Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has recently made their internal ‘This is Me’ disability and neurodiversity e-module available to the public, providing valuable educational resources to support other organisations on their journey to become more inclusive, and better support their customers and colleagues.
Since its launch in September 2024, over 36,000 of their employees have completed the e-module. As the first UK bank to set a public representation goal for colleagues with disabilities in senior management, LBG continues to demonstrate leadership in driving disability and neuro-inclusion.
To find out more, we spoke with Harriet Roberts, Senior Manager, Disability, Neurodiversity & Life Stages at Lloyds Banking Group, who led this project.
From your perspective, what are the most significant barriers to disability inclusion in the corporate world today, and how does Lloyds Banking Group’s approach address these challenges?
It’s important for us to reflect our customers and the society in which we operate, especially given our scale and reach. We know that a diverse workforce that represents the communities we serve, enables better decision making, and ensures our products and services are tailored and inclusive of the needs of all our customers.
We know there is more to do to improve the experience of people with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions in the corporate world. Our managers and leaders often tell us that despite good intentions of wanting to support their team, they sometimes avoid having open conversations about disability and neurodiversity due to a lack of confidence, the fear of ‘getting it wrong’, and difficulty accessing the right resources and support. We also know that in today’s world, colleagues are often balancing a multitude of different priorities.
Driving a disability and neuro-inclusive organisation requires a clear strategy, with multiple initiatives that deliver tangible results. Alongside our representation goal, we made a number of disability inclusion commitments, including: making our recruitment processes more accessible and inclusive; supporting personal and career development; improving the accessibility of our workspaces and technology; upskilling colleagues to reduce stigma; and taking work beyond our own organisation to champion the disability community. It’s through multiple initiatives that organisations can truly shift the dial for colleagues with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions within their organisations.
The ‘This is Me’ Disability & Neurodiversity Upskill programme is playing a pivotal role in helping us become a more disability and neuro-inclusive organisation, driving even better outcomes for our colleagues, customers and communities.
What role does training play in driving meaningful change for disability inclusion, and how have you seen this approach transform behaviour and culture at Lloyds Banking Group?
In 2024, we set about a programme to actively engage and upskill our line managers, and in September 2024 we rolled-out a Group wide upskill programme for our colleagues, line managers and leaders focused on disability and neurodiversity called ‘This is Me’. This included: an immersive leadership session, an interactive e-module, line manager workshops (delivered in partnership with the Business Disability Forum), and a toolkit to provide in the moment guidance.
For us, this was about giving our people the knowledge and tools to have confident conversations around disability and neurodiversity, enabling the delivery of true cultural and behavioural change.
In terms of how we have seen this transform behaviour and culture, of course this is a journey we are still on, however we are already seeing an impact. We have had feedback from our colleagues with lived experience that they now feel confident to openly share their disability or neurodivergent condition for the first time! Our managers have also told us this training has really made them reflect and that they now feel more confident having conversations about disability and neurodiversity. Whilst the training is colleague focused, this is all about driving greater disability and neuro-inclusion for the benefit of our customers.
The materials mention that colleagues with disabilities played a key role in the design. Could you elaborate on your co-creation process and how you ensured their input shaped the final product?
Championing the sentiment of “nothing about us without us”, our colleagues with lived experience of disability and neurodiversity have played a key role by providing input on design, content and functionality. Firstly, we ensured we had lived experience within the project team, as well as a representative from our employee resource group, Access. Throughout design and delivery we also consistently reviewed developments with our Accessibility User Group. These colleagues were involved in testing the products through design and delivery, including early access ahead of launch to ensure no accessibility issues in the final build. Co-creation and inclusive design is a cultural shift we are taking more broadly as an organisation, including our work with disabled entrepreneurs.
In collaboration with our colleagues with lived experience, we have really pushed the boundaries when it came to the accessibility and inclusivity of this programme. We’ve incorporated an inbuilt text reader, zoom functionality, a British Sign Language interpreter, and audio narration of videos, which ensures the programme is accessible to a wide range of users with different needs. We also continued to listen and learn even after we launched and made subsequent improvements to the e-module to make it even more accessible!
