The insurance industry, like most other business sectors, has seen a reshaping of attitudes towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in recent years and alignment around the need to address it. We have seen major civil society driven movements such as Black Lives Matter (BLM and #MeToo that have brought DEI into the spotlight. Further to this, initiatives in the UK such as the Insurance Women’s Inclusivity network, the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network and the ABI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Blueprint are having a tangible impact on the sector in this area.
Nevertheless, compared to other industries, the insurance and wider financial services sector are not leaders in DEI.
What more needs to be done to make the insurance industry a fair and inclusive place to work?
We have collaborated with the Association of British Insurers to take a closer look at how things stand around DEI in Insurance and, most importantly, to identify what needs to be done to help you build your business with greater diversity, equity and inclusion.
Reshaping DEI in Insurance
Build your business with greater diversity, equity and inclusion
Download PDF (7.91 MB) ⤓Here are the stats from the report across the main areas of focus: DEI strategy, gender, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, social mobility, neurodiversity and disability.
DEI strategy
The percentage of organisations in the insurance sector with a diversity strategy has risen steadily since 2017, when data began being collected. There are also an increasing number of other diversity characteristics being tracked, including LBGTQ+, social mobility, neurodiversity, disability, menopause, age and faith.
Proportion of companies that have a DEI strategy or policy
Source: Association of British Insurers Talent and Diversity survey 2021
Gender
Overall, female representation is relatively stable until the senior manager mark, when it drops from the mid-forties to 36% and declines further across the senior levels.
Proportion of women at each industry level
Source: Association of British Insurers Talent and Diversity survey 2021
Ethnicity
Ethnic representation is low in the insurance and long-term savings sector and has decreased further over the last few years, from 16% in 2017 to 9% in 2021. This overall reduction is mostly due to a fall in Black, Asian and minority ethnic employees at entry and experienced non-manager level, as representation at executive level actually increased from 2% to 5%.
Total industry Black and Minority Ethnic representation 2021
Source: Association of British Insurers Talent and Diversity survey 2021
LGBTQ+
There was a decline in companies having a specific LGBTQ+ inclusion policy, from 36% in 2020 to 26% in 2021. At the same time, there has been a steady increase in the number of internal networks and external organisations supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion/ representation in the workplace.
Proportion of companies that have a specific DEI policy
Source: Association of British Insurers Talent and Diversity survey 2021
Social mobility
Organisations have become more aware of social mobility as a category of diversity in recent years, with more and more companies capturing social data from their employees. Well over a quarter (29%) of companies are capturing data on social mobility in insurance and a further 20% are planning to do so in the future.
Proportion of companies capturing social mobility (SM) data
Source: Association of British Insurers Talent and Diversity survey 2021
Neurodiversity and disability
Neurodiversity is still emerging as a recognised DEI characteristic. As a result, it is not yet widely included in diversity data analysis. Only 14% of companies in the ABI survey have specific policies to support neurodiverse individuals in the workplace. None of the respondents have any recruitment targets for disabled people. But two thirds (66%) of companies work with external organisations for supporting inclusion or representation of disabled workers in the workplace.
