Think globally, act locally

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) have become one of the most pressing business imperatives in the insurance industry in recent years. While gender diversity is 
easy to track through recruiting, an inclusive workplace requires a deeper transformation in corporate culture and values.

About a decade ago, I was approached by a senior manager of a company that had an all-male technical workforce. He recognised that a varied workforce is needed for healthy growth of the organisation, and he went on to recruit skilled and experienced female candidates, offering pay parity.

Unfortunately, the initiative failed. Despite his best efforts at hiring correctly, he had failed to set the tone with his existing team and failed to create a workspace that was inclusive for women.

As new female managers left one after another within months, it deepened the wrong perceptions and led to more adverse stereotyping. For me, nothing proved the need for an inclusive environment more than this.

Since then, as a member of Markel Corporation’s global D&I steering committee and chief executive officer of Markel India, I have noticed that the industry has been changing. Perceptions around D&I have started to be communicated with clearer and constant efforts from top management.

From an Indian standpoint, gender equality has been the primary focus for several years now, and it can be reflected in our laws and corporate policies. I am pleased to see good progress within the insurance industry in India in terms of gender diversity, with several senior leadership positions being held by women.

However, gender diversity is just a fraction of the entire D&I imperative in the workplace and it is certainly more than just a pie chart represented by numbers and figures. In particular, Asia is so diverse in terms of economic backgrounds, religion, language, and culture, and almost every Asian country is made up of different minority communities.

First steps
The first step for any organisation is to ensure that they build an inclusive work culture where all groups are being heard. It is important to set the right tone within the company and then hire correctly—the cost of repetitive hiring without an inclusive culture will do more damage in the long run.

At Markel, we run several initiatives and access to support groups within the company to make sure that we cultivate an inclusive environment. We have a global D&I steering committee with members from various Markel offices, including from different states in the US, Canada, UK and Asia. The group talks on a monthly basis and our role is to be the voice of the employee, whereby we promote and provide direction to key decisions that would create a more inclusive workspace.

One initiative that we are currently piloting is to anonymise the recruitment process. This removes any positive or negative recruitment bias that comes with knowing the candidate’s name, age or address which may indicate background—be it socioeconomic, gender, religion, or ethnicity.

While the process may be difficult to implement in some markets—given that certain business segments have a small talent pool, and a candidate’s résumé and work experiences may be a dead giveaway—it is an approach we would like to adopt.

Markel also empowers our employee-led networks, which are founded by employees to address a variety of gender, ethnicity, experience and age-specific challenges. With the intent of including all employees to learn and become allies for creating a more 
inclusive environment, Markel’s employee networks are gaining momentum through various networking and mentorship opportunities as well as speaking events by industry and subject matter experts.

As we set our sights on growing our international business, Markel has always done this by hiring locally and diversely. This is true for our Asia-Pacific offices in China, Hong Kong, India and especially at our regional head office in Singapore, which is a melting pot for religious diversity, different races and ethnicity.

With an inclusive workplace as well as a diverse and satisfied workforce as brand ambassadors, the organisation will become a magnet for the right talent. At Markel, we know that our employees are our greatest assets. We firmly believe in providing a nurturing environment guided by our ‘Markel Style’ which encourages individuals to reach their personal potential.

We believe that a fully diverse and inclusive culture allows us to innovate faster, deliver more compelling customer experiences, have a strong business brand and attract the best talent.

As an industry, I believe that we are taking steps in the right direction. Diversity in Asia means different things compared to other parts of the world.

We need to ensure that we continue to support local needs through global initiatives from the top so that organisations can continue their growth along the right path.

Deepika Mathur is chief executive officer of Markel India. She can be contacted at:  deepika.mathur@markel.com