PTSB is an equal opportunities employer committed to creating a professional environment in which our employees feel valued, included and empowered to succeed in their career, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, race, religion, ability/disability, background or life experiences.

We have made significant progress across a number of areas since the launch of our Diversity Equity & Inclusion Strategy. Actions taken particularly on gender balance include:

• We have completed a review of all of our recruitment and promotion processes with a D&I lens to ensure the avoidance of bias in these processes.
• We measure our gender gap and gender pay gap and have committed to take steps to remediate the gaps where necessary.
• We have committed to address gender inequality with community initiatives such as Balance for Better Business, the 30% Club and EY’s Triple Female Fast Forward Mentoring programme.
• The development of focused inclusive leadership development programmes that support career development.
• The promotion and role modelling of Flexible and Smart Working, such as reduced hours, home working, and compressed hours, which support enhanced flexibility and work life balance, for all colleagues.
• Establishing an Employee Resource Group “Better Balance” to act as a catalyst for  challenge around gender balance. We have worked with Better Balance to achieve all the above, but as a network they have achieved much more…

Better Balance – Our Employee Resource Group for achieving Gender Balance

To support the delivery of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy, we have set up a number of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), whose aim is to enable employees to join together based on shared characteristics or life experiences. There are currently five ERGs in place, including Better Balance, our Network for Gender Balance.

Better Balance has made significant progress in promoting gender balance and highlighting key areas of focus. Our Ambition – To be the catalyst for change in achieving Gender Balance in PTSB' is built upon three foundational pillars and aligns with the banks strategic goal of achieving 50/50 gender balance at Senior Leadership Level 2 and above by 2025.

1. By Networking, we support women in building their network internally and externally.
2. By Mentoring, we create a supportive peer network / advisory support for women.
3. In Development, we support the development of women in achieving their career goals.

To date, Better Balance has achieved / continues to achieve the following:

• 30% Club: We engage with the 30% Club (a business campaign aiming to boost the number of women in board seats and executive leadership of companies all over the world) and promote events throughout the year.
• Gender Balance: Our ERG has played a pivotal part in advocating for gender balance in leadership roles, which has seen a 50% increase in female representation at ExCo level, and with the appointment of our Chairperson Julie O’Neill we now have a gender balanced Board
• International Women’s Day (IWD) Celebrations: Every year we celebrate IWD by hosting a variety of events, this includes spotlighting our females and female leaders at every level across the Bank, providing a platform to raise their profile, share their own experiences and insights into leadership, demonstrate how they overcome challenges, manage work/life balance, and how they improve gender relations and promote gender equality.
• International Men’s Day: We also celebrate International Men’s Day and run Spotlights during the week of IMD as well as offer supports to male colleagues on a wide range of topics through communications and events.
• Development pillar: We are focussing on our development pillar bringing skills workshops to staff, creating awareness of key skills that will help in both personal and professional development of our colleagues.
• Professional Development: We organised numerous workshops and developed our ‘Female Mentorship Programme’ aimed at empowering women to boost their confidence, develop their skills and advance in their careers. To date we have facilitated over 1750+ hours of mentorship for almost 300 female colleagues through our organisation supported by 73 Mentors, 15 of whom have volunteered multiple times. At an organizational level, the Programme has created networks at both peer-to-peer and senior levels and between front and back office colleagues.
• Most recently, Better Balance won a ‘Highly Commended’ award in the category of ‘Outstanding ERG’ at the National Irish Centre for Diversity awards, a testament to all the great accomplishments we have achieved to date, and we’re not finished yet! Our Better Balance ERG is a shining example of how a dedicated group of employees can drive meaningful change within an organisation. It has created a more inclusive and equitable workplace where all employees, can advance their skills and leadership potential through connection, mentorship and collaboration, and can thrive and contribute to their best.

We encourage and hope everyone will get involved in all of the events organised by the Better Balance Network

We are really proud of all that our Better Balance Network has achieved and the progress that has been made in supporting gender balance within our organisation.

Learn more about PTSB’s wider commitment to Diversity & Inclusion HERE.