The idea of introducing race, sex or disability targets may be the most controversial issue surrounding diversity and inclusion in any business, including insurance.
At an
Allianz-hosted event as part of the Dive In Festival, supported by Lloyd’s, two teams debated the merits and failings of targets as a way to promote diversity.
Arguing in the negative, Vivek Bhatia, CEO of icare, said that targets are “tokenistic.”
“They are form over substance and they are treating the symptoms and not the cause because it is easy to treat symptoms,” Bhatia said. “We don’t want targets to be imposed on us; we want to make it happen.
“We want to make it happen because it is the right thing to do, it is the right thing for business, society and the people who live in the community which includes us. For that to happen, we don’t need to set targets.”
Bhatia said that targets alone are no way to meet the challenges of diversity within the insurance industry and in the general business community, as without the execution and the culture needed to promote diversity, targets are “meaningless.”
“Targets are norms… and then that will become the bias,” Bhatia noted. “What we have to fight against is the bias, we can’t become the bias.”
Arguing in the positive, Graeme Head, a public service commissioner, argued that targets are the “game changer” for diversity as they draw a line in the sand.
“Targets matter,” Head noted. “They are a tool. They are not the end point but they are a powerful tool in achieving an end point, which is around inclusion. This is around really optimising the capacity to extract all of the talent available in our community.”
Mariam Veiszadeh, a lawyer and diversity and inclusion consultant, agreed that targets are the game changer for improving diversity as the business community is so experienced with using KPIs and targets in other areas.
“Targets and KPIs are very common place across the board,” Veiszadeh said. “When you set a KPI, people meet it.”
On the day, the team arguing against targets claimed a narrow victory from a poll of the audience but the debate will continue to roll on.
What do you think? Are targets tokenistic or are they the key to improving diversity in the industry? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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