Creating an environment where everyone can contribute

“To me, diversity and inclusion means that there are no barriers to what you can do. So, you don’t feel limited, and you’re supported in doing what you do. I never feel restricted in doing what I want to do and being the best I can be.” They’re the words of Greta Streimikyte, who holds a Masters of Business Administration from DCU and works in AIB’s European leveraged finance unit. She also happens to be a visually impaired, and a full-time middle-distance runner of Lithuanian descent who has represented Ireland in two Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.

She joined AIB two years ago through Sports Ireland’s sports support network and uses a magnifier to help her do her work.

AIB, as an inclusive and diverse place to work, has not only supported her in her running career, which requires a six-day-a-week training schedule, but has also developed her career through constant learning and variety, she adds.

“AIB has been incredibly supportive. As a visually impaired person they’ve really adapted to me, and as an athlete they allow me to work reduced hours. All the time I’m working and learning in the field of corporate finance as a sales and service adviser. From a diversity perspective, everything here feels so natural. The bank hasn’t put any constraints on me. They allow me to feel like I can do anything, both in my work and in my running. That’s the most important thing and that’s what I feel in AIB.”

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She believes diversity is very important to an organisation. “In our team we have people from different countries. It’s so nice to hear their accents. We then get talking and we share our differences and experiences. Being raised in different ways brings new ideas and perspectives to the business, and you learn from your colleagues. Everyone brings something to the table.”

AIB is the first bank to receive the Gold Investors in Diversity mark from the Irish Centre for Diversity, as well as being the largest of only seven companies in Ireland to achieve the standard.

“We are delighted to achieve external recognition of our work over a number of years to build a culture in AIB where inclusion is a universal experience for all our people,” says AIB chief people officer Geraldine Casey. “Our strategy not only takes gender, race, family status and other traditional diversity areas into account, but also adopts a contemporary view to create an environment where everyone feels that they can contribute.

“We know that if we want AIB to be an inclusive workplace, our people have to see an inclusive workplace,” she adds. “That’s why we have run campaigns to highlight stories that some of our colleagues have shared with us of their personal experience of inclusion in AIB. This encourages our colleagues to become allies to ensure that everyone is treated with fairness, dignity and respect. And it’s why we support our people with a year-round programme of educational and engagement events, encompassing a wide variety of topics such as mental health awareness, menopause and inclusive leadership training.”

The bank’s sustained progress on promoting gender balance at all levels of the organisation was recognised in the 2021 European Diversity Index, which rated AIB number one in Ireland and 11th in Europe among 668 publicly listed companies across the EU. The 2021 Equileap Gender Equality Global Report also found AIB to be one of only 10 companies out of a total 3,702 researched, that achieved gender balance at all four levels considered – board of directors, executive, senior management and workforce.

AIB has also supported community projects such as the Impact Hub@Crann, Ireland’s first inclusive remote working hub for people with disabilities and, in partnership with TU Dublin, launched Ireland’s first entrepreneurship programme for people with disabilities. The bank is currently welcoming apprentices under a new programme of on-the-job training and skills development.

“Overall, we aim to cultivate a respectful culture that embraces difference and supports our people in achieving a sustainable work-life balance while navigating various life stages,” Casey adds. “Supporting our people with progressive family leave policies to ensure that our working parents have the support they need as they grow their families is a critical element of this. AIB has consistently offered parents’ leave on a full-pay basis for employees since its introduction in 2019 and recently, we extended our parents’ leave offering to seven weeks’ fully paid leave during the precious first two years of a child’s life.”

This is part of AIB’s efforts to ensure it has the right supports in place at all stages of parenthood. “With this in mind, we have enhanced our family leave offering to include the alignment of surrogacy leave to our current maternity leave policy, and the introduction of 10 days’ paid leave for colleagues undergoing fertility treatments and two days for their partners,” says Casey.

“In addition, to support our colleagues who suffer the trauma of pregnancy loss, we provide compassionate leave that also extends to partners and surrogate parents. We want to ensure we are proactively creating a culture that keeps the wellbeing of our people to the forefront, helping our people to thrive personally and professionally.”

Inclusion and diversity are never done, she adds. “As an organisation and as people we need to ensure we keep learning, to keep challenging ourselves to ensure we are as inclusive as possible. If we are, that’s good for our people, good for our customers and good for our business.”