Erste Group: ‘DE&I should be a strategic priority’

2025 has been a tumultuous year for DE&I advocates, as numerous organizations, primarily in North America, rolled back their historic commitments under pressure from President Donald Trump and activists.

But not all have bowed to such pressure. In fact, many have instead doubled down on the importance of the topic for their organizations and people.

For Alexandra Eichberger, Head of Group People Development & Culture at Austrian financial services provider Erste Group, DE&I should not and cannot be taken lightly.

Sitting down with UNLEASH in Paris for an exclusive interview, Eichberger says she is “fully convinced that DE&I is not a ‘nice to have’ topic; “it should really be a strategic priority.”

“On the one hand there is the social responsibility, but on the other it's also very much impacting your productivity, the performance of the team, and also the success of the company,” she explains.

During this year’s UNLEASH World, Eichberger was on stage discussing how HR leaders can continue to both safeguard and move the needle of DE&I.

Eichberger tells UNLEASH she knows that there is “no silver bullet” for success when it comes to DE&I and that what works for one organization may not be a good fit for another.

Erste Group takes a multi-pronged approach and it is “the sum of all these initiatives that really makes it happen.”

For example, alongside its open-to-all professional development program is one dedicated for women at Erste that focuses on the digit-first model of the organization.

Eichberger says the bank embeds “the thought and the mindset behind diversity” in all of its processes, whether it be within the recruiting journey or the selection, to ensure the principles are in action.

This is also evident in “enabling managers in how to deal with complex situations”, she adds, pointing to initiatives like bias training to arm management with the mindset needed to identify and “change their behavior and their views” where needed.

Using AI and Magic Advisors to reimagine employee engagement surveys

As well as DE&I, Eichberger also took to the Paris stage to present a case study into how Erste Group reimagined and redefined company-wide employee engagement with a real-time, AI-powered feedback approach.

AI data fields and feedback parameters were built into a series of frequent pulse checks to more than 44,000 Erste Group employees across seven countries, covering workplace satisfaction, growth and development opportunities, empowerment, and recommendations for Erste as an employer.

The result saw engagement from 32,000 staff - that’s almost 75% of total headcount - and more than 20,000 comments left in response.

“From our perspective, what was key is the combination of implementing innovative technologies, of having AI in the process itself, but then also combining it with people, because we fully believe that it's the combination that makes the difference,” Eichberger says.

“AI gives us a lot of data and also supports us in analyzing the data, seeing patterns across the feedback that we gather throughout the survey, but in the end, it's the people who make the difference and who really make it happen.”

A big factor on the people side of Erste’s success are ‘Magic Advisors’, employees across the “whole organization and countries, actively working with the management on the data, ensuring that it's transparently communicated,” Eichberger explains.

The most crucial role of these Magic Advisors though is to ensure feedback and data is actioned. After all, if employees feel their feedback is not being acted upon, frustration will grow and “participation in the next survey will go down”.

Eichberger says Erste is on the right track but they’re not at the finish line yet, with a focus on “empowering and encouraging everyone to be a part of it”.

She adds that in addition to the engagement surveys, it's “crucial that you get feedback on your day-to-day culture.”

Feedback shouldn’t just happen because there is an international survey or there is an ad-hoc survey; managers also need to be proactive in their day-to-day touch points with their people to proactively ask for and give feedback,” she explains.Feedback shouldn’t just happen because there is an international survey or there is an ad-hoc survey; managers also need to be proactive in their day-to-day touch points with their people to proactively ask for and give feedback,” she explains.