Hypoport x HSBA
Background:
Hypoport is an MDAX-listed financial services group with over 20 operating subsidiaries and approximately 2,400 employees. The subsidiaries are active in various segments: credit platform, private clients, real estate platform and insurance platform. Hypoport companies are particularly active in the B2B and B2B2C areas. Due to inorganic growth in recent years, there are inherent cultural differences in the corporate culture of the companies. There is also a high degree of autonomy.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) is a current issue for many companies - including Hypoport. An awareness of the diversity of employees and an inclusive corporate culture that values this diversity and sees it as an enrichment is essential for success. Diversity refers, for example, to cultural and ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation and identity, mental and physical abilities, and also individual life and work circumstances such as motherhood and fatherhood or working time models.
To date, DE&I has been implemented in different ways on a decentralized basis at the level of the individual subsidiaries. Around 5 Hypoport companies (HC) have already implemented some measures to create more awareness of DE&I in their organization. However, some companies have not had any contact with the topic so far. Due to decentralization, there was no overview of the different measures so far, resulting in missed opportunities to open knowledge or measures to other HCs or to share them with each other. Therefore, in summer 2021, a DE&I community was established as a grassroot and employee initiative. The goal is to make DE&I more tangible for everyone, to connect employees from the individual HCs, to enable exchange and to share knowledge with each other. With over 100+ members from more than 13 companies, the community has grown over the last few months and the first joint online events have taken place or are in the planning stage. The community is currently managed by several employees in parallel to the daily business. Individual HCs participate in part by sponsoring individual events.
Recently, there have been considerations as to what extent it makes sense to design a central framework for the topic of DE&I, which can serve as orientation for the HCs and is understood as an innovation and culture driver. At this point, one could also speak of a central corporate strategy for DE&I.
The following benefits could result:
- Respond better to a. (changing) customer needs b. Changes in the labor market/applicant needs
- Increased employee satisfaction & engagement
- Shared Hypoport culture facilitating synergies & cross-HC exchange
- Increased attractiveness for shareholders & potential investors (capital market communication)
Questions:
Hypoport would like to better understand and be able to classify the trends, opportunities and risks in the DE&I area.
- Which trends in the FinTech industry can be identified in general with regard to changes in customer needs, the labor market and the capital market? a. What trends related to DE&I can be observed at other companies in the FinTech industry? What are the strategies & measures? b. What is the focus of the companies (e.g. women in management positions)? To what extent are they responding to the trends in question 1? What overarching initiatives exist (e.g., overarching networks)?
- Taking into account the heterogeneity of the subsidiaries, what opportunities and risks arise for the Hypoport Group in the labor, sales and capital markets?
- What deductions can be made for a central DE&I Group strategy?
