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iti developing an employee mentoring scheme case study

Organisational background

Citi is one of the most global financial services companies in the world, employing 340,000employees in over 100 countries and serving over 200 million clients. The Citi organisationhas a long and successful history and traces its activities in Europe, Middle East andAfrica back to the late 19th century. It believes strongly in the importance of reflectingmarket demographics and mirrors this in its recruitment practice. Over 98 per cent of Citis

employees are local and a key aim is to be an employer of choice recruiting the best andbrightest employees in its chosen markets.

How Citi started on the diversity journey

Citi takes diversity, equality and its corporate social responsibilities very seriously and hasdeveloped a holistic set of policies and practices aimed at developing an inclusive andsupportive environment for its entire workforce. The key activities are structured under fourareas: the employer, service provider, business partner and neighbour of choice.

Employer of choice

Activities include:

Management accountability Senior managers who are responsible for annualdiversity plans with quarterly reviews act as mentors and champions

Establishing diversity operating councils comprised of senior business and HumanResource representatives which review progress on strategy, share best practice,align policies globally and design and implement initiatives

Attracting talent from diverse backgrounds internationally through partnerships,

sponsorships with local organisations Diversity-based initiatives to raise awareness, motivate employees and develop talent

Mentoring organisation-wide 86 per cent of the Management Committee participate inmentoring relationships and over 4,600 employees have participated

A diversity-based employees network programme with a total of 36 global networks,five UK-based networks and a combined membership of over 10,000 employees

Service provider of choice

Citi believes that its diversity helps it better serve its clients. For example, in the US, Citi

markets directly to specific groups such as African-Americans through communitypartnerships, events and media promotion. It also offers free-phone customer lines in

London Development Agency 2008 - Publication date: 18/01/2013

Disclaimer: This document has been prepared for information purposes only. To the extent permitted by law, neither the publisher nor

the author accepts or assumes any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any use of or reliance on this document by recipient.

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languages including Chinese, Japanese and Korean

Business partner of choice

Citi has a well-developed supplier diversity programme that in the US has procuredservices valued at $950M from a range of minority owned business.

Citi was a founder member of Supplier Diversity Europewww.europeansupplierdiversity.com, which aims to provide strategic, practical and publicpolicy support for businesses building supplier diversity programmes in Europe

Neighbour of choice

Citi has a large number of initiatives that link to its diversity and corporate socialresponsibility agendas.

Why Citi undertook this initiative

Citi has monitored the composition of its workforce in diversity terms for several years, andin the US publishes this information annually as its Workforce Information Report. Thisreport indicates the gender and ethnicity of employees by number in nine general rolegroups.

In 2003 the companys Ethnic Minority Employee Network analysed a study entitledA2003 UK workforce study: ethnicity and demographic analysis of business segments inorder to better understand the progress of ethnic minority employees through theorganisation. A key finding was that the most difficult transition for these employees wassecuring promotion to Vice President level. The Networks analysis concluded thatemployees had a lack of understanding of the organisation and a lack of awareness ofcareer opportunities within Citi.

The Network recommended that Citi pilot a mentoring programme for employees fromethnic minority backgrounds. This became known as the Citi Roots Mentoring Programme.

Implementation steps

The key stages in the development of the Citi Roots Mentoring Programme were:

Stage 1: Planning and preparation

In January 2004, Citi Roots presented the findings of the workforce study to seniormanagement and made recommendations including:

Creating a bespoke Mentoring Programme by building a working partnership betweenthe Citi Training Department and the network

Facilitating the resources required to plan and launch the pilot programme, byallocating an internal advisor to the network

Controlling logistics and administration by forming a Task Team of volunteers from CitiRoots

Ensuring the project deliverables were met by using two Task Team Leaders (Senior

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Managers) to liaise with the Training Department and the Diversity Office

Stage 2: Developing aims and goals

The Network developed a strategy based on the findings from the report. With the supportof the Diversity Office, the Network was able to put forward a credible business proposal to

the Senior Management Diversity Committee Citi Difference (which consisted of the CEOfor Europe, Middle East and Africa and nine Business Heads). The Network secured therequired funding and support to run the programme.The aims of the programme focussed on:

