D&I: the Lloyd’s outlook

As London’s re/insurance centre, Lloyd’s has a bird’s-eye view of the market and its slow but progressing diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts. Monica Stancu, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing manager at Lloyd’s, has an overview of the landscape and what more needs to be done across the industry.

“We’ve seen organisation making a lot more progress in this space but there’s still quite a lot to be done, and mobilising leaders is a crucial element in your D&I journey,” said Stancu, during an Intelligent Insurer interview on D&I in the re/insurance industry.

She added: “Leaders set the tone, they set the priorities and they model behaviours we want to see from everybody in the organisations.”

However, progressing D&I is truly everyone’s responsibility said Stancu, noting that “we should all see ourselves as active allies and contribute to creating workplaces that work for everyone”.

Stancu encouraged everyone to play their role in ensuring the industry has D&I-friendly workplaces.

“We can all be leaders in our own right even though we might not have a leadership title. We all play a role in making sure that our workplaces are created with everyone in mind,” she advised.

According to Stancu, the last two years have been a tipping point for D&I.

“The conversation has matured from asking questions such as: ‘Why should I care about D&I?’ ‘What’s the business case for D&I?’ to ‘How can I make progress on D&I’ and ‘How can I be a champion for change?’,” she said.

In good news for the industry, there’s a growing demand not just from employees, but from clients, customers, media and even investors. Companies are making a lot of commitments and pledges around D&I, while also being more transparent, said Stancu.

The bad news is that while the demand has grown exponentially for D&I professionals, the resources, budget and influence don’t always match, she warned.

Stancu hopes that, over the next five years, every company will apply a D&I lens to everything being done throughout the organisation.

“Traditionally D&I has been seen as a junior role in HR but D&I impacts everything you do: your people and practices, culture, procurement, marketing, branding, and the physical and digital environment. It’s a strategic business function and more organisations are realising that,” she added.

Encouraging diverse talent

“We need to make a better case for insurance as a career option. We want to be a destination for people who come from diverse backgrounds and that means talking about insurance in a different way,” said Stancu.

“It’s important to emphasise that insurance does have societal purpose and impact at its heart. That will have such a big impact in attracting more diverse talent.”

Over the past few years, Lloyd’s has put a number of strategies in place to encourage a more diverse workforce. This includes showcasing existing role models in the corporation and in the market via its website and social media, alongside mandatory D&I training for everyone who joins Lloyd’s and inclusive training for hiring managers.

Stancu believes it’s very important to “send the message that the workplace belongs to everyone”.

One way to do this, she suggested, is through blogs and social media campaigns where employees can share the stories of their colleagues.

“That gives permission to everyone to feel that they belong in the workplace and feel that they’re being celebrated by their colleagues,” she added.

To build the next generation of diverse talent, Lloyd’s has partnered with SEO London (a charity delivering educational, training, and mentoring support to young people from under-represented and underserved backgrounds). Through the partnership, the insurance market offers internships, bursaries and mentors to young people from under-represented groups.

Progress is being made across the industry, but representation for ethnic minorities in insurance is still low.

The events of June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd in the US put the “spotlight on the inequalities black colleagues in particular experience in insurance, but also everywhere in the world in every industry”, said Stancu.

She added that these events “unleashed important conversations that were long overdue”.

Last year, Lloyd’s mandated the collection of ethnicity data to understand representation across the market. The current level of people from minority backgrounds is 9 percent for market, and 23 percent for Lloyd’s Corporation.

There’s still a way to go. Stemming from the survey,  Lloyd’s has developed a long-term ethnicity plan that focuses on supporting and developing colleagues from minority backgrounds in the market and the corporation.

Stancu concluded: “I would love to see more organisations collecting diversity data in order to create strategies and action plans that are data-driven.

“Even though there’s still much to do, we are seeing progress. I’m cautiously optimistic as, although culture change does take time, we are moving in the right direction.”