What You Do, It's The Way That You Do It - Ella Fitzgerald
At Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks we believe that how we go about our business is just as important as what we do, sometimes more so. That's why the way we do things is clearly articulated for our people in our Corporate Principles, Leadership Model, Core Competencies, and Brand Values.
These set out what we expect from our people, and what our people can expect from us when it comes to working together to give our customers the best possible experience.
Part of this is about constantly looking for ways in which we can improve both what we do and how we do it.
There is a better way for everything. Find it. - Thomas A Edison
Our organisational commitment to becoming better at what we do means that we have a culture of continuous improvement across all of our teams. We do this using a method called Lean Sigma.
Lean helps us to identify efficiency improvements in our processes and work areas. As a result we can focus on improving our customers' experiences in dealing with us, and our people's experiences of working for us - which in turn helps us achieve our goals for future growth.
There are a number of aspects within Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) all of which we take very seriously. Here are some examples of what we do:
People are at the very heart of our business and our aim is to satisfy their financial needs at all stages of their lives - whether this is as a customer or an employee. To help us achieve this, our business actively supports local communities.
We provide support to the local community through our Corporate Community Investment (CCI) programmes. Our primary focus is to improve the basic skills of financial literacy and numeracy. We have two key programmes running in schools; the award winning Count Me In, a pre school numeracy programme, and Count & Grow which focuses on improving maths skills of primary school children.
We have a charity partner that we work closely with, and we encourage our employees to engage with them in fund raising activities for example running in the Flora London Marathon.
This partnership has been a great success, raising over £500,000 in 2007. We also have a payroll giving programme, launched in May 2006, with 11% of employees currently participating (more than any other bank on the high street).
We believe that we have an important role to play in managing our environmental footprint. We are committed to positively influence the long-term sustainability of the communities in which we operate and to educate our people to help us in achieving this.
In support of our global commitment to be Carbon Neutral by 2010, all energy is now purchased from Climate Levy Exempt sources. Smart Boxes are also being rolled out across the property network to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption.
If you want to know more about our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, you'll find our CSR pages here.
We believe it is important that our employees reflect the communities in which we work and live and here are just a few examples of how we are achieving this:
- In the last 12 months we have recruited 7% ethnic minorities against an average population in Scotland of 8% and in the UK of 9%.
- We are a "Two Tick" employer meaning an interview is guaranteed for all disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for any of our roles.
- We have diversity champion status from Stonewall showing our commitment to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender employees.
- We encourage employees to find ways to work more flexibly to aid work/life balance. This helps employees with caring responsibilities as well as those who wish to pursue further education, charitable/voluntary work or other outside interests.
It's not all about money!
There are a number of Reward and Recognition programmes running in different parts of the organisation. These are designed to: celebrate success, recognise contribution, innovation, improving processes to name but a few.
