Miller’s Craven on unconscious nature of excluding behaviour

Historically, insurance attracted specific types of people from specific backgrounds, and the market is still catching up on the resulting diverse talent gap. 

While the industry has been changing for the better over recent years, it is integral that we maintain this momentum and keep pushing for greater inclusion across the sector.

I joined Miller two years ago, having spent most of my career at large listed companies across the gaming, telecommunications and financial services sectors. 

When I joined, Miller already had a strong culture and people offering, but the London broking market has trailed behind other industries when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.

We’re really starting to see culture and inclusion come to the fore in the sector, with a growing number of networks and events designed to catalyse progress and educate on its importance. 

It is important that everyone, no matter what their level or experience, is empowered to feel heard and to educate others.

Meanwhile, regulators are increasing scrutiny on non-financial misconduct, further supporting the case for firms’ increased focus on DEI issues. 

Making a difference

At Miller, for instance, we are getting ahead of the curve and looking to adopt the Financial Conduct Authority’s measurements for culture requirements ahead of the implementation date.

As with others in the sector, we’re also setting and holding ourselves accountable to targets, towards which we are making good progress. Currently, we have a 27% representation of women at senior levels, progressing towards our target of 30% for 2025.

However, alongside these important corporate initiatives, we must also remember on a personal level that we are all culture carriers – and all responsible for making a difference.

From both personal experiences and broader observations in the workplace, the unconscious nature of un-inclusive behaviour has really stood out to me. 

As such, I continue to work hard to champion initiatives that raise awareness of inclusivity and ensure that it is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. 

This means empowering people at all levels to understand and champion inclusion and making sure that we are being truly representative of people’s lived experiences.

At Miller, one of our priorities is to ensure that culture is a discussion point that sits at both board level and permeates across all areas of the organisation. 

Empowering people 

We have implemented a number of mandatory training sessions for our executive team, including our Let’s Talk about Inclusion and Let’s Talk about Race programmes – with the former now rolled out as company-wide training and the latter soon to follow. 

We’re also looking at how we can empower line managers with better data on the teams with which they work, to give them greater awareness and knowledge to support inclusivity.

It is also important that everyone, no matter what their level or experience, is empowered to feel heard and to educate others.

As part of this, we set aside budget for our DE&I Alliances – made up of all levels of seniority – to develop initiatives that help educate the business and serve as custodians for connection events, partnering with organisations such as Lloyd’s to ensure we are working with, learning from and fostering change in the broader industry.

While we are certainly making progress towards becoming a more inclusive sector, there is much more to be done. We cannot become complacent, nor let people fall into the trap of seeing targets and initiatives as a tick-box exercise.

Instead, we must consistently pulse check, actively listen and evolve – to ensure that more people truly recognise the importance of becoming a more inclusive and representative industry. 

Above all, we must continue to cultivate a spirit of collective responsibility to ensure the industry maintains its trajectory of meaningful change.

Natacha Craven is chief human resources officer at Miller