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The UK insurance industry is stamping out unwanted behaviours with the inclusivity pledge, pushing diversity up the agenda through events such as the Insurance Business Women In Insurance Summit, and is being held to account by the gender pay reporting rules.
But there are a number of specific actions that businesses within the industry need to take in order to support women within their ranks in climbing the ladder, says the chief executive of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
“We know from the gender pay gap reporting that there isn’t now an issue with men and women being paid differential money for the same role. The issue is that so many fewer women progress to the better paid, higher, more senior roles. We know that there is a big group of women at the lower paid end of the market, and that is definitely something that companies need to focus on,” Sian Fisher told Insurance Business.
At the top of the list of action points for insurers and broking firms is the implementation of initiatives to create a more equal working environment for men and women.
“There are lots of positive things that we already know are able to make a difference. Flexible working, agile working, allowing men to talk about the fact that they need to be carers too, and that they need to be able to take career breaks and do things the same as women have traditionally done,” Fisher said.
Having senior women at the top of the business is also key in role-modelling success to those in the lower ranks, according to the chief executive.
“Role-modelling helps a lot. It’s very hard if you are in a company where you can’t see above you women in senior positions,” she said. “There are still quite a lot of companies around that are like that. Most of those companies are quite well-intentioned, but you need to have [things like] networking groups that provide those role models if they aren’t available in your own company.”
How well a company supports women employees in returning to work after a career break, often to have children or care for family members, also plays a significant role in their careers – Fisher pointed to data that suggests a large proportion of women feel their firm doesn’t do enough to encourage them to return to work. A culture of presenteeism can also impact those with children or family commitments and discourage them from aiming for higher-level positions.
“There’s a lot of focus now going into recruiting fairly, and there’s a lot of thought around gender-neutral language and incentivising women to come into roles, but it’s obvious that there’s still some focus needed on structuring those roles to take women’s lives into account, and not hard-coding elements like entertaining or getting into work early into them,” Fisher said.
“It’s about not making presenteeism a key element of being considered for senior roles, and accepting that it’s your skills and your output that make you successful in any role, whether it’s junior or senior, not the fact that you’re able to do three client dinners a week or get into the office early.”
Join Insurance Business in London on October 29 for The Women in Insurance Summit, which will bring together some of the biggest names in the industry to address the key challenges faced by women in the UK insurance sector. Speakers include Sian Fisher, UK General CEO Karen Beales, Chubb’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Europe Eurasia and Africa, Louisa Lombardo, and many more of insurance’s most senior women.