Enhancing the personal and professional development of employees from minorityethnic communities, through the guidance of a network of mentors operating at seniorlevels

Leveraging the business experience and expertise of mentors

Strengthening an open, supportive and inclusive culture and building a two-waycommunication channel between mentee and mentor

Stage 3: Designing the programme

A six-month programme was designed that consisted of a number of activities:

Mentees being matched with an appropriate Mentor

A mandatory half day induction for both mentor and mentees

A Myers-Briggs Type Indicator workshop (Myers-Briggs is one of the worlds most

used tools for understanding basic personality types) A Personal Effectiveness training session

A Time Management training course

Networking breakfast with other mentees, sponsored by the Networks businesssponsor

Provision of support by the Learning and Development Team, who ran sessions for theprogramme on days when they were not scheduled to lead in house training days

Stage 4: Communicating and piloting the programme

The Network piloted the programme in June 2004 with 22 mentor/mentee relationships.Launching the pilot programme required an investment of time by a number of people,however:Finding supportive mentors was the easiest challenge to overcome. The Network hadmanaged to gain senior management support, and credibility, for example only one emailwas sent to request experienced mentors to step forwardThe administration of the programme was carried out voluntarily by senior network staff intheir own timeThe implementation of the programme was structured to be low maintenance for allinvolved with a minimum need for communication

A number of stakeholders were identified, each with different roles on the programme:

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Network Business Sponsor (Operating Committee member); leading as a fullysupportive role model

Citi Roots

The Training team; offering professional advice, design and production of relevantworkbooks

Line managers; engaging and gaining support and understanding for the programme,enabling employees to take time out during the working day to complete the training

Prospective mentors; whose valuable time, energy and understanding of issuespertinent to minority ethnic employees was imperative to the programmes success

Prospective mentees; who self-selected themselves onto the Programme

Based on the feedback from participants the pilot was deemed a success.

Stage 5: Developing the programme and ensuring sustainability

The programme was then set up to run annually and in 2005 and 2006 a further twenty

mentor/mentee relationships were established. In June 2007 the fourth and currentprogramme commenced.

In order to ensure that the programme was sustainable and supported the needs ofparticipants, the programme was reviewed at the end of each year, taking on boardparticipants feedback. The Network developed a guide booklet, showing the processesrequired to launch and maintain a Mentoring programme. The guide has beensubsequently shared with other networks who have then implemented their ownprogrammes.

Outcome

The impressive results of the programme are shown below. The progress of mentors isalso shown because Citi believe that it is important to highlight the benefits that theindividuals have gained from being part of the programme. The learning and sharingaspect of the relationships formed was very much a two way communication flow.

From the 2004 pilot:

Five mentors were promoted to Managing Director (MD) roles

Five mentees were promoted to Vice Presidents One overseas assignment to New York

From the 2005 programme:

Three mentors were promoted to MD roles

Three mentees were promoted

One overseas assignment to Geneva

Currently, from the 2006 programme:

One mentor promotion to an MD role

One mentee promotion

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Feedback from participants has been extremely positive and constructive, and hasenabled the programme to continually improve. The Citi Roots Network and theorganisation are also pleased with the results and see the programme as an establishedpart of the development activities for talented ethnic minority employees.

Citi believe that the success to date was largely due the detailed preparation that precededthe launch of each programme, and the motivation and commitment shown by programmeparticipants (both mentors and mentees) and its managers.

Commentary

This unique employee-driven initiative enables the transfer of the skills and experiencefrom senior employees to more junior employees. Mentoring programmes are common inmany organisations, and the key differences of the Citi approach is not only that it grewfrom the motivation the employees but also that it was accepted and supported by senior

management. The fact that in only three years, 30 per cent of the Citi participants havebeen promoted demonstrates that it provides a valuable tool to support Citi to develop itsunder-represented employees groups.

Feedback from mentees

The programme is an excellent way to gain an understanding about different areas of thebank

My mentor gave me useful, pragmatic, impartial advice

My mentor was sympathetic to issues that affect someone from an ethnic minoritybackground

Feedback from mentors

My mentee was very engaged and determined to develop

The Mentoring Handbook was a useful starting point for understanding the goals ofmentoring

This was a very positive experience, and I learned from my mentee

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