Wells Fargo Completes Comprehensive Review of Diverse Candidate Slate Guidelines

Company announces changes to simplify and clarify hiring guidelines

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) announced today that it is reinstating its diverse candidate slate guidelines following a pause that started in June. Over the past six weeks, the company completed a review of diverse candidate slate hiring approaches and interviewed Wells Fargo recruiters and hiring managers to determine what’s working and what’s not. The company has also engaged a broader set of employees in listening sessions since mid-May.

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Bei Ling, head of Human Resources, Wells Fargo (Photo: Wells Fargo)

“We are recommitting to our diverse candidate slate guidelines with changes that will help clarify and simplify the process and lead to a better experience for all candidates, internal and external. We began this exercise knowing that diverse candidate slates work, and that they are a common, good practice across multiple industries,” said Bei Ling, Wells Fargo Chief Human Resources Officer. “Wells Fargo has seen measurable increases in diverse representation over the past several years, and we believe that diverse candidate slate guidelines have been one of the many contributing factors. Our review helped us to identify opportunities where we can further improve how the guidelines are implemented.”

The company is resuming application of the guidelines effective Aug. 19, continuing certain aspects, and changing others, including:

• Continue to expect a 50% diverse candidate slate and a diverse interviewer panel. The company expects that the 50% will evolve as our diverse representation continues to improve.
• Redefine roles that are in-scope for the guidelines based on job level, not compensation. This change is a more consistent way to apply the guidelines across the company.
• Revise the existing exception approval process to provide for manager and recruiter review and approval, and ongoing monitoring.
• Provide updated training for recruiters and managers on the diverse candidate slate guidelines, including how they should be applied throughout the recruiting and hiring process.
• Focus our ongoing monitoring of the diverse candidate slate guidelines on the effectiveness of their contribution to our goal of increasing diverse representation.
• Continue to hold senior leaders accountable for making progress on diverse representation.

In addition to the enhancements to these guidelines, Wells Fargo will continue its focus on the employee experience and will invest in initiatives that will help employees to better manage and grow their careers over time.

Diverse candidate slates have had a noticeable impact in helping Wells Fargo increase diverse representation. Since 2020, there have been meaningful increases in gender, racial, and ethnic diversity for positions throughout the company. Specifically:

• In 2021, Wells Fargo’s overall U.S. external hiring volume went up by 17% compared to 2020.
• Over the same time in the U.S., external hiring of individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups increased by 27%. This means that the pace of external diverse hiring was 10 percentage points higher than the pace of hiring overall from 2020 to 2021.
• Between 2020 and 2021, external hiring of women in the U.S. increased 23% – six percentage points higher than the pace of hiring overall.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is a leading middle market banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 41 on Fortune’s 2022 rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a low-carbon economy.

News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com | Twitter: @WellsFargo

Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements about our future financial performance and business. Because forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding the future, they are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Do not unduly rely on forward-looking statements as actual results could differ materially from expectations. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we do not undertake to update them to reflect changes or events that occur after that date. For information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, refer to our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at www.sec.gov.

News Release Category: WF-LO

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