Postcard from Dive In 2024

With this year’s Dive In Festival attracting participants across a record 48 countries over more than 130 sessions, the three-day event has continuously highlighted that inclusion is a business imperative which requires focus and commitment all year round.

Discussions around supporting women in the workplace included a Howden-hosted panel on Wednesday which outlined the three phases of a woman’s career, as well as how to battle against toxic productivity and the need to be perceived as consistent and disciplined.

This begins with a phase of idealistic achievement, in which budding professionals gain experience to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and build a foundation for their career.

Kelly Ogley, CEO of consumer and local commercial at Howden, noted that while there can be a fine line between saying “yes” to a plethora of opportunities and being taken advantage of, it is up to the individual to figure out personal boundaries.

The second phase – pragmatic endurance – is marked by taking on more responsibilities both at work and in your personal life (having children, caring for elderly parents, or other emotional support) while refining what value you bring to the organisation.

During this phase, women may feel like they have to prove themselves professionally. However, this is not sustainable and can easily lead to burnout, underlining the need to develop boundaries and foster good communication within teams.

The third phase of reinventive contribution is focused on building a legacy within your field – for example through mentoring schemes, by undertaking research projects, or by delivering keynote speeches.

The overarching message of the panel was that an illustrious and sustainable career requires a shift to anti-burnout culture, with warnings that hyperindependence and imposter syndrome can strike at any phase.

Meanwhile, in a webinar entitled ‘Reinvigorating race’, Lloyd’s head of culture Mark Lomas explained that since society in practice is not meritocratic, “levelling the playing field” through programmes and initiatives designed to promote equity does not mean tipping the balance in favour of a particular group, but rather ensuring objective competition.

Lomas noted that while some may feel that levelling the playing field diminishes networking and connections, he added that those that think DEI initiatives take away their opportunities are a “loud minority”.

Intersectionality

As previously reported, a panel on Tuesday underlined the importance of understanding intersectionality and how this impacts identity.

Jenifer Denby, global head of inclusion and diversity at WTW, outlined several ways in which intersections can affect women in various demographics in the workplace. For example, a study by the UN found that women with a disability globally have an employment rate of 20 percent, compared to 53 percent for disabled men, while McKinsey’s annual ‘Women in the Workplace’ report found that LGBTQ+ women are much more likely to experience microaggressions in the workplace.

“This type of data is really helpful as we think about our hiring policies, where and how we attract talent, both in our organisations and our industry,” Denby said.

“Thinking with this intersectional lens then leads us on to thinking about how to use the data to feed into DEI programmes. Acknowledging those intersectional identities can help us think about our policies or programmes, but also about how to strengthen our culture.”

Social mobility

A DEI topic that is discussed less than gender and race is that of social mobility, which was the subject of a panel on Wednesday.

Socioeconomic background in the UK is generally measured by parental occupation, educational attainment, and eligibility for means-tested policies such as free school meals.

According to statistics cited by panel moderator Becka White, a survey by HR Review in 2022 found that one-third of UK employees said classism was “alive and well” in their workplace.

“Talent is everywhere but opportunity is not. Social mobility only works in action if there are opportunities, and access to those opportunities,” said White.

Socioeconomic consensus is more subtle, with key cultural differences including accents, dress code, exclusive hobbies and holidays, visiting expensive restaurants/bars after work, and the ability to take on fixed-term contracts and unpaid internships.

KPMG analyst David McIntosh described social mobility as one of the areas of DEI that is easy to miss, particularly if a sector has an elitist reputation.

“Social mobility is the only characteristic we see as a charitable endeavour rather than a difference to celebrate,” said McIntosh.

“Organisations shouldn’t treat us as someone to put on a social mobility treadmill that we run faster on and get out the other end. So many organisations want their staff to be exceptional but not an exception. We need to fix that branding problem of social mobility as a charity problem to fix.”

Pritesh Modhvadia, group head of talent and development at Howden, added the prevalence of informal networks in the insurance sector, such as university-educated family members and friends, or those with a financial/professional standing.

He argued that insurance is not as visible a career option for those young people without a family member or family friend that works in the industry – leading to a circle of referrals among similar groups of people.

This can be addressed by broadening the spectrum of what early careers mean, with some brokers beginning to abolish unpaid work experience and internships, or else offering to pay for travel on assessment days, and anonymising CVs to avoid recognising any familiar surnames.