Covéa Insurance has become a signatory to a charter that aims to “tackle barriers to recruitment and progression that ethnic minority employees face.”
The Race at Work charter was developed in partnership with business-community outreach charity Business in the Community (BITC) and sets out five key principles and actions for signatories: appointing an executive sponsor for race; capturing data and publicising progress; ensuring zero tolerance of harassment and bullying; making equality in the workplace the responsibility of all leaders and managers; and taking action that supports ethnic minority career progression.
James Reader, chief executive officer at Covéa Insurance and the firm’s first executive sponsor for race, said that signing the charter is “a clear demonstration of our commitment to take the steps necessary to ensure that everyone in our organisation, no matter their race or ethnicity, is treated with respect and has equality of opportunity.”
“Creating a truly inclusive culture will be critical to our future success and there is absolutely no place in Covéa for racism or discrimination in any form,” said Reader. “As the company’s executive sponsor for race, I will ensure that we do what it takes to deliver real and lasting change.”
In addition to becoming a signatory to the Race at Work Charter, Covéa Insurance also launched its own internal networking group with the objective to increase support for its Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees.
“Although diversity and inclusion was already strongly embedded within the culture of Covéa, recent events have been so shocking that we decided we needed to reconsider whether we were doing enough to promote racial equality and what more we could do,” said Karyn Strickland, head of HR & reward at Covéa Insurance. “Signing the charter and introducing our new networking group to support the BAME community at Covéa marks the start of an important new phase on our journey towards increased racial understanding and harmony, and I am delighted we have our CEO James Reader’s full support in this.”
