With more organisations embracing diversity and inclusivity as a core part of their ethos, the role of women within business has made significant leaps over the past several decades. Boundaries have been knocked down and glass ceilings smashed – but on the other side of that coin, many women still find themselves going up against the very same challenges that hindered their careers over 25 years ago.
Awareness initiatives, changes in workplace practices and new HR policies have shone a light on some of these challenges, and particularly on the need for them to be addressed at every level of an organisation – starting from the very top.
Jon Downes, Head of Legal, Australasia at Willis Towers Watson spoke to Insurance Business about the inclusivity initiatives within his own organisation, and the importance of fostering a truly diverse business.
“Willis Towers Watson is very focused on what we call ‘inclusion and diversity,’ or ‘I&D’ rather than the other way around,” Downes said.
“I think the reason we put inclusion before diversity is because you can't simply have a diverse culture for a successful business; inclusion is arguably more important than diversity. We have a focus on what we call the three Cs – culture, colleagues, and clients. We’re focused on creating a culture that engages all colleagues, and we're doing that by providing our leaders and managers with the right tools and resources to ensure they take responsibility for fostering inclusivity.”
“We define inclusion as a leadership competency that is included as a performance objective,” Downes explained.
“For culture, we ensure that inclusion principles are embedded into key policies – that includes fair pay, HR recruitment policies to ensure there's no unconscious bias, etc. We then focus on attracting, developing, and retaining colleagues, and we reflect on the attributes of an inherent and acquired diversity.
“In terms of looking at the right people for the right role, we ensure that we have a diverse applicant pool for open positions, and we have a focus on providing mentoring – particularly for women, to encourage them and help develop them into leadership positions.”
“The final C is client,” Downes concluded. “We definitely have a focus on understanding our clients and their people, and our clients expect that we should have an appropriate, diversely inclusive culture. So we focus on ensuring that our people can relate to our clients' businesses, and the benefit of having a diverse talent pool is that it brings diverse thinking to best serve our clients' needs.”
Downes currently serves as the chair of Willis Towers Watsons’ I&D working committee, supporting initiatives such as International Women’s Day and the Dive In Festival, an event which raises awareness, challenges stigma and celebrates diversity and inclusion.
