The broking and finance industry has always been close to the heart of Liberty Financial’s Chief People Officer, Anne Bastian, who once studied a Bachelor of Business majoring in business and finance, before settling on a career in human resources.
While the connection to finance was always there, it was the appeal of being able to influence employees in ways that ultimately benefited customers that has seen Anne forge a career helping to improve diversity, inclusion and belonging at Liberty.
“Helping people to learn and grow and become better at everything they do is very rewarding for me,” Anne said.
“I like helping people at Liberty to do their best and to be better. This is the same goal I have in my personal life.”
“We know firsthand at Liberty that a diverse and inclusive group will lead to a happier more productive team that delivers a better service to mortgage brokers and, of course, to customers.”
Anne says getting the right mix of diversity within the industry is crucial to ensuring that it remains a trusted channel for customers. A diverse and inclusive mortgage broking industry gives confidence to customers that the industry lives by high standards.
“Genuine efforts of diversity and inclusion builds trust because it requires recognition and merit. It implies transparency of decision making around people and fairness in the way in which they are treated, and it means new ideas and ways of doing things are embraced,” she said.
Liberty, who won the Diversity and Inclusion Award at the MFAA’s annual National Excellence Awards, has made good progress building an inclusive workplace culture. Through a focus on creating agency – Anne says it’s giving leaders authority, education and tools to drive positive change.
“We have given authority to our leaders to deliver diversity and inclusion – we have done this through changes to KPIs, group briefings, training, and individual conversations,” she said.
“This means that we hold our leaders to account for the actions they take, and the results they achieve or don’t achieve.”
This approach has seen Liberty increase female representation to 48% across the entire workforce, 50% at team leader level and 40% of the senior management team.
Other benefits the organisation is experiencing include increased employee engagement, strong results on mental health surveys, better team behaviours and accountability for calling out non-inclusive behaviours, improved employee branding and, a workplace culture where people actively embrace flexible working.
One interesting observation says Anne, is that creating allies to support the LGBTQIA+ community at Liberty, has opened up a broader understanding of diversity and inclusion across the larger organisation.
“Our ally training has really boosted the awareness of the individual and collective benefits of being inclusive to everyone and recognising the impact of your own privilege,” she said.
“What we are seeing because of this is that people are much more comfortable being open about themselves because they feel that they are working in a psychologically safe space.”
Promoting gender diversity and support for the LGBTQIA+ community has been the key focus of Liberty’s diversity and inclusion initiatives in recent years, which included:
- Championing women through Liberty’s Women in Leadership program, which includes a dedicated Women in Leadership group supporting professional development and advancement
- Implementing progressive parental leave policies including supporting men’s access to paid parental leave and flexible working arrangements, supporting LGBTQIA+ adoption, surrogacy, and special leave
- Subsidised childcare so that employees can bring their children to work during the school holidays
- Implementing LGBTQIA+ inclusion initiatives such as forming an employee Pride Network, implementing LGBTQIA+ Support Officers, inclusion training and gender affirmation leave
- Being a signatory to Diversity Council Australia’s #IStandForRespect campaign committing to stand against gendered harassment and violence
- Working closely with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) to monitor and improve opportunities for women across the organisation
- Ensuring external sponsorships such as being the Liberty A-League’s first Naming Rights Partner in women’s football align with internal priorities.
Anne believes that lenders like Liberty have a key role to play in diversity and inclusion, helping to set the standard for where the mortgage and finance broking industry should aspire.
“By role modelling what diversity and inclusion looks like – mortgage brokers, who don’t all have the same business structures, can see what’s involved and the value it delivers,” she said.
“But lenders are not there to do it for brokers. Just as we have made our leaders accountable, so too do mortgage brokers need to feel motivated for improving diversity and inclusion.”
And what does she think will make the biggest difference to improving the representation of women and other diverse groups in the industry?
“The lack of understanding and acceptance is probably the biggest barrier to change,” she said.
“The need for leaders to be accountable is another challenge in a decentralised industry like mortgage broking – given there are so many aggregation businesses – getting a consistent approach is understandably difficult.”
Anne says greater access to education and training, actively recruiting from minority groups, building more resources and tools for brokers to leverage, and ensuring there is zero-tolerance for bullying or harassment are all key enablers to changing the demographic representation of the industry.
Her one wish for leaders in the industry around diversity and inclusion is for there to be more consistency across the industry and not tokenistic actions.
And finally, after a 20+ career in finance and banking, what’s Anne’s advice to her younger self and her secret to success?
“To be more open minded and to understand it’s okay to have a voice.”
“You are your own judge and jury so be fair and conscientious in everything you do,” she concluded.
Champions of Diversity is brought to you by Teachers Mutual Bank Ltd.
