DEI: Beyond Simply the Right Thing to Do

When I joined INSHUR just over two years ago as the VP People, Talent & Culture I found myself in a not-so-surprising environment, especially for the industry that exists at the intersection of tech and insurance. I was interviewed by a panel of exclusively (white) men, and women represented less than 22% of the company’s workforce. I was, and continued to be for another 18 months, the only female in the core leadership team. As I tend to work in male dominated industries (music first, now tech), I’ve long ago developed a real desire to make the companies I join, and as an extension the industry I operate in, more equitable to those less privileged than the group that’s in the majority. Being from an underrepresented group myself (a woman, a foreigner, a parent), I understand some of the pain very well - but I am also very aware of my privileges. I am a white, European, cis heterosexual woman. My level of English is good and I’ve been living in the UK long enough (16 years now!) for my CV to be relevant both geographically and industry-wise. But this wasn’t always the case and I too struggled not only to be ‘let in’ but also fit in - even now. So I’ve made it my mission to move the needle, inch by inch, step by step, with every action I take, in every role I occupy. This, amongst other things, means making the companies I join, more diverse and, hopefully, also more inclusive. Working on this has meant having a lot of hard and sometimes extremely uncomfortable conversations, as well as continuously examining my own privileges, biases, and ways of doing things. And while I can’t claim I’ve always been successful, I’d like to think I’ve made a dent.

At INSHUR, my team made it our business to look at our internal data continuously and make small incremental improvements anywhere we can. The data we track not only forms part of our team’s KPIs, but also serves as a vital indicator for us - and the wider business - to understand the improvements we are making, almost with each new hire (of which there were 100+ in 2021 alone). We track gender (and identification), age, nationality, race/ethnicity, disabilities, parental status, and neurodiversity when it comes to our team, and we track what we can via our ATS when it comes to our applicants.?

It’s less about targets, and more about goals really - and internally, we’ve made decent progress, particularly on gender. In 2018 only 17.6% of our workforce was female, climbing to 21.8% a year later when I joined. We ended 2021 at 42%. It’s not quite half, but we’re getting there. Our extended leadership team is made of 50% women and 30% of our team identified as POC as we wrapped up 2021.

We recognize that we’ve been taking the right steps to move the needle, and we are continuously developing concrete plans for further improvement, but we’re not quite where we want to be. We are very aware of the importance of diverse voices on our team – and how a variety of perspectives, experiences, ages, races and ethnicities, abilities, sizes, nationalities and cultures, gender identities and sexual identities, backgrounds, classes, and more - can help us build a better business model, better company to work for, and a more equitable workplace for all. We still have a way to go but I’m proud of the movements we’ve made so far.?

And, while we certainly don’t do any of the work outlined above for recognition, we don’t exactly hate it when we receive some - in the last 6 months we’ve not only been recognised as the 22nd Most Flexible Company to work for (out of 100) by Flexa, but also ranked #1 on InHerSight's List of Best Insurance Companies to Work For AND listed on their List of Best Small Companies to Work For. We also received a Diversity & Inclusion Award at British Insurance Awards 2021 - something we are extra proud of. Our Glassdoor rating also speaks volumes about the inclusive workplace we’ve cultivated - look us up here!

But why is it we need an inclusive and diverse workforce

Quite aside from being the right thing to do, paying attention to DEI makes good business sense. We are in a fortunate position where we can focus on this now, but if you’re an early-stage startup, there may be various reasons - time constraints, budget constraints, etc - that mean you’re less able to prioritise DEI efforts at this time. You may have a lack of resources (by this I mean money, not people!) to hire a diverse team in an industry with a skewed talent pool or there may simply be different priorities that take the front seat. And while these priorities may be valid at the time, decision makers should be made aware that by not taking action early, you're acquiring a ‘diversity debt’. And much like engineering debt, this one is also very hard to rectify later on.?

However, if you are thinking about this right now, then one thing to consider may be around repositioning a conversation about diversity from “what the business can do for underrepresented groups” and instead focus on what underrepresented groups can do for the business. Reframing this should help get the buy-in from those that still need persuading - often ‘because it’s the right thing to do’ needs backing up and numbers are often what works best here. So let’s have a look.

There’s a bunch of research to support the notion that ‘diversity is good for business’. According to McKinsey’s Why Diversity Matters (2015) report ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors financially while the number for gender-diverse companies stands at 15%. Their follow up report Delivering through Diversity (2018) reaffirms the global relevance of the link between diversity - defined as a greater proportion of women and a more mixed ethnic and cultural composition in the leadership of large companies - and company financial outperformance.

For gender, the executive team shows the strongest correlation, showing that female-fronted management teams are 21% more likely to exceed their profitability goals compared to those lacking women in decision-making roles. But overall, ethnic diversity can be more impactful than gender diversity - companies ranking in the top 25% in terms of the ethnic mix of their executive boards have shown to be 33% more likely to be profitable than those in the bottom 25%. So the data is pretty clear.?

