The insurance industry has started to break ground on the issue of diversity during the past five or so years – to the extent that it’s now one of the most important topics facing boards today, according to the CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute (
CII).
“A lot of people in the industry will tell you that second only to risk management, talent diversity and inclusion is probably the hot topic that is being looked at on a rigorous basis by virtually every board in the market,” Sian Fisher told
Insurance Business.
“I think two things have happened,” she explained. “There was a lot of work going on on diversity anyway, because it has been an issue, and certainly there has been increasing focus on it for the last 10 years. But it’s really got going in the last five years.”
Insurance firms have seen success in their focus on bringing in fresh talent with different skills and a diverse gender and ethnicity set. But while they have done well at attracting newbies, they need to work harder at retaining them.
“All of those things are a journey,” Fisher admitted. “If you said, is it perfect at the moment? No, it isn’t. Is there a recognition now that it matters? I would say there is an almost universal acceptance that it’s something that boards and management committees should be focused on,” she said.
Insurance companies have a better understanding now that its workforce needs to reflect its increasingly diverse customer base, Fisher said.
“Firms are generally trying to bring in different voices, to not just hear the same thing and have everything done in the same way. Everyone realises that in financial services, as in any other sector, that can’t be the right way, given that customers are now much more diverse. If you don’t take that on board, you are going to go backwards,” the CEO commented.
And while financial services as a whole has earned something of a poor reputation on the issue of diversity and inclusion, Fisher said insurance has been making traction.
“If you actually look at all the work that has gone on in the last five years, certainly to get new talent in, you would see a very diverse group of people coming into the market,” she said.
With the introduction of the government’s Apprenticeship Levy, which came into effect this year and works as a form of tax on all UK employers with an annual wage bill of more than £3million, the industry now has a “unique opportunity” to both attract new, diverse talent and re-skill its existing workforce, Lloyd’s CEO Inga Beale said at a CII event.
The Institute has been working with the government and with employers to develop a package of support that will help firms of all sizes in implementing their own apprenticeship schemes – ranging from practical guidance to a dedicated helpline in partnership with the National Apprenticeship Service.
Fisher described apprenticeships as an “integral part” of how insurance attracts, develops and retains talent, adding that the CII will “continue to work with providers to support firms to achieve this and bring new talent to our profession.”
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