We also featured colleagues with lived experience within the training. One of the most powerful elements of the programme, and where we had the best feedback, was the real colleague stories which we captured on video. It was a conscious decision to use our real colleagues, rather than relying on actors. These videos, and the associated content, sought to challenge common perceptions of disability and neurodiversity. Encouraging our people to understand the perspectives of our colleagues, think about this topic in a new way, and actively consider how they can build psychological safety and trust.
LBG has set an ambitious goal to double representation of colleagues with disabilities in senior management. How does this training specifically support career progression for disabled employees?
As I mentioned, we made a number of disability inclusion commitments in order to support our representation goal, including how we upskill our colleagues to reduce stigma. A fundamental part of the line manager e-module was focused on career development and performance. We know that colleagues with disabilities often feel less likely to achieve their career aspirations and may experience a barrier of lower expectation from their managers. Therefore, through our e-module we encourage managers to have performance-related conversations, not just conversations about wellbeing. This includes ensuring our managers understand how Workplace Adjustments set our colleagues up to perform at their best. Through the e-module we also encourage our managers to avoid assumptions about someone’s abilities or motivations. We know that a supported and fulfilling career is one of the most valuable things we can offer our colleagues. So, it’s vital that we create the right environment for this opportunity to be open to everyone equally. If we’re going to become a place where all colleagues can thrive and enable us to deliver our purpose of helping Britain prosper, it is vital to shift these perceptions.
What value do you see in knowledge-sharing initiatives like this one, where corporate learning resources are made available to the wider community?
At Lloyds Banking Group, a core part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy is creating a society and economy that is more inclusive, as part of helping Britain prosper. We recognise the power of the collective movement when it comes to disability and neuro-inclusion, and the responsibilities that large organisations, such as us, play. This is why it was so important that we not only upskilled our own colleagues, but gave our customers and communities the opportunity to benefit too. So far, over 2,000 people have accessed our module. This is something we are really proud of, and it has been brilliant to hear how other organisations have used the module!
Beyond the training itself, what complementary resources or follow-up support do you recommend for organisations looking to create more inclusive environments?
At LBG we have produced a Disability in the Workplace guide which provides guidance on how businesses can be more disability inclusive.
We have worked closely with the Business Disability Forum for many years. They have a range of resources and support for organisations looking to become more disability and neuro-inclusive.
We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. This is an important scheme in helping organisations recruit, retain and develop people with disabilities. By just signing up to Disability Confident, there is a wealth of support to guide you on your journey.
If you need support with more specific elements of your colleague inclusion journey, whether that is by activity or strand of disability or neurodiversity, there are more focused organisations and consultants out there. At LBG we collaborate with Digital Accessibility Centre to improve our websites and apps to make them more accessible for our customers.
Beyond this impressive training module, what other disability inclusion initiatives is Lloyds Banking Group currently developing or planning to launch in the near future?
We continue to challenge ourselves to be more disability and neuro-inclusive for our colleagues, customers and communities.
We want all our customers to have an excellent experience and be able to access our services in a way that is right for them, wherever they are. Presently we have a programme rolling out British Sign Language translations across of all our web pages. This is in partnership with Signly and if a customer wants a page to be prioritised this can be requested. We’re also expanding our support for building digital literacy, with remote training sessions, that will enable customers who are unable, or find leaving home challenging, to still be able to upskill and utilise our accessible digital solutions.
To ensure we are more neuro-inclusive for our colleagues and customers, we are currently completing our assessment and accreditation approach with Lexxic, to enable us to assess our current position and focus our neuro-inclusion strategy moving forwards.
For our colleagues we are piloting a new development programme to enhance the personal and career capabilities of our colleagues with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions. As well as launching a circular mentoring scheme, creating an opportunity for our senior leaders to enhance their understanding, whilst enabling opportunities for colleagues with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions who are confident and ready to advance their careers.
