Target audience
Any companies within the payments sector that have introduced an internal initiative or policy that has improved equality, equity, diversity and/or inclusion in their business with tangible results.
Detailed definition
The Best Diversity and Inclusion Payments Initiative is open to any payments company that can demonstrate how its equality, equity, diversity and/or inclusion (EED&I) initiatives have led to successful outcomes in the business.
The initiative must go beyond the release of a company policy on EED&I or the publication of documents required by law or industry standards, e.g., gender pay gap reports. However, the entry may be a new aspect to an existing programme, or an entirely new initiative.
To demonstrate the success of the initiative, the submission should provide details of the initiative, why it was introduced and how it made a difference to individuals and/or the business, or the wider industry. For example, it could involve a change in the recruitment or promotion approach, working environment or how a diverse team was specifically put together to develop a product or service.
In this context, we define EED&I as follows:
- Equality is the treatment of reward, status, rights and opportunities in an equal way irrespective of our diversity
- Equity is the fair treatment, access and advancement we provide to ensure we can all be the best we can be
- Diversity is the difference in race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status or background that makes each of us who we are
- Inclusion is the practice of enabling everyone to bring their full, authentic selves to work as a place people feel they truly belong and are included
The judges are particularly interested to see examples of EED&I initiatives that have created long-term positive change. Judges will also give special consideration to initiatives that have made an impact at all levels, from entry level to Board.
Initiatives must be live and out of the test phase at the time of submission. Pilot programmes will be accepted but must clearly be described as such and the judges will be looking for evidence of success in the pilot.
Initiatives may be running in any country/countries.
Entrants may nominate themselves or be nominated by another. The panel of judges may also make nominations for this category.
Please provide the following information:
Nominee and nominator
- Name of nominating organisation
- Initiative name (entry title)
- Which country/countries does the programme operate in?
- Name(s) of nominated organisation(s)
- The nature of the business relationship between you as the nominator and the nominee company
Initiative description
The judges will assess your entry against the following criteria. You are free to describe the programme and support your case with additional material as you think appropriate. However, we strongly suggest that you do NOT submit generic promotional material and sales brochures. Please limit your submission to a maximum of 1,500 words.
The criteria are:
- The initiative provides benefit/value to the targeted demographic or whole business.
- The initiative has leveraged brand, channels or other capabilities and technologies to deliver innovative solutions to specific problems or opportunities posed.
- The initiative has performed well and the submission is supported with quantitative evidence of success from a reliable source.
- The initiative stands out from its competition either through performance, innovation, added value features or other means as described in the submission.
Evidence of success/metrics
Please provide as much information as you can and quote the source of that information. Such information might include the following, but this is not an exhaustive list and in each case the judges will be looking for evidence that supports your claims about the key benefits of the programme:
- The length of time the initiative has been live
- The number of users since launch until the date of submission (if appropriate)
- Some aspect of volume relevant to the initiative since launch until the date of submission
- Growth in use, both historical and extrapolated projections
- How this has transformed the business.
