The power to settle financial complaints.
The power to settle financial complaints.
As a public-service provider, a statutory body and an employer, the Financial Ombudsman Service is fully committed to the fair and equal treatment of everyone we deal with.
We see diversity as an asset that helps deliver our vision of a service meeting the needs of all our customers and stakeholders – irrespective, for example, of gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, belief or socio-economic background.
We aim to meet the needs of our customers and stakeholders by:
We work towards an equality standard in the provision of our services – to help us identify and overcome barriers that may prevent potential customers from accessing our services or may work to the detriment of those customers who are already using our service.
This has included an action plan to ensure our approach to diversity and equality remains relevant to the changing needs of our customers and stakeholders. Having completed this action plan a year early, we have had our work independently monitored and our progress assessed.
This is part of our commitment to regular reviews of our initiatives and actions in relation to diversity and equality. We recently received accreditation as a 'gold standard' diversity assured organisation by Committed 2 Equality, in recognition of our positive work culture and commitment to provide equal access to all our customers.
In drawing up our equality and diversity policy, our equality standard and our action plan, we have taken into account the work we also carry out as part of our commitment to accessibility and outreach.
We are fully committed to treating everyone fairly and equally.
As an equal opportunities employer, we recognise that equality and diversity are positive attributes, and we understand and welcome the difference that an open and diverse culture brings.
... as a free, independent service for consumers, we help people from all backgrounds – and all parts of the community – to settle complaints they might have with their bank, insurance company or finance firm.
We want the people we employ – and our work culture – to reflect and value the diversity of our customers. We’re also fully committed to helping all our people fulfil their potential – with first-class training and outstanding opportunities for career development.
By doing the right thing by everyone we deal with, by being committed to fairness, and by respecting difference – we believe we can offer a service we can be proud of.
Natalie Ceeney, chief ombudsman
Our equality and diversity policy covers all areas of our responsibilities as an employer – including recruitment, promotion, training, performance management, pay and benefits.
We will provide equality and diversity training to all employees to help them:
We expect each of our employees to help us meet our commitment to creating a positive, diverse culture, by upholding this policy.
The average age of people working at the ombudsman service is currently 35 – with employees ranging from 18 to 72 years old. Across our workforce as a whole, 54% are male and 46% female. Women account for 50% of our non-executive board, 56% of our executive team and 46% of our panel of ombudsmen. 17% of our employees are from non-white ethnic minority backgrounds.
As part of our outreach work with communities and consumers who use our service less, we promote not only our work as a leading dispute-resolution body but also our role as an employer committed to diversity and equality. This work has included, for example:
Our diversity and equality training for our employees has included running a disability-awareness event, in partnership with five charities, for all our staff and our board directors.
We publish information in our annual review about the kinds of consumers who use the ombudsman service – including demographic and socio-economic details, as well as information about customer diversity.
Our annual review each year also contains an overview of the work we have done to champion equality and diversity – and to make this an essential part of how we provide our service to all our customers.