Banco Santander has been selected for the second consecutive year as one of the World’s 25 Best Workplaces^TM in 2020. The bank has been selected from over 10,000 organizations across 92 countries which ensure exceptional employee experiences, creating high-trust relationships, and workplaces that are fair and equal for all. 

Madrid, 14 October 2020.
Banco Santander’s commendation is testament to the bank’s way of working; building a Simple, Personal and Fair organisation. Santander prides itself on a strategy built around trust with a culture that fosters diversity and focusses on results. According to the bank’s own global survey, team engagement has increased nine percentage points since it embarked upon its cultural transformation in 2014. Today, Santander employees enjoy a more flexible work environment that focusses on diversity and inclusion, where they are judged based not only on what they do, but on how they do it.

Alexandra Brandao, Global Head of Human Resources, Banco Santander, said: “We are extremely proud to receive this recognition, which reflects our way of working as a responsible bank. We are driven by our purpose to help people and businesses prosper every day. Our culture helps us to achieve this, doing things ‘The Santander Way’, with our values of Simple, Personal and Fair underpinned by our behaviour and leadership commitments. 

Brandao added: “2020 has been dominated by the covid-19 pandemic during which the health and wellbeing of  our colleagues remained our top priority. Our swift action meant that majority of our colleagues could work remotely and appropriate support was provided for those who continued to interact with clients face to face. Santander Week gave us the opportunity to celebrate the great work done by our teams. It is brilliant to hear colleague stories coming to life, demonstrating how they helped support our customers during the pandemic.”

Last month, Euromoney recognised Santander as the World’s Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion.  The bank has implemented a number of initiatives to support diversity and inclusion, including establishing a global minimum standard for parental leave across all our markets. The bank has set a number of targets to increase diversity and inclusion within the business, including reaching between 40 to 60 per cent of women in the board next year. Banco Santander has also achieved the highest ranking in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index for the past two years. 

Michael C. Bush, CEO Great Place to Work, said: “Congratulations to the World’s Best Workplaces. These organizations not only have succeeded at creating a high-trust, inclusive, global culture, they have met the historic challenges of the past year with inspiring, deeply human responses. In the worst of times, the World’s Best have given us hope for a better future.”

The World’s Best Workplaces list is published here.