NatWest’s The Village – Supporting Working Parents

What inspired the creation of The Village community, and how did you initially identify the need for this network at NatWest?

‘The Village’ community has been created to give working parents, prospective parents, and allies of working parents a place to belong. It gives them a place to learn from others that have had similar experiences, hear from industry and topic experts, build connections with mentors and buddies specifically to support them further their careers whilst raising a family. Most importantly it gives colleagues somewhere to feel heard and feel seen if things haven’t gone the way they should.

The Village came about by a few like minded colleagues realising a gap in support for (initially) mums who were getting ready to take leave, were on leave already and were returning to the business. It became clear that many parents wanted to come back and continue to progress their careers like before and the business could do a better job of enabling and empowering them to do so.

In 2023 NatWest Group launched their Partner Leave policy – this enables all parents of all genders to take 6 months fully paid leave – regardless of if their partner works for the bank or not. In its first year, more than ~1200 colleagues took advantage of the new policy and ‘The Village’ opened its doors to these colleagues as a quarterly initiative. With numbers into the hundreds now participating in the groups, ‘The Village’ has expanded into Returner coffee catch ups, face to face and virtual events run in locations across the world and has contributed to the cultural shift in the organisation that is happening as we speak – supporting the banks goal of having a Gender balanced workforce by 2030. The Village is open to all colleagues across the NatWest Group. Policies alone do not change a culture. It must be led from the top. The Village has gone straight to the top and got buy in, advocacy and vocal support to encourage colleagues to be a part of our family.

How has The Village contributed to the success of NatWest’s Partner Leave policy, and what were the key steps in implementing this policy?

We’re clear that gender equality isn’t a ‘women’s issue’, it’s about gender-balance, deconstructing social-constructs relating to traditional gender roles and ensuring equal-opportunity, hence having targets/a proactive focus on increasing the number of men in ‘traditional’ woman areas. Our Flexible Working Policy encourages all colleagues to leverage flexibility to support personal/family needs. In 2023 we introduced new Partner Leave policies (they apply regardless of a colleague’s sex/gender identity) with the same pay/leave entitlements as local Maternity/Adoption Leave policies for eligible fathers/partners to share the caring responsibilities, whether their new child has arrived through birth/adoption/surrogacy.

The Village is supporting the banks goals and has contributed to some successes. Progress:

• Board composition meets FTSE Women-Leader’s target (min 40% by 2025) and is aligned to our 50/50 ambition.
• 27% women on the Groups Executive Committee
• 41% women in our top three levels, an increase of 3% since 2021; 12% since targets set in 2015.
• Woman colleague-sentiment on inclusivity remains high (95 points); women respond consistently more favourably than men.
• Alice Cooke, one of the Co-Founders recently won the NatWest Group Gender Network Sapphire award for Championing Women. The award recognises a senior woman who champions gender equality, acting as a role model to others and leading cultural change. This person is making a significant contribution to the bank’s ambition to have a fully gender balanced workforce by 2030. Alice was chosen based on her work for ‘The Village’ and was selected by members of the Groups Executive Committee.
• We’ve seen senior buy in to ‘The Village’ – with representatives being invited by Senior Leadership to present at Department and Function meetings to audiences of 300+ at one time.
• Contributing to improvement in colleague survey scores with specific mentions of the initiative in the Engagement, Wellbeing, Connectivity and My Manager sections.

What challenges did you face in building an inclusive community for working parents across multiple locations, and how did you overcome these hurdles?

Face to face vs virtual –  We were conscious to strike a balance between a face-to-face community and a virtual community. There was a want for a face-to-face element, however we recognised this difficulties this presents in bringing together working parents face to face whilst working across numerous locations. As a community we utilised different approaches – having elements face to face and always having a virtual element to ensure anyone can join our Village. We also ran a few purely virtual to try and test which worked the best.

International aspect –  legislation differences and cultural differences: NWG is a global business and whilst the policy has been updated Group wide, local legislation and cultural differences have meant there are some nuances in some jurisdictions. Whilst we don’t want to exclude members from these communities, we are mindful of our content being relevant and accurate to those areas – whilst also challenging the Business where improvements can still be made.

Business area differences – client faces vs operational vs branch – how to navigate: True cultural change can only be led by our people. This means that there is a human aspect where different views, opinions and priorities will always be varied. Whilst we are doing all we can to change the perceptions and attitudes from the top down, culture change takes time. We also know that whilst in theory most of our people are on board and supportive of the changes, the bank and its business areas still have a job to do and all the while some of the logistical and practicality questions go answered, there will always be a blocker to implementation.

