Corporate Culture: Good Practice in the Lloyd's Market

Over a hundred participants from all walks of the insurance industry atended yesterday a brilliant session on ‘Good Practice in the Lloyd’s Market’ showcasing how some companies in the sector are managing to move the needle in terms of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging leading to better corporate culture in their organisation and by extension, across the sector. It is hard work (very hard work!) and we are often preaching to the converted. But we all know we need to keep going because not only it’s the right thing to do, it makes absolute business sense and will help the industry stay competitive in the long term.

"it makes absolute business sense and will help the industry 
stay competitive in the long run"        

It was telling that many of the HR leaders presenting yesterday actually have non-insurance backgrounds and built their career experience in other sectors. This is worthy of a completely separate article on what we need when we talk about attracting new talent into the industry but that’s for another day. I too was ‘new to insurance' 8 years ago and was also somewhat shocked at what I saw coming in. But I can say hand on heart things have changed significantly since 2014. The Dive In festival has been a fantastic catalyst for change and something unique to the industry. Most organisations now have DEI managers, ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) and have reviewed at least some of their HR policies. Yes, change is slower than we would all wish but there is definitely hope.

From 'incremental change' to 'steady progress'        

The session started with Sara Gomez who shared her enthusiasm seeing the results from the most recent culture survey move from ‘incremental change’ to ‘steady progress’ and is hopeful for even faster improvement.

Four companies were invited to present:

• Liberty Mutual Insurance ’s Seema Vadera and Jennifer Breach spoke with pride about the impact of having genuine support from the top and presented their All In(clusion) and Talent pipeline initiatives. 
• MS Amlin came next with Gemma Lines ’s very honest account on how difficult it has been to change some very engrained beliefs in recruitment practices in the market. But hard work has paid off and they have managed an impressive increase in female representation at senior level from 8% to 22%
• AXA XL followed with Kaylee Darkins summary of the many activities AXA XL has run not just int he UK but also in their over 30 countries. From powerful storytelling empowering colleagues to share their stories to programmes such as their Empower programme to give visibility to underrepresented groups.
• Beazley closed the presentations with Chelsey Sprong sharing how they have used data and how they engaged employees in designing their DEI strategy and plans. Chelsey was recently appointed Head of Social Impact, which brings to live the very strong connections between HR, DEI, Culture and ESG but that's also for another article.

"...we might all be competing out there, 
but when it comes to DEI (Diversity Equity & Inclusion) 
we are all happy to share"        

Mark Lomas, Chartered FCIPD moderated the questions and reminded me of another great thing about this industry. We might all be competing out there, but when it comes to DEI we are all happy to share what we are doing because we know by doing so, everybody wins.

The event finished with a buzzing networking reception just outside the Old Library. I often hear from HR and DEI leaders how great it is when people come forward and share their stories as this consistently leads to others sharing their stories, building stronger teams and more inclusive company cultures. And isn’t that what we all want? But this always leaves me with mixed feelings. It’s great for people to be able to bring their whole selves to work and share their very personal experiences (if that’s what they want to do). But are they doing this in a safe environment? What will people think of them? Will it indeed open the way for others? Or will they regret they’ve done it? I’ve seen great campaigns, for example, McGill and Partners comes to mind with their recent Lived Experience Campaign. But for anyone thinking about going down this route I would recommend considering taking advice from experts in storytelling and corporate culture change such as TLC Lions who have been supporting companies in different sectors do just that. 

If you work in insurance in the UK and want to continue learning about how your organisation can build stronger and better company culture keep an eye on the Culture Upskilling Programme from the Lloyd's Culture Team.

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