Partnering With Our Community
Jersey’s stability as an IFC and the certainty it offers investors are crucial in an ever-changing world. Closer to home, the industry generates island-wide benefits, including excellent employment opportunities, increased funding for public services, and an infrastructure that makes Jersey an enjoyable place to live and work.
Jersey Finance is proud to support a range of initiatives that provide better futures for Islanders. In this section, we highlight the positive work we undertake and the partnerships we have, using a framework of economic, community, and environmental considerations.
Economic wellbeing – how well the economy is performing
Amidst a global backdrop of pandemic recovery, inflation, geopolitical unrest, and energy supply disruptions, Jersey plays a crucial role in global finance, aiding the efficient allocation of capital worldwide. This activity adds approximately £170 billion to global GDP and sustains over five million jobs. Domestically, the finance sector comprises one-fifth of the workforce, and nearly two-fifths (37%) of the Island’s GDP and a majority of local tax revenues, supporting public services.
With the abundance of job opportunities in finance presenting both challenges and opportunities, attracting and retaining talent remains a top priority.
Our team exceeded our most recent annual target in terms of inward investment opportunities, new business and new jobs created, all of which benefit local firms and our local economy. The industry also injects a significant amount into the local economy each year and supports various other sectors through its workforce’s engagement with local services.
Member feedback highlights a strong desire for addressing the skills gap (9 out of 10 firms) and better facilitating education and career initiatives in finance (8 out of 10 firms).
Our future-fit workforce workstream is underway to create a future-ready workforce by focusing on closing skills gaps, supporting working parents through childcare provisions, enhancing diversity, and ensuring supportive government policies for talent access. Additionally, our fintech strategy aims to leverage technology to boost productivity and maintain competitiveness.
Through these workstreams, we lay the groundwork for the sector’s future sustainability, ensuring its relevance and competitiveness and solidifying Jersey’s position as a forward-looking IFC.
Some examples of initiatives we are involved in are:
Building a pan-island workforce
Jersey Finance is committed to attracting young people to consider a career in the finance industry in order to grow local talent.
To find out more about the work we do to engage young Islanders with and in the finance industry, visit our Working in Finance web pages.
Jersey Employer Group
Jersey Finance is proud to be part of the Jersey Employer Group, a pan-island steering committee which is exploring ways to build the best Jersey workforce for the future. There are five workstreams:
- Develop a strategic workforce plan for Jersey.
- Develop coaching and mentoring programmes across organisations and sectors.
- Develop an early careers / school engagement strategy.
- Build a clear narrative which markets Jersey as a great place to work.
- Share information and best practice to support the development of diversity and inclusion in leadership.
For more information contact us.
Charter Status
Jersey Finance was awarded Jersey Good Business Charter status in May 2020. We are very proud to have been awarded this charter which is a standard awarded to businesses in Jersey in recognition of their commitment to good corporate citizenship and responsible business practices in all that they do.
Jersey Employment Trust mentoring scheme
The Jersey Employment Trust (JET) was formed in 2002, with the aim of making employment and vocational training more accessible to people with disabilities.
In February 2023, Jersey Finance started a new partnership with JET in a co-ordinating role, to help raise awareness about the charity and to offer Jersey financial services firms an opportunity to work with JET and its clients.
Our Members tell us that having continued access to a varied talent pool helps to create a diverse cultural environment that can foster creativity and innovation. We hope our partnership with JET encourages the finance industry to further engage in broader discussions around employment strategies concerning accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusivity on-Island. These are essential factors when considering our Island’s future workforce and sustainable practices.
Community wellbeing – the quality of people’s lives
The finance industry enjoys a symbiotic relationship with many other industries on the Island including tourism, hospitality, retail, construction, property management, and digital. Demand from our industry contributes to, while at the same time we benefit from, an abundance of reliable and varied air links, convenient hotel facilities, superb restaurants and meeting venues, modern office spaces, and robust digital infrastructure, to name but a few.
A thriving finance industry encourages growth in other areas of the economy, creating and supporting jobs and generating revenue across the Island, contributing to the enviable way of life we are all fortunate to be able to enjoy as Islanders.
Through initiatives we also aim to become better engaged with schools and universities so that we can appeal to individuals at a junior level, which is paramount if we are to secure a sustainable skills base. We need to continue to meet growing demand – in particular by improving the perception of the industry among this demographic.
In practical terms, we are rolling this out in a number of ways. Our ‘Life in Finance’ initiative, for example, pairs A-Level students with financial services businesses offering summer work experience on the Island. We are also actively working with firms to help them develop and implement their own mentoring and work shadowing opportunities.
