NatWest is set to pay for its transgender staff to receive hormone treatment.
The major retail and commercial bank are introducing changes across their branches up and down the country, including Merseyside, from next month in a bid to become more inclusive. From September 2022, NatWest employees can access additional trans healthcare services in the form of a “Gender Identity Pathway” through the company's already existing healthcare provision. Branches in Merseyside include Ellesmere Port, Birkenhead, Liverpool Allerton Road, Liverpool City Centre, Bootle and Aintree Black Bull
For those colleagues who elect to include private healthcare as part of their benefits package, gender identity support is available. The support is non-surgical but includes hormone treatment and access to counselling. A spokesperson for NatWest told the ECHO : “We value all our LGBT+ colleagues and customers and we want to have a truly open and diverse culture, with acceptance for all.”
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The new changes come after the company’s employment policies were updated with an LGBT+ “inclusive lens”, back in February of this year. In line with the updates, NatWest launched an LGBT+ Awareness module which featured videos of LGBT+ colleagues sharing their personal experiences of self-discovery. To this day, 3,500 employees have completed the eLearning module.
In the UK, their Shared Parental Leave now includes same-sex couples and their Absence and Sick Leave policy now covers those who need time off to transition. Optional pronoun badges for branch staff, with there being an option to add phonetic name spellings, were also introduced this year. The company claimed the move would make staff more "comfortable and respected".
As well as NatWest, Halifax has also gone on to introduce pronoun badges. However, in comparison, Halifax was met with more backlash over the matter and caused controversy by telling customers they could close their accounts if they disagreed with its stance, adding that the badges prevent accidental misgendering.
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