Great Place to Work

We strive to make Standard Chartered a great place to work by creating an engaging, inclusive and safe environment that rewards success and encourages employees to take control of their personal development.

At the core of the Group's people strategy is our focus on employee engagement. Engagement is a key driver of productivity and performance, which creates the foundation of our performance culture. We encourage and focus on the behaviours that bring out the very best from every employee, assessing their performance not just on results but on how those results were achieved. To further embed these behaviours we have a remuneration programme in place, carefully designed to incentivise our employees to live our values every day. We have always taken a view that our remuneration policies should support and drive our business strategy and reinforce our values. We believe these are sound and aligned to external best practice standards with risk-based and robust governance structures. Our annual performance bonuses are discretionary and are delivered in a combination of cash and deferred shares. They are set with regard to an assessment of risk and other factors such as achievement of our management agenda, risk management and economic backdrop, as well as profit.

"The Standard Chartered values place great emphasis on collaborative working, creativity and innovation."

Corporate Research Forum, 2007

For senior employees, a proportion of variable pay is delivered in shares, with part being a deferred annual performance bonus and part being a performance share award linked to long-term business performance. We review remuneration policy on a regular basis against significant regulatory developments and market practice. In 2009, we will continue to make enhancements.

In 2002, we articulated the Bank's five values - Courageous, Responsive, International, Creative and Trustworthy. We believe that our behaviours and culture are a source of competitive advantage. They are why our customers bank with us and why our employees stay with us.

As one of the world's most international banks, with a unique presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, we provide career opportunities to an enormously diverse workforce. Our size and reach provide employees with opportunities for international experience, operating across many countries, interacting and learning from other cultures. Our employees represent 125 nationalities, 68 of those among senior management. This reflects our drive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where all employees can contribute to our success. In 2008, we introduced further measures to increase the number of women in senior management, including mentoring and development programmes. We also increased our focus on attracting prospective employees with disabilities.

Workplace health and safety is a continuous priority and in 2008, we held workshops to further embed positive safety behaviour. Our commitment extends beyond the working environment and we have reached out to support community health and safety campaigns. Our HIV/AIDS work has also been recognised as world class by UNAIDS.