In 2023, we achieved our aim of presenting to students in every secondary education setting on the Island through ramping up our school engagement programme and attending four careers’ fairs to talk about career opportunities in the industry.
We are also championing young talent in our industry – ‘Future Connect’, for instance, offers networking and development opportunities to those starting out their careers in the finance sector, while our Rising Stars Awards help promote the development of young talent in the Island.
Here is some further information on some of these initiatives:
Future Connect mentoring scheme
Our Future Connect mentoring scheme is an annual scheme which matches Future Connect Members (mentees) with a mentor from another member firm within the financial and related professional services industry. The scheme runs for six months (from September/October to March/April). We facilitate the connection and provide mentors and mentees with an initial guide. From then on, it is up to mentees and mentors to decide on the key aims, goals, and mutual commitments
Putting children first
Jersey Finance is a committed signatory of the Government of Jersey’s eight-point pledge to Put Children First. This means as an organisation we commit to improving the care and upholding the rights of every child in the Island.
Commitments under the eight-point pledge:
- Listen to children and young people
- Support families that need extra help
- Provide children in care with a safe, loving, secure home
- Expand Early Help
- Recruit and retain a professional workforce
- Make it easier to share data and information
- Ensure sufficient funding is available
- Publish clear standards and be held to account for achieving them
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives
Jersey’s finance industry continues to make a very positive contribution to Island life and to communities further afield. A great deal of hard work goes on behind the scenes in our Member firms, from community projects and charitable initiatives to sponsorship and environmental programmes. Jersey Finance encourages and promotes this great work, and we ourselves undertake CSR activity too.
Fostering an inclusive and equitable finance sector
Jersey Finance has signed up to the Institute of Directors Jersey (IoD) Vision Statement in support of Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. This means we commit to promoting diversity and inclusion and helping to support the future success of our Island.
Additionally, we are proud to be a member of DIFERA, Liberate’s employer accreditation scheme.
And we are represented on The Diversity Network – Jersey.
Jersey Finance refreshed its internal corporate values in 2020 to better reflect modern business practices in a future-focussed workplace. Our five corporate values are:
- We are team-focussed
- We are proud to serve
- We champion change
- We care
- We value diversity
Environmental – the quality of the natural world around us
Through ‘Jersey for Good’ – our vision and strategy to become a leading sustainable international finance centre – we are nurturing a sustainable finance ecosystem, aligned with the UN’s SDGs.
An integral part is our Sustainable Finance Awards, a platform launched in October 2022 to celebrate those at the forefront of sustainable finance innovation and best practices and inspire others to embrace sustainable finance principles.
Membership of the UN’s Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) provides Jersey with invaluable insights and connections in the global sustainability discourse. Participation in the FC4S Annual General Meeting served as a poignant reminder of the fragility of our planet and the urgent need for action to preserve it. Furthermore, the potential of sustainable finance is staggering, with projections suggesting a $10 trillion opportunity globally.
Navigating the landscape of sustainable finance is not without its challenges. Terminology, reporting standards, and emerging concepts like nature risk and biodiversity finance add layers of complexity. To address this, we are dedicated to providing education and upskilling initiatives to empower investors and firms to navigate this evolving landscape effectively. Our long-term skills programme aims to equip a significant portion of our local workforce with expertise in sustainable finance, ensuring Jersey’s relevance and influence in advancing the SDGs.
In 2023, Jersey undertook its second assessment program through FC4S to benchmark its enabling environment for sustainable finance against the SDGs. This assessment provides valuable insights that will inform strategic decisions and prioritise areas for improvement in the years ahead.
Our vision and strategy for sustainable finance
Following the launch of our sustainable finance strategy in March 2021, we’re delighted to now be working with True Limited to achieve operational sustainability within our own organisation.
True Limited will support us with minimising and managing our carbon footprint including our direct and indirect emissions, as well as other indirect emissions such as business travel, purchased goods, water and general waste, and staff commuting.
In doing so, Jersey Finance joins other local finance industry firms in the vanguard of businesses dedicated to supporting the Island’s response to the climate emergency, in line with the Government of Jersey’s carbon neutral strategy. You can find our latest carbon footprint report within our annual report.
Eco Active Business Network
Jersey Finance is proud to be a member of the eco active business network since October 2020. The network is an environmental management scheme for businesses or organisations that operate in Jersey.
By joining the business network, we commit to take actions to lower the environmental impact of our business. One of the actions must be an energy or carbon emissions action.
