Insurance industry must tackle gender balance
The insurance industry must do more to address gender balance, according to respondents to a survey conducted by Dive In, the global festival for diversity and inclusion (D&I) in insurance that counts AXA XL, Chubb and Markel among its sponsors.
Gender balance topped the list of issues that insurers should focus on, with 54 percent of respondents citing it as an area of concern. Mental health was cited by 47 percent of respondents, with culture and ethnicity an issue for 38 percent and family and care responsibility highlighted by 28 percent.
Dive In, which is celebrating its fifth year of operations, conducted its research from over 5000 of its attendees and established that 94 percent of respondents understand that inclusion is a client facing issue.
Both the Middle East and the Americas highlighted gender equality as a key barrier to overcome, while mental health sits high on the agenda for Europe and the UK, Dive In said.
The insurance industry is the first to run a sector-wide global diversity and inclusion festival focused on workplace culture.
Pauline Miller, head of talent development and inclusion at Lloyd’s, said: “More advanced markets have known for some time that D&I is not just a ‘nice to have’ but a commercial imperative, yet this research has made it clear that this is also the case all over the world.”
Jason Groves, chair of the Dive In committee and global director of media relations at Marsh, said: “The adoption of the festival in places like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria shows that more and more companies have become determined to build inclusive workplaces, enabling them to attract top talent. By coming together to share good D&I practices we can help them drive cultural change more effectively.”
The festival is sponsored by AIG, Aon, Aviva, AXA XL, Chubb, CNA, CNA Hardy, DLA Piper, Gallagher, Guy Carpenter, Kennedys, Lloyd’s, Markel, Marsh, Miller, MS Amlin, Oliver James, PwC, RMS, RSA, Willis Towers Watson and Zurich.
