.jpg)
The topic of gender diversity seems to have rarely been out of the headlines in recent months, from the unearthing of stories of systemic sexism and harassment in the #MeToo movement, to the revelation of gender imbalance in the BBC’s top stars’ salaries.
Earlier this month, UK companies with more than 250 employees faced the final deadline to publish their gender pay gap data – and the results within financial services were not pretty.
Of the more than 10,000 companies that submitted their pay information, the average mean gender pay gap is 14.5%, and the mean gender bonus gap is 15.1%, according to the data as analysed by Staffmetrix.
Financial and insurance firms emerged as the sector with the worst figures, reporting a mean gender pay gap of 25.9%, and a mean gender bonus gap of a whopping 45.5%.
The figures do not reflect equal pay data for men and women carrying out the same roles, but rather shine a light on the fact that men continue to take up more of the higher-paid roles than women, as well as dominating companies’ senior ranks.
Last month, Lloyd’s CEO Dame Inga Beale urged the insurance industry to do better when it comes to being inclusive, adding that it needs to do a “better job of getting more women up into those senior positions.”
So where should the insurance industry be focusing its efforts to begin to redress the imbalance?
“As most companies have reported, the primary reason for their gender pay gap is the lack of women in senior roles,” Lisa Meigh, director of HR and learning at Covéa Insurance, told Insurance Business.
Having signed the Treasury’s Women in Finance charter two years ago, Covéa has since developed its own dedicated female development and networking programme, the Inspire Leading Women project (ILW).
Over the last 18 months, as part of the ILW, the insurer has been running events which it says are designed to inspire and support female leaders, while tackling potential barriers to career advancement.
“These forums form part of our broad programme to ensure we have all the right platforms in place to remove barriers and facilitate the progression of all of our talent into senior roles, which we see as key to creating a truly inclusive environment where talent thrives, irrespective of gender,” Meigh said.
The insurer has also seen some of the changes it has implemented since signing the charter have a visible impact on recruitment.
By using a gender decoder for job adverts – which identifies subtle ‘gender-coded’ language – it has increased female graduate applications from 29% to 44% in two years, according to Meigh, who says the move is helping to create a more gender-balanced pipeline of future leaders.
Covéa also revealed earlier this month that it would be one of a number of companies supporting Leeds Beckett University with its own ‘Women in Leadership’ programme.
According to Meigh, it’s all part of a drive to help change the perception of the insurance industry to one where meritocracy rules.
She added: “Focusing on the future, we’ve been reaching out to schools, colleges and universities, like Leeds Beckett, to showcase the exciting career opportunities on offer, helping change historic attitudes towards insurance and demonstrate our appeal as a modern, dynamic, diverse and inclusive industry where talent is all you need to succeed.”
