Different cultures, one ambition

Diversity as strength: our bicultural approach

We want to be an organization where people can bring all their talents and feel welcome. And where they feel safe. That's why we pay extra attention to colleagues who have multiple – often two – cultural backgrounds. We call that 'bicultural'. You're bicultural if you are born outside the Netherlands, and your origins are derived from your own country of birth. Or if you were born in the Netherlands, and your origins are derived from the country of birth of your parents.

We let everyone within the bank know how important that extra attention is. And we make sure colleagues with a bicultural background can use their talents well. For example, by helping managers support them in a tailored way. Or by teaching recruiters how to write a job ad so that people with a bicultural background feel drawn to it as well. That's how we work to give everyone the same opportunities.

Setting goals and checking in

We also want more colleagues with a bicultural background in ABN AMRO’s leadership, all the way up to the board. That's why in 2018 we signed the guidelines and agreements of the Talent naar de Top foundation. In these, we agreed to hire more employees with a culture other than (just) Dutch or help them grow into higher positions. We've also tied clear goals to this agreement: by 2025 we want 9 percent of middle management to have a bicultural background. For senior management, that's 8 percent. To see if we're actually making progress, our Diversity Table checks every three months whether our plans are moving forward.

Being yourself while building your career

We support colleagues with a bicultural background in all kinds of ways on their path to the top of our organization. Besides various programs, we offer bicultural employees training like 'Cultural Leadership'. In this, you learn how to be yourself without missing out on a great next step in your career within the bank. For example, by helping you expand and strengthen your network in a large organization.

Getting better every year

People everywhere within ABN AMRO know and understand how important cultural differences are for our organization. And for our daily activities. That's why all our departments make a plan every year. It contains good ideas and clear goals on this topic and how we want to achieve them. Our Cultural Taskforce helps them with this. This is a group of colleagues who work in senior positions and have a bicultural background themselves.