Diversity, equity and inclusion – Deutsche Bank Careers

Diversity, equity and inclusion

The combination of diversity, equity and inclusion is a powerful enabler of organizational success. As a global bank with strong roots in Europe, our workforce needs to reflect the diverse clients we serve and the communities we operate in.

Diversity, equity and inclusion: foundations of our values

Improving diversity, equity and inclusion is a journey and the responsibility of not just our leaders, but everyone at Deutsche Bank. By doing so, we drive positive change for our people and for society at large and contribute to the bank’s Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) strategy.

Our vision for a diverse, equitable and inclusive Deutsche Bank.

To drive a successful transformation, we need to bring teams together and leverage different perspectives. We have found that encouraging diverse views and respectful challenge make our teams more effective. This is one reason why we value diversity, equity and inclusion. Rebecca Short, Member of the Management Board of Deutsche Bank

To better reflect society and our clients, we have an ambition to increase the number of women and people of all ethnicities in senior, decision-making and client facing roles. We strengthen accountable leadership by using a data driven approach - and with strong engagement and visible sponsorship from our senior management we are making progress increasing representation from more diverse groups and driving behavioral change.

Advancing gender diversity towards '35 by 2025'

At Deutsche Bank we set ourselves gender diversity goals and aim for 35% women in our top ranks by 2025. We are committed to creating a working environment that attracts and retains women.

Our '35 by 2025' program is sponsored by our top senior management and comprises 5 impact-oriented key initiatives along the full employee lifecycle:

30.7%
of our Managing Directors, Directors and Vice Presidents are women

1. Showcase strong leadership
To create a more gender balanced workforce, a strong tone from the top is essential to broaden understanding and change perceptions. At Deutsche Bank many leaders are visible role models. ’35 by 2025‘ is recognized as a priority by management teams.

2. Hold ourselves accountable
We set ourselves clear milestones and by monitoring relevant metrics regularly, we are able to hold our leadership accountable and quickly course correct where necessary. On the journey to attaining our goal of 35% women in the three most senior corporate titles (Managing Directors, Directors and Vice Presidents), we have achieved our interim goal of 30.7% at the end of 2022. We also continued to strengthen the pipeline of women at two levels below the Management Board to a combined share of 28%, and aim for 30% female representation at each of both levels by 2025. On Management Board Level -1, due to population size, every hiring and promotion decision is a significant lever to increase the female share.

3. Change hiring practices
We are adapting our talent sourcing strategies to allow us to attract more female talent and train managers to challenge bias in recruitment processes.

4. Bring women into roles
We have reviewed our succession planning for leadership roles and put in place development plans for top female talent to ensure that we can develop more women into senior, client facing and decision-making roles.

5. Listen, learn and change
By listening to our people, we learn what needs to be done to make a real difference. Employee surveys such as exit surveys and a specific senior women survey support us in getting a better understanding of our workforce’s needs and prioritize our initiatives.

Supporting cultural diversity

When joining Deutsche Bank, you immediately become part of a global team with colleagues located across 58 countries.
We are proud of our cultural diversity. However, more progress needs to be made on ethnic diversity. A wider set of initiatives are in place, which include efforts such as setting and measuring diversity ambitions; increasing the focus on promotion and development of Black leaders; enhancing our hiring practices; and focusing on diversity in our Community Partnership programs.

Our talent: diversity of perspectives and experience lead to better customer outcomes

With over 150 nationalities across the globe, our employees bring a diversity of perspectives and experience to the organization. Working with some of the most talented people in the financial industry, in an environment that embraces change and recognizes the power of collaboration, every voice contributes to delivering innovative outcomes for our customers.
We believe that everyone can make a difference.

Diverse teams are most productive in an inclusive environment. The bank continues to equip its people with resources to practice inclusion and understand how to make equitable people-related decisions. In 2022 we launched our “Everyday Inclusion toolkit” globally that provides guidance for everyone, regardless of whether they are a leader or a colleague, on how to move intentionally and proactively towards diversity, equity and inclusion. It includes guidance for inclusive hiring and talent development as well as advice on encouraging open conversations.

The global launch of a name pronunciation tool and preferred personal pronouns option in our global address directory support an inclusive work environment.

157
nationalities are represented in our workforce

Inclusive culture: Everyone has a role to play in creating a sense of belonging

Beyond our Bank-wide initiatives, we are proud of our various Employee Resource Groups (ERG). Voluntary and employee-led, ERGs unite colleagues from different backgrounds, experiences and business areas to support and create a better workplace for everyone. Depending on location, our ERGs currently support a variety of communities such as women, LGBTQI, multicultural and people of color, physical and mental wellbeing, parents, generations, and veterans.

Deutsche Bank’s dbPride ERGs organized a wealth of events around the globe ranging from personal “Coffee & Connects” to major Pride marches in New York and Frankfurt to celebrate pride and progress. Rebecca Short and Fabrizio Campelli, members of the Management Board, sponsor Deutsche Bank's dbPride initiative and engage with our dbPride chapters around the globe.

Colleagues from our ERG dbPride Germany shared their experience of coming out or being an Ally.

Equitable advancement: Embracing equity to develop a diverse group of future leaders

We recognize that not everybody starts in the same place. As we develop future leaders, we continue to empower under-represented groups.

Our “Accomplished Top Leaders Advancement Strategy” (ATLAS) program supports high-performing Managing Director women to take on a broader range of responsibility and realize specific advancement opportunities.
The Black Opportunity Leadership Development (dbBOLD) program is our investment in the career planning and leadership development of our Black Vice Presidents (VPs) and Directors based in the US and the UK with over 200 participants to date.

Neurodiversity describes the range of ways our brains can work and that all ways are equally valid. Our ERG dbEnable aims to help everyone to better understand neurodiversity and the adjustments that may be appropriate for neurodivergent colleagues for a thriving workplace. Meet Hannah Longman. Hannah works as an Audit Remediation Programme Manager in Deutsche Bank’s Technology Infrastructure team in London.

We are proud of making progress, but we recognize that there is more to do

Deutsche Bank has been recognized externally for its contribution to advancing equity and inclusion. The Bank was awarded the maximum score in the Human Rights Campaign's annual Corporate Equality Index for the 20th consecutive year. For the third year in a row, Deutsche Bank has been listed in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women in the UK for taking action to address gender inequality in the workplace. For the fourth consecutive year the bank has been recognized in the list of 100 Best Companies for Women in India for 2022 by Seramount and Avtar. The bank has been awarded Silver Employer in India Workplace Equality Index 2022 and DB Australia won gold status in the 2022 AWEI Australian LGBTIQ Inclusion Awards.

Several of our diverse talents were acknowledged as role models such as

Christiana Riley: 2022 EMpower Advocates Executive Role Models
Rebecca Short and Tiina Lee: Most influential women in European Finance List
Virginia Bastian: Most influential DEI leaders in EMEA 2022
and other leaders and employees listed e.g., on PROUT Performer and Top 100 LGBTQ+ Future Leaders lists.