Belonging best practice in insurance

Financial inclusion commissioner and Gain founding member Johnny Timpson highlights the role of leadership: “For me, leaders can foster belonging, but frankly be prepared to make yourselves vulnerable. That helps develop psychological safety and gives people permission to engage with you.”

Liisa Antola, senior policy adviser for diversity, equity and inclusion at the Association of British Insurers, encourages firms to engage with the trade body’s equity, diversity and inclusion blueprint, allyship training and leadership sessions.

Ajay Mistry, co-founder of iCan, urges the industry to move away from a project mindset: “Stop looking at inclusion and belonging as a project and start thinking of it as a practice.

“I don’t think it is about jumping from thing to thing. It is really embedding it and saying this is how we operate.”

Carmen Powell, CEO of ISC Group, underlines the power of networks and peer support when it comes to achieving belonging.

“I would like to see a belonging culture in every business. We need to breathe that culture rather than it being a piece of paper in a policy.

“Accepting people’s differences brings a lot more innovation. Diversity always helps the bottom line. Let’s not be a sausage machine of expecting everyone to act the same and be the same.”

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