We know we have work to do to get our company to the point where we can look at ourselves and know that this is a place where everybody feels valued and capable of reaching their full potential.
With nearly 73,000 employees working in around 50 countries and representing 141 nationalities, not only do we have the size to deliver at scale, but, with the variety of perspectives and experiences we have, we are able to provide breadth of expertise. Teams with diversity in gender, race, age, ethnicity, educational background, sexual orientation, gender identity and other factors better understand and relate to our equally diverse clients’ needs. Client landscapes evolve, responding to systemic and social transformation. The face of wealth is changing and clients need tailored advice responsive to their individual circumstances. Diversity of thought, opinion and experience help us make better decisions and be more innovative in offering solutions to our clients. In the same way, an inclusive work environment attracts highly talented people and makes this a better place to work for everyone.
Our employee population is spread across four regions: the Americas; Europe, Middle East and Africa; Switzerland; and Asia Pacific. Although Switzerland is our headquarters, we are a multinational financial institution – a truly global firm. Still, we are an integral part of the Swiss economy and broader society – not only as a leading universal bank, but also as the third-largest private employer and one of the top taxpayers.
Increasing gender diversity
One of the highest near-term priorities on our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) agenda is increasing gender diversity at UBS. We have a clear mandate to hire, promote and retain more women across the firm, especially in management roles, and have set an aspiration to increase the representation of women at Director level and above to 30 percent by 2025. We are a signatory to the UN-backed Women’s Empowerment Principles and the UK government’s Women in Finance Charter. Our award-winning Career Comeback program is instrumental in increasing our pipeline of female senior leaders. Since its launch in 2016, the program has helped 183 professionals restart their careers.
Our objective for gender diversity isn’t limited to our employees alone – we also want to provide excellent advice and better client offerings to women. Through our client and financial advisors, we partner with women in making decisions about their wealth, especially when it comes to long-term investing, so they can feel confident about the future and about their money today. We want to create an industry-leading experience for female clients by offering advice beyond investing, creating opportunities for women to connect and be more involved in financial decisions. We also explore ways people can use their wealth to empower women to promote gender equality.
More about our workforce
More about our workforce
Real talk across UBS
In addition to gender representation within our workforce, we focus on broader aspects to diversity, including ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability, veterans and mental health. Inclusive leadership and increased representation of diverse-heritage employees have both become more imperative in recent years.
We are taking a country-by-country approach to address the topic of ethnic diversity, in close collaboration with relevant business and jurisdictional entities. We have a number of culture, race and ethnicity-focused employee networks across UBS, MOSAIC being one example. In 2020, MOSAIC led a series of virtual “Real Talk” conversations in the US, the UK and Switzerland, encouraging our colleagues from diverse ethnic backgrounds to share their personal experiences as a first step to accelerating understanding and change within the organization. More than 6,000 employees participated, tuning into at least one of the talks.
Racism is an issue worldwide, and the events in the US in 2020 sparked renewed focus on racial disparities and discrimination along with urgent calls for a fairer and more equitable future. For a company like UBS – one with a powerful brand and the ability to influence change – we recognize our responsibility to support that vision, by driving accountability, being transparent and remaining focused on meeting our race and ethnicity aspirations.
Maintaining engagement and open dialog at all levels of the firm are key to a positive, evolving organization. And so is recognizing that the current status quo isn’t acceptable. We are open about our goals and the progress so far, reporting on race / ethnicity and gender metrics. As Tom Naratil, Co-President Global Wealth Management and President Americas, said, “We know we have work to do to get our company to the point where we can look at ourselves and know that this is a place where everybody feels valued and capable of reaching their full potential.”
It is the actions and deeds of every one of us to support all of our DE&I initiatives on a daily basis that can and will make a difference. This is a call to action.
2025 ambitions for gender and ethnic diversity
2025 ambitions for gender and ethnic diversity
Other interesting content
Other interesting content
