Northern Trust's Vision for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Northern Trust’s core values of service, expertise and integrity are foundational to our commitment to an inclusive culture in which all individuals must be welcomed, respected, supported and valued so that they can fully participate in and contribute to our success. Our focus on DE&I helps us provide unrivaled service to clients and creates a healthy, thriving work environment for employees from diverse demographic groups, leadership styles and skill sets.

Our vision for DE&I is embedded at all levels of the organization, with women and ethnic minorities representing more than half the members of our Board of Directors as well our U.S. Executive Vice President population. Reflecting the importance of DE&I, our Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Global DE&I serves as an Executive Vice President and reports directly to our Chairman, President and CEO. Two Chief DE&I Officers are responsible for the design and execution of topicrelevant programs across North America, EMEA and APAC. Our Board, through its Corporate Governance Committee, also engages in active oversight of our DE&I strategies, programs and principles.

As part of our enhanced governance model, senior leaders report progress to senior management through our DE&I Executive Council. Our Business Unit leadership, Regional Councils and Business Resource Councils facilitate the development of an inclusive culture that values and leverages DE&I to achieve and sustain superior business results. Our strategy is driven by three priorities: Drive Accountability, Enhance Development Programs and Placement and Advance Culture. These strategies enhance our focus on the hiring, development and advancement of women and people of color at every level.

Drive Accountability

We use a DE&I dashboard as a mechanism to increase representation at all levels through continued measurement of hiring, promotion and retention. To ensure diversity, we require recruiters to present diverse candidate slates. We have also implemented diverse interview panels and decision-makers in the interview process.

Enhance Development Programs and Placement

Our Global Internal Mobility Program enhances the professional development and growth of our employees. Through our robust job-listing system, employees have transparency into available positions, can set up job alerts, and can find and apply for roles that match their career aspirations. The system supports Northern Trust’s global framework and allows us to engage a deep and diverse pool of internal talent to enable future growth. To further identify and develop a deep pipeline of diverse talent at various levels across the globe, our employees have access to a variety of external and internal programs.

In September 2020, we invited more than 150 Black Northern Trust employees in the U.S. to participate in the McKinsey Black Leadership Academy. This Academy is focused on accelerating Black leaders on a global scale and is comprised of two programs: A Black Executive Leadership Program targeting executives and a Management Accelerator Program targeting early-to-mid-career leaders. These programs are focused on building leadership capabilities and giving our employees critical skills to grow personally and professionally.

In India, we host development programs targeted for high-potential women across various levels of the organization. The first program focuses on women at both the individual contributor and junior management levels. Its modules explore personal power, assertive influencing and building and leveraging a powerful network for success. Our second program focuses on women at the middlemanagement level with a focus on mindful leadership. This program utilizes individual assessments, one-on-one coaching and group and individual activities. We also conducted three workshops on “women and ambition” for highpotential employees at the early-career level. Since the program’s inception in 2018, 93 percent of participants have been promoted and our current retention across both cohorts is 94 percent.

Advance Culture

With a focus on advancing Northern Trust culture to create a more diverse and inclusive environment, we introduced the following in 2020:

• DE&I Training: We launched a global unconscious bias training module course for all employees as well as a threepart Unconscious Bias & Inclusive Leadership training designed specifically for managers. The trainings help our employees recognize their own biases, understand how these biases affect their decisions and interactions, and develop skills and strategies to mitigate them. To enhance our inclusion efforts, we added inclusive leadership language to many of our manager training courses.
• Pronouns in Email Signatures: To support a culture of respect and belonging, we introduced the option for employees to add pronouns in their email signatures. As part of this global initiative, we conducted Pronouns & GenderInclusive Language training to promote inclusion of gender identity and expression at Northern Trust.
• Conversations around Racial Inequity: In a year that brought extraordinary challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial injustices experienced by Black people in the U.S., 2020 was a year focused on compassion, communication and support. Northern Trust openly engaged in conversations around racial inequity and action in support of DE&I and developed resources to support the positive mental health of our employees.
• Global Knowledge Center: We launched our DE&I Knowledge Center to help our employees gain deeper understanding and insight into the root causes of racism, as well as educate and engage our employees on ways to feel empowered, seek solutions and take action. The Knowledge Center supports our culture of engagement, in which we share external and internal DE&I messages to create transparency and elicit action.
• Culture of Engagement: To further support our culture of engagement, we strengthened our DE&I employee communications, including messages from our executives and senior leaders. We conducted a series of panel discussions, small group discussions and individual conversations to create a structured dialogue about racial inequities and to empower employees to share their experiences.
• Juneteenth: Northern Trust closed its U.S. offices early on June 19, in honor of Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Employees were encouraged to take this time for reflection and to serve their communities, re-commit to DE&I and learn about the significance of Juneteenth.

Mental Health and Well-Being

With the health of our employees across the globe at the forefront, we developed a dedicated Mental Health and Well-Being site. Containing internal and external resources, the site supports our employees in areas including Protecting Health During COVID-19 and Personal Resiliency Tips. With the objective of engaging employees in something fun in a remote work environment, the Human Resources team launched “Connect in the Cloud.” This virtual forum allowed our employees across the globe to connect with each other in a more casual way by responding to weekly prompts by sharing pictures and thoughts. 

Read the full report here.