Turning what we've learned into actions

If you’re looking to improve diversity across your org, and make your workplace a more inclusive one, here’s some of the things I’ve seen work well in the past:

• Make sure to use language that’s welcoming and inclusive to all. This means writing job specs in a gender neutral or “female coded” language, perhaps using a tool to verify - data shows that men will still apply to female coded adverts, while women will not apply for male coded ones. It’s been well documented that women will only apply if they feel they meet 100% criteria in a job ad, while men are happy applying if they meet 60%.
• Put in place processes and policies that support equal opportunities, then make sure they are adhered to. These cannot be mere words on a document - commitment to equitable salaries and equitable opportunities for all need to stack up in day-to-day practices and it’s important to put in place various levers to ensure this is true.?
• Operate a fixed salary structure. This means that two people in the same role at the same level receive equal pay and comparable progression opportunities, regardless of their gender, age, etc. We found that a Levelling & Progression framework helps with this, as do regular salary reviews.?
• When designing your benefits, take extra care to ensure they are inclusive. This could mean offering extended parental leave (we offer 13 weeks fully paid parental leave regardless of gender), sick leave that includes mental as well as physical health coverage, or generous holiday offering (we offer 30 days and expect folks to take it in full). If you can, offer private healthcare for your team members (we also include families), or an additional add-on to the paycheck in the shape of a flexible wellbeing allowance. A decent L&D allowance also goes a long way - we support our team members with their learning by providing a no-questions-asked flat ￡1000 annually, and use a tool to make access to learning easy and accessible.?
• Recognize and combat unconscious bias. Easier said than done, especially when folks think they don’t hold any biases or get defensive over it all. We do our utmost to avoid bias in our hiring process - from using structured interviewing processes, ensuring our interview panels are representative of our workforce, and using a standardised application review.?
• Put in the work to not only attract people from a variety of different backgrounds but also ensure they feel included, celebrated, and welcomed once they join. Don’t ever just recruit people who are different - or hire because of it. Once hired, allow folks to be different. Remember: “diversity is being asked to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.” (wise words of Vernā Myers, VP, Inclusion Strategy at Netflix). Understand that folks won’t simply come to you, especially if your brand name is not yet well known. Advertise your jobs far and wide, A/B test platforms continuously to see how they perform, and make sure they reach as diverse groups of people as possible. If you can,? put in place a visa sponsorship licence so that you can hire people from outside the boundaries of your respective current territories. Make explicit what accessibility you have in place and ensure this reflects in the interviewing process too - wheelchair accessible offices, thought out but flexible interviewing process, ensuring to make any reasonable adjustments you can make to accommodate disabilities of all kinds. Make some internal documentation public, which is something we’ve done from our Culture Deck and our Playbook. It’s important these are externally available to both current and future teammates alike. Support any initiative by your teammates that would bring you one step closer to creating a truly diverse and inclusive company.
• Commit to feedback and create safe spaces to have difficult conversations. Prioritize empathy & kindness. Put the work in to really prove you value different perspectives, experiences, and ideas. Do what you can to amplify and elevate each other and encourage people to speak their mind but aim to always assume positive intent. Encourage continuous feedback through your 1-1s, team meetings, offsites, and 360s. Share knowledge and feedback to build on your teammates’ skills and abilities - we want everyone to be open to learning as much as possible and work hard to stop any knowledge hoarding. Continuously speak about company values, create and enforce a Code Of Conduct. And even though we are still not great at feedback, we are committed to it as a company.

But my strongest advice is this: work hard to educate yourself continuously, diversify your circle, challenge your own biases and listen when folks flag them up for you, and get out of your comfort zone and get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

As my quest continues, so do my learnings along the way

So, as I wrap up, I’ll leave you with a few things I’ve learned during my own DEI journey.

1. Design for diversity and make your diversity efforts deliberate. These things don’t ‘just happen’, they need to be designed and thought through. Everything from job ads, benefits, internal culture and external employer branding informs your success in building diverse teams. It takes a lot of work, a real commitment, some uncomfortable conversations and a lot of education.
2. Identify areas you want to tackle. Aim to make a realistic plan, and tackle areas of focus one step at a time. One thing that could work is identifying “champions” for a specific topic (gender, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, etc) and allow for any ERGs to flourish - but be mindful you don’t just ask for folks from under-represented groups to do the unpaid work for you. Not everyone will want to get involved - but some will and they need to know that it’s ok - and celebrated - when they do.
3. Fight the bias. We all have unconscious bias - it doesn’t mean we wilfully discriminate of course, but bias alone can mean our diversity efforts can fall flat if we’re not careful. While we can never take the bias out of people fully, we CAN take bias out of the process. Work on that.
4. Over communicate. Don’t assume everyone understood the message the way it was intended. Ensure to hear the voices. Amplify and elevate each other by repeating each other’s point in meetings to make sure they’re heard. Talk to underrepresented groups. Don’t assume you know because you read about it / listened to a talk etc. Everyone’s experience is different. Be observant of how people are.
5. Codify things, and make your commitments clear, both internally and externally. In our quest to build a more diverse team and make our workplace even more inclusive, we recently penned Our Commitment to DEI. It’s important to state commitments publicly, even if just internally mostly, to hold ourselves accountable and to show that we are serious about making our workplace, and the world by extension, a more equitable, inclusive, and better place. We’re a proud signatory of The Tech Talent Charter and the Diverse Sussex initiative and we support organisations that are changing the ratio wherever we can.
6. Be a voice of change in your organisation. Push for inclusive practices and policies. Correct people when needed. Be supportive. Believe what you hear. Show people it’s safe to come forward. Don’t be afraid to speak up. It’s everyone’s job.?

And remember, there’s no shortcuts - we all have to do the work to build out workplaces that are more equitable, more diverse and more inclusive. My quest for better representation certainly continues with every single company I join and if you feel similarly keep going! I’m rooting for you every step of the way.

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