Psychological safety – how to create / maintain whilst building up and scaling: Another area for us to explore and encourage was building psychological safety across our community whilst building The Village and scaling this to ensure the community is open to all working parents. Strived to maintain balance and ensure feedback was sought to test we are creating a psychological safe space for our community. Explore areas such as do we record our events and sessions. If so, who does this get circulated too. Utilised our community to seek feedback on decision points to ensure buy in and the building of psychological safety.

Feedback loop – focus shifts based on members feedback / concerns e.g., line manager involvement, upskill and training – how to create fair and equal experiences: Maintained a consistent feedback loop through ability to be anonymous to ensure we are listening to our community and improving to meet the community’s needs. Example of this is the consistency of line manager training and how this drives different experiences for colleagues going through the working parents journey. We listened to our community and designed a specific session focusing on line manager support and hearing from our community.

Organisational politics – leadership changes, navigating, lost the advocate who launched the policy – risk that this could have been less priority: It would be remiss of us to ignore the organisational politics that any new or existing employee led networks face in 2024. The NWG went through a very public transformation in 2023 in which the Group lost its CEO. The previous CEO was a key driver in the launch of the partner leave policy and naturally there was a worry with her successor that this momentum would be lost. Thankfully, the Partner Leave policy and its predicted impact on the Group Gender Strategy has remained a priority and focus area across all business areas.

How has the introduction of line manager training supported the success of The Village, and what role do managers play in fostering an inclusive culture for working parents?

‘The Village’ has become a key part to building an inclusive workforce. It is helping drive a cultural change where parents can parent and build their careers in equal measures. ‘The Village’ has collaborated with other Employee Led Networks, such as Allied Men, Gender, Home  Life and Enable to reach parents from all walks of life.

So far in the group we have seen over ~1200 colleagues take partner leave, and the feedback has been excellent. There is still some work to be done though as anecdotally, whilst the period of leave itself is incredible, the before and after leave experiences have been inconsistent and we are still seeing pockets where colleagues aren’t having the best time. Where we get this right, confidence, and engagement soars and in turn the productivity remains high. Where we get this wrong, the opposite happens and, in some cases, we lose incredible talent across the business. To not support people through this type of leave is so short sighted – after all – what is 6 months in a career potentially spanning 20 to 30 years within the group?

Line manager training has not only given leaders the support and guidance to give people a better experience, but it gives our people the reassurance that its a collective responsibility and something the bank takes seriously. It gives line managers a safe space to ask the difficult questions, to be vulnerable in admitting that we don’t always know what to say in these times, but also the understanding and education that as humans these moments in people’s careers are ones that will stay with them forever – good and bad – and we shouldn’t underestimate a leaders impact or influence on this.

What advice would you give to other organisations looking to create similar networks for working parents or foster an inclusive culture around parental leave and support?

Listen. Then listen some more. Create a safe space where people can share experiences and you will get such a valuable insight. One of the immediate challenges people might face is the perception that these networks might be for a minority or a small population of people, or something that doesn’t impact people often – But once you scratch the surface it will soon become clear that getting this right will benefit everyone – at some point in their career.

If not themselves, but one of their colleagues or line reports. The value that working parents bring to the workplace is incredible so businesses would be foolish to ignore it. It is a really hot topic of conversation in the media, government and in the finance industry so there really isn’t a better time to start!

Looking ahead, how do you plan to evolve The Village, and what new initiatives or support measures are you considering to further enhance the experience for working parents?

Looking ahead to 2025 and onward, we have already expanded ‘The Village’ initiative to include:

• established monthly returner coffee catch ups where people who have recently come back to the business can meet others in similar positions and share experiences and advice.
• buddied up numerous leavers with more senior stakeholders who have supported colleagues before their leave and in turn those returning are having their confidence boosted by re connecting with those senior buddies to help continue where they left off.
• create a safe space for colleagues to feel connected, ask questions and seek guidance form our community using a Microsoft Teams Channel.
• established an incredible relationship with an external content provider to create engaging and supportive content that is offered free to all employees.
• run specific sessions for line managers to support them support their people.
• built-up regular communication channels with our friends in our policy and inclusion teams to ensure our voices are being heard and support positive change across NatWest Group.

Additionally, into 2025 we’re keen to:

• Maintain all our offering through ‘The Village’ maintain our current community and ensure we are reaching colleagues across NatWest that would benefit from joining ‘The Village’. We’ll focus on this through including ‘The Village’ in our colleague journeys across Natwest Group – joining the bank and going on / returning from a period of absence.
• We want to ensure colleagues take up partner leave and maternity leave across the Group and support colleagues on their journey.
• We’re looking to adapt the ‘The Village’ slightly to ensure we are supporting colleagues and fitting into their busy working days.