Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE International Financial Corporation (IFC) has cited Standard Chartered Tanzania as one that implements family friendly workplace policies for working mothers to balance the demands of childcare and other responsibilities while building their career in the bank.
This was unveiled in the recent IFC report that picked Standard Chartered Tanzania’s family-friendly workplace policies and practices as a case study. It highlighted the bank’s equitable and future-forward workplace policies that champion equal opportunity for all working parents.
The IFC report, Leading Tanzanian Women in Financial Services (June 2021) found that seven of the 22 women leaders who were profiled by IFC had previously worked for Standard Chartered Tanzania.
The case study found that of the bank’s approximately 250 employees, 50 per cent are women, representing 31 per cent of senior managers and 59 per cent of the bank’s entry-level staff.
The IFC’s Regional Gender Lead for Africa, Ms Anne Kabugi, said “The results of the case study indicate that Standard Chartered Tanzania is creating a culture that supports working parents through the implementation of family-friendly workplace policies for working mothers to balance the demands of childcare and other responsibilities while building a career in the bank,” The case study also unpacks some of the key initiatives implemented by Standard Chartered to support working parents that apply to both financial and non-financial institutions.
This includes the bank’s five-month maternity leave option, which is above the country’s mandated 12-week leave. The bank also supports managers by offering training programmes and a parental leave toolkit, which are standardised across the group to help guide supervisors through the maternity leave processes.
The bank has also successfully developed a culture to nurture women leaders more broadly in the financial sector in Tanzania. The Standard Chartered Tanzania Chief Executive Officer, Sanjay Rughani said “Internal studies show that staff feel more motivated at work when they receive better support in the integration of their professional and personal lives.
These policies are part of the bank’s effort to create and sustain an environment that enables its employees and their families to succeed.” Standard Chartered Tanzania implements a ‘feeder strategy’ to retain women in leadership, resulting in 8 per cent more women than men in business roles, helping to fill a potential pipeline for future women banking leaders.
Head of Human Resources at Standard Chartered, Lilian Makau said “Working with IFC gave us fresh ideas which we can use to complement the efforts that are already in place. IFC is challenging us to continue to innovate and become even better by keeping gender on top of our mind so that we have the right policies in place”.
