In February, the FCA started to gather information on discrimination, bullying and harassment. It said that, ‘the wholesale insurance market in particular has a long way to go in having an inclusive culture and picked out ‘non-financial misconduct, including discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and bullying’ as areas for improvement.
It might be easy to think of this challenge from the FCA as an issue solely for senior management or HR, but that would be a mistake. There are steps that every member of an organisation can take to make it harder for bullying, discrimination or harassment to take place.
At the most everyday level, the kind of actions that can mitigate against misconduct are simple gestures of inclusivity – for example, ensuring that everyone in a meeting or on a call has an opportunity to express an opinion.
The way in which organisations react to bad news also sends strong signals about its culture. If managers are curious about what is happening in and around the organisation and see any insight – positive or negative – as a chance to learn, more people will feel confident about speaking up.
Organisations can demonstrate an appetite for the truth at an early stage. Talking to new members of staff about their experiences of culture in organisations that they have worked in before can be a good way to start a candid conversation about culture and show a willingness to learn from good and bad examples.
These small gestures are a long way from anything that the FCA is looking for in its survey, but it is never too early to start good habits and to communicate to colleagues that your organisation is on the side of people who want to make things better by speaking up.
