Empowering women in loyalty

Here at IAGL, we believe that a diverse workforce not only reflects the customers we serve, but it creates a great place to work and belong, too. This is why, in the past year, we've introduced a number of initiatives to make working here more inclusive and diverse. Here's what we've been up to!?

• Partnered with a local all-girls school to help break down gender, class and ethnicity barriers for young girls, giving over 750 students access to inspirational role models in partnership with InnovateHer .??
• Set up our first ever Equity, Diversity and Inclusion squad which brings together passionate colleagues across the business to educate and inspire change through a calendar of workplace events and campaigns. ?
• We’ve partnered with social enterprises such as Academy who are industry leaders in breaking top talent into tech, against barriers, and are proud to say our most recent new joiners into our tech team were 80% female.??
• And finally, we recently delivered our first all-female leadership programme called EmpowHER, to support more women at IAG Loyalty into leadership positions, giving them tools, knowledge, support and network opportunities. ?

We caught up with Aisling Winter (She/Her) , Head of Culture, to find out more about the programme.

Q: Hey Ais, EmpowHER sounds great. Tell us more!

Something really important to me when designing this was for it to be inclusive and open to ALL women in the Head Office. It isn't a high potential programme, it's a space for women to invest in themselves, both professionally and personally. It provides tools, techniques, and a supportive community to help women in their careers and their lives beyond work. The programme covered five key topics, including strengths, values, belief, resilience, and personal brand, and to ensure a more personalised experience, the women were divided into smaller cohorts based on their shared motivations for joining EmpowHER. This not only fostered networking during the programme but also created a long-term community of support among women even after the programme ended.

Q: Where did the idea for EmpowHER come from?

Firstly, it comes from a passion of supporting women in their careers. But more than that, our data shows us that despite having a positive ratio of women in our company overall, we don't see the same split maintained at senior levels.This isn’t an easy one to fix, and we’re not na?ve enough to think that one fabulous programme addresses that. It’s the combination of things like EmpowHER that show women at IAG Loyalty that we take belonging seriously and that we care about their careers and want to invest in them.??

We chose to work with Amazing If on the programme, as quite frankly they are fabulous and I’m a bit of a fan girl, but also, because their squiggly careers model really aligns with my thinking on the sorts of careers women should be able to forge in a business.

Whether it’s up, down, sideways, squiggly, that bit isn’t important. We just want our female colleagues to feel valued, supported and confident to take their careers in any direction.??

Q: Why are you passionate about helping females thrive at work?

I’ve been blessed in my career to work with several brilliant leaders who have supported my career. I have to remind myself not to be self-deprecating and see that as pure luck (Amazing If taught me that - thanks Helen and Sarah). I know I have played my part by working my socks off, but I realise that having strong leaders has helped me too.

It really impacts me when I see women feeling held back because of their gender, and of course, this is often linked to starting a family. Early on, when I had my first daughter, I moved to working part-time and I’m proud that in that time I was promoted several times, including once when I was pregnant with my second daughter. But that experience should be the norm - it shouldn’t be newsworthy.

I want women to have the skills and confidence to represent themselves, to never compromise on what’s important to them and to know that they have the right to have a successful career.

My hope is that EmpowHER has given IAGL women the knowledge about what matters for them and the confidence to stand by that - so that they can thrive at work and home, whatever their circumstances.?

A safe space for women to meet, share and learn?

One of our recent EmpowHER graduates, Hayley Denson (currently on Maternity Leave) , Early Talent and Talent Acquisition Partner, took part in the programme:

"As someone quite new to the business when I signed up, and someone who has a passion for empowering women I loved the fact that any woman, in any role could apply for the EmpowHER programme – not something I have experienced anywhere else before. It felt quite special!?

For me personally, I have loved every session, I really struggle to find the time to reflect and the sessions have forced me to do just that. Not only that but I feel that it has created a safe space for women to share and learn more about each other, a genuine place to find support without judgement.

For me, a stand out session was “knowing your strengths,” I thought I knew what they were but after the session and the work I realised how different my “natural” strengths and my "perceived" strengths actually are. This was a real lightbulb moment for me and it has changed how I approach working, I also feel the benefit at the end of the working week.?

I would recommend EmpowHER to everyone at IAGL, even if you don’t have a passion to one day be a leader, I have left the programme with more confidence, a better understanding of myself (and others!) and a much wider network than I had before."

Thanks for sharing with us, Ais and Hayley!??

If you’re looking to work in a place that helps females go places, get in touch today! Careers | Join Our Team | IAG Loyalty