Various surveys have shown that companies with a greater number of female directors register higher levels of turnover than others, yet even if women represent 40% of employees nowadays, only 0.36% are directors, compared with 3.11% of men. It is therefore important to develop strategies that prevent talent, and therefore value, from going to waste.

In this light, action has already been taken by the top management at UniCredit and CEO Alessandro Profumo, who declared in a recent interview: "An international Group such as ours, which is present in 22 countries with local banks, has to create a shared system of values and leadership that is centred around the ability to recognise diversity - and not just in terms of gender - as a strength. This is a key element to our sustainable growth strategy… As a Group, and also at a personal level, we have set ourselves objectives and developed special plans dedicated to respecting a culture based on merit. We are not doing this out of political correctness: diversity is in our interests. We have to use the UniCredit Gender Diversity programme as a catalyst for cultural change".

On 14 May 2009, the Group signed a joint agreement on Equal opportunities and non discrimination, the result of the work carried out by the joint commission composed of six members of Human Resources top management and six members of the European Work Council, a European organism that groups together Group employee representatives with the aim of constructing a distinctive culture based on dialogue.

The joint declaration, inspired by the values expressed in the Integrity Charter, defines the principles and guidelines that the Group is committed to adopting to guarantee equal opportunities, at the same time promoting diversity as an essential source of wealth and plurality. To give greater weight to the declaration and translate it into operational guidelines, a work group was established that has the aim of defining the Group policy in terms of Diversity and the system for monitoring the actions that will be enacted via specific action plans.

Human resource development processes are designed irrespective of gender and based on a model that goes beyond gender-related skills, whilst guaranteeing respect for them. The aim is to move towards a new model of leadership that respects diversity, also in terms of style, and that makes dialogue with the various stakeholders the key basis for innovation and changes to the system.

There are a number of highly structured Group initiatives for the development and promotion of female talent and leadership. Women and leadership, for example, whose mission is to "change the culture of organization and create new leadership models to increase the number of women in key positions and at all management levels to support growth". Strongly promoted and supported by the CEO, Women and Leadership is initially characterised by two projects: a qualitative analysis, aimed at understanding the reasons for the gender gap in terms of leadership positions, and the establishment of a women's network for the training of a community of women interested in investing in their professional development, a powerful tool for disseminating information, training, ideas and experiences.

The UniCredit Group's focus on female talent and leadership is also evident in external initiatives such as, for example, the Women's Council HVB.
UniCredit has created in Germany a "Women's Committee" made up of 30 business women and managers with the aim of promoting the presence of women at high management levels in the banking sector and in society in general. Among the objectives of the Women's Council, as well as support and encouragement for women at managerial levels, is the development of new ideas to strengthen the role of women in society and the attempt to respond more effectively to the needs of female customers. The Women's Council initiatives include the Women Finance Workshops, a series of meetings with high level experts ready to provide advice and suggestions to participating women on the world of finance; Girls Finance Day, an initiative developed with a number of tutors to help female students improve their knowledge of financial issues and develop ideas and the talent to manage related problems; the Mentoring Program for young Professionals, in which members of the Women's Council offer their support to a select few young professional women to help them in their growth and career path.