Stanbic Bank – Banking on Inclusion!
“At Stanbic, we believe that our purpose is to see Uganda grow. That growth has to be sustainable, meaningful and inclusive.” David Mutaka, Head of People and Culture at Stanbic Bank head office, shares the bank’s journey in promoting disability inclusion.
While significant strides had been taken in the inclusion of other disadvantaged groups, Stanbic Bank noted a gap around the inclusion of persons with disabilities. “We had a lot of great intentions and desires, but we were not able to get off the ground and we struggled.”
Stanbic Bank contacted Light for the World Uganda which prompted the bank’s interest in, and subsequent membership in the Uganda Business and Disability Network (UBDN) in 2021. The UBDN is an employer-led network in Uganda that works toward creating workplaces and company culture that is respectful and inclusive toward persons with disabilities, promoting their hiring, retention, and professional development. Member companies benefit from technical support on disability inclusion from Light for the World through the Make 12.4% Work initiative, as well as peer-to-peer support and networking opportunities with other companies on issues relating to diversity and inclusion in their workplaces.
Members of different companies, including Stanbic Bank show their UBDN charter forms they signed after the 2021 Career Fair.
Since signing the UBDN Members’ Charter, Stanbic Bank has conducted a disability inclusion assessment under the UBDN Disability Readiness Campaign and come up with an action plan to drive disability inclusion forward as a company.
“Without specific steps, we discovered that we would not make a lot of progress. We have been working with Light for the World for the last five months and in that period, we have been able to hire two people with disabilities, the latest one being hired in April 2022, in the Finance Department.
Light for the World referred the CVs to us, and we put them (the applicants) through our interview process. Indeed, my colleague who was involved in the interview said that he was surprised, that disability does not mean that they are any less capable. In fact, he emerged the best.”
In addition to hiring persons with disabilities, the Human Resource staff have been trained on Inclusive Hiring practices.
“We know that being more inclusive allows us to be more innovative, customer-centric and create the growth that will drive Ugandans forward. We have trained all the HR people, and the credit team. We are now designing a program to roll out the training across the bank,” David further explains.
“We would like to get to a place where at least 10% of employees in Stanbic bank are people with disabilities. I think that will allow us to be a more empathetic, human organization that sees people for what they could be. I would like to see some goals from line managers around finding roles for persons with disabilities and I would also like to hire someone on this team.”
Stanbic Bank is also actively looking at more disability inclusion in their marketing and procurement; ensuring that moving forward, products developed, and project launches are more disability-inclusive in communications, appeal, and advertisements.
David Mutaka, Head of People and Culture at Stanbic Bank head office
