Free to be who you are

Believing and doing

'Change the world, starting with yourself.' We take that saying very seriously at ABN AMRO. First, by making the culture within the bank more LGBTIQ+* friendly. As a bank with a social role, we do this by having a clear policy on this topic.

For example, we support the national and international LGBTIQ+ community. We've also signed the Amsterdam Declaration, drawn up by the international LGBTIQ+ platform Workplace Pride. This organisation wasn't founded to make money. It was founded to make sure LGBTIQ+ people are welcome in the workplace. And treated exactly like any other colleague.

We've been a supporter of the United Nations (UN) Standards of Conduct since 2018. That same year, we signed the LGBTIQ+ Manifesto for the Sustainable Development Goals, also drawn up by the UN.

Additionally, ABN AMRO was a sponsor again this year of the Pink Film Days in Amsterdam: with 152 films from forty countries, it’s the largest LGBTIQ+ film festival in the Netherlands. We're also a (main) sponsor of the Amsterdam Dinner and the Pink Zuidas Drinks. At these events, employees from different companies come together to celebrate diversity and inclusion.

By doing all these things, ABN AMRO doesn’t just talk about diversity and inclusion. We show how important we find these topics.

* including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer

PRIDE+ network

ABN AMRO employees have organised themselves into multiple networks. One of them is PRIDE+. This network has about four hundred members. Just like ABN AMRO, they believe our bank should be an organisation where everyone can be completely themselves – whoever you're attracted to or however you identify. PRIDE+ organises all kinds of events at the bank. For example, around International Coming Out Day, Queer & Pride Amsterdam and the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Measuring success

As an employer, we want to know if our employees get the freedom to be themselves. And if they think we're taking enough steps on this. That's why we carry out regular surveys that ask LGBTIQ+ colleagues several questions. For example, whether they've ever experienced anything unpleasant, simply because of who they are and who they are attracted to. Naturally, the colleagues can decide for themselves whether to answer the questions or not.

So we research ourselves, but other organisations also do research into ABN AMRO. Their results also show that we're an LGBTIQ+ friendly organisation. But we don't think that's enough. That's why we also regularly check our LGBTIQ+ policy against the Workplace Pride Global Benchmark. This is an online tool that helps employers measure and improve their LGBTIQ+ policy and actions. By doing this, we find out how we score as a company on this topic. And we find out what more we can do – or can do differently.