In recognition of its work in women’s development, BBK took first place in the HRH Princess Sabeeka bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa Bahraini Woman Empowerment Award, in its fifth edition. BBK’s CEO, Reyadh Yousif Sater, received the award at a ceremony in November marking a significant milestone in the bank’s history and underscoring the success of its women’s empowerment policy, a general framework endorsed by the board of directors and designed to ensure equal opportunities for both men and women.
BBK was established on 1971 and started its operations in 1972. It is a commercial bank operating in Bahrain and has overseas branches such as Kuwait and India with two representative offices located in the UAE and Turkey. BBK provides a full range of lending, deposit, treasury and investment services to various sectors of the domestic and regional as well as international markets, using state-of-the-art technology. It plays a major role in financing infrastructural and industrial projects, creating products and services that cater to the needs of individuals, investors, businesses, corporations and the government.
BBK currently has 227 females out of 609 employees, representing 37 per cent of the workforce. In the last five years, the organisation has noticed a large increase in the total number of female employees, from 197 — growth of 15 per cent) — in Bahrain operations only.
As part of the many initiatives introduced in support of women’s empowerment, BBK has in place a policy where every effort is made by management to identify and develop high-potential female employees in order to increase the number of women in mid to senior management level positions.
The bank currently has four female senior managers in comparison to just one in 2014.
Plans to develop female workers include:
• Accelerate their training plans.
• Put women on advanced leadership and executive programmes.
• Encourage them to pursue a career path through participating in mentoring and coaching programmes.
• Create a flexible working environment that supports learning and development and the advancement of female employees.
The bank has established a Women’s Empowerment Committee with the sole purpose of establishing a clear vision and set of guidelines for the BBK Group for the development of services, policies, procedures and practices that promote gender equality and empower women internally and externally.
As part of the many developmental plans/initiatives, the bank is committed to:
• Affirm high-level support and direct top-level policies for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Pay equal remuneration, including benefits, for work of equal value.
• Ensure that workplace policies and practices are free from gender-based discrimination.
• Assure sufficient participation of women in decision-making and governance at all levels and across all business by proactively recruiting and appointing women to managerial and executive positions, including the board of directors.
• Create internal mechanisms designed to identify and develop potential women managers, and to accelerate their development through ‘fast track’ programmes until gender-balance in senior management is achieved.
• Invest in workplace policies and programmes that open avenues for advancement of women at all levels and across all business areas by ensuring equal access to all bank-supported education and training programmes.
• Expand business relationships with women-owned enterprises, including small businesses and women entrepreneurs.
• Respect the dignity of women in all marketing materials and adopt a comprehensive policy for the positive portrayal of women in diverse roles in corporate sponsored media, advertising and communications.
Furthermore, the bank has introduced several policies in support of women’s empowerment such as flexible working arrangements, half-day leave to support/balance personal commitments, annual assessment of female employees’ issues (airing-out sessions) and light duty during pregnancy.
And there is also a Women’s Empowerment Yearly Chief Executive Award that encourages employees to adopt practices that empower women staff members.
