Making D&I part of your core business will dictate future success
It's time to harness the insurance industry's energy and enthusiasm around diversity and inclusion to implement real change.
The word “initiative” is often tossed around when business leaders talk about diversity & inclusion. We’re hearing of new, inspired and wonderful initiatives to make employees feel more comfortable bringing their authentic selves to the workplace, initiatives to advance female leaders up the ranks, and programs aimed at bringing more diversity to corporate boards.
But these actions have to be more than initiatives; they have to become strategic priorities, core parts of how we run our businesses moving forward.
The insurance industry has made great strides toward improving D&I within the workforce, but there’s more work to do. In the wake of recent events highlighting social injustice and the socio-economic, cultural and racial disparities brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic, people are clamoring for change now. This energy should be harnessed to fuel the change we’ve been talking about and moving toward for years. We’ve laid the groundwork for a better future; now let’s use this new energy, passion and enthusiasm to build on that progress and implement real change.
Implementing this change will not only be good for humanity, but it will also be good for business. Diverse people deliver diverse thought, and diverse thought delivers better outcomes that encourage creativity, spawn innovation, and enhance profitability. Research from the Boston Consulting Group found companies with higher levels of diversity saw 38% of their revenues generated from innovative products and services than did their counterparts with less diversity represented. Further, BCG found that companies with higher gender diversity pulled 34% of their revenues from innovative products and services, while their counterparts with less diversity saw just 25% in innovation revenues.
Working toward change
So how do we encourage more action and ensure D&I is a strategic priority that is central in everything we do as a company?
It all starts with an authentic and visible commitment from company leadership. At Amwins, we view advancing D&I as a responsibility to ensure we’re progressing the business and our workforce, as well as how we interact with our customers and best meet their needs. Many companies are offering D&I training, and we’ve been at the forefront. We’ve organized our own comprehensive D&I training, and already nearly half of our 6,200 employees have completed the program.
We’ve also launched a D&I Council led by 20 talented individuals who have served as an amazing sounding board and incubator of ideas. This is a group of diverse employees who raised their hands and wanted to participate. They are leading trainings and participating in panels and conversations and helping us to facilitate fresh thinking on the D&I front and beyond.
We’re measuring our progress in five-year-increments, and we’re seeing results. Today, we are proud to say we have an excellent group of women in senior leadership at Amwins, but we recognize that we need to do more. To accomplish this, we’re launching a Women’s Leadership Program with curriculum for 10-12 women who company managers have recognized to have strong potential. This is a formal in-person program implementing executive coaching, programs to develop certain skill sets, and mentoring. We’ve also made it a priority to not push these women onto certain career paths. We will share ideas of where we think they can go, but we want to put an emphasis on listening to them and learning where they want to take their careers.
Recruiting for tomorrow
Another way the industry is looking at advancing diversity within the workforce is through new, thoughtful and deliberate recruiting efforts. As we’ve progressed in terms of D&I over the years, we’ve learned that we need to be broadening our view of diversity by searching for and welcoming diverse talent not just from different racial and ethnic backgrounds but also with different social and economic backgrounds, as well. This alone is not enough. We also need to spread the word about the good that we do as an industry to attract new talent.
Insurance is an industry that promotes resilience. It allows individuals and businesses to accept a level of risk and have downside protection. Without insurance, capital markets, lending activities and our economy would grind to a halt. It might not sound as exciting as investment banking, but we offer incredibly interesting niches within the broader industry. Once you have students and prospective hires thinking more broadly, this message will resonate quickly allowing them to visualize how fulfilling a career in insurance can be.
Our company is looking to partner with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in different regions of the country. To launch this effort, we partnered with Tuskegee University in Alabama to assist in developing a risk management program focused on data and analytics. Partnering with the Wholesale and Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA) Foundation Board, we have begun the 3-to 5-year journey to build that risk management curriculum. Amwins has pledged $1 million over the next ten years to the WSIA Diversity Foundation to grow the program and support various diversity efforts in our industry.
Our partnership with WSIA is a great example of how the industry can make more of an impact when we work together, share resources and experiences. The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation is another shining example, promoting diversity, inclusion and leadership development through its professional network and industry events such as the International Inclusion in Insurance Forum.
Finally, as are others across the industry, we make it a priority to interview a diverse slate of candidates for every opening we have. While we may not always hire our diverse candidates, this provides an opportunity for the individuals interviewed to grow and allows us to ensure we’ve cast a wide net for each open position.
We’re on our way to a more diverse and inclusive workforce. It will take time, resources and budget commitments, but the payback will be many times more than what our industry invests. Again, we can’t look for short-term wins, hope to check off a box and say we’ve met our goal. Once we start thinking fundamentally about how we run our businesses with a focus on D&I at the core, real change will come.
Scott Purviance (Scott.Purviance@amwins.com) is chief executive officer and board director for Amwins. One of the company’s first employees, Scott joined Amwins in 2001 as chief financial officer and served as chief operating officer before accepting the role of CEO. A strong supporter of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, Scott will be speaking at IICF’s International Inclusion in Insurance Forum June 15-17.
These opinions are the author’s own.
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