ABI plots road to diversity, equity & inclusion across UK insurance

The  Association of British Insurers (ABI) has a multi-year plan to build out the industry's DEI credentials from recruitment through professional development and benchmarking.

The ABI calls its blueprint a "holistic approach to DEI" with "priority areas for the ABI to lead, good practice for industry, and opportunities for collaboration with experts."

Near-term targets are declarative: the ABI seeks 50 corporate signatories to the Transparent Parental Leave initiative, the Women in Finance Charter, the Race at Work Charter, the Making Flexible Work charter.

Graduate recruitment has the most specific amongst programme KPIs. The ABI hopes to increase the apprenticeship count by 50% to 1800 already in 2023.

"With an enhanced focus on ethnicity and socio-economic diversity, the Blueprint highlights opportunities for apprentices and school-leavers, as well as participating in initiatives to support under-represented groups into the industry, and inclusive recruitment practices," authors wrote.

Benchmarks thereafter remain blurry, save a vow to double the number of apprenticeships to 2500 by 2025. Elsewhere, mid-term goals, like many short-term goals, focus on learning and sharing best practices across recruitment and professional development.

ABI sees some recent progress, but a much longer road ahead. The proportion of female board members increased from 29% to 32% in 2021, but the practice's overall ethnic minority proportion fell from 10% to 9%, largely due to decreases at entry level, the ABI said.

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