Lloyd’s hits 35% women in leadership target, seeks broader cultural change
Lloyd’s has achieved the 35% target it set for women in leadership positions in the market, an increase of +3pp from last year, and +6pp from when the target was set in 2020. While the marketplace claimed “strong progress” in its ongoing journey towards diversity and inclusion, its admitted that there’s more ground to cover in evolving its overall culture.
According to its recently published results from its fifth Market Policies and Practices (MP&P) return, the proportion of women in leadership roles has increased +3 percentage points to 35%. There were improvements at all leadership levels, with women making up 25% of Boards (+3pp), 28% of Executive Committees (+2pp) and 36% of Direct Reports to Executive Committee (+2pp). 45% of firms met or exceeded the 35% target, +10pp from last year.
Of the 57,000 people that the return covers, women now make up 43.4% of the total workforce (+0.4pp) and in 2023, 46% of new hires were women, Lloyd’s stated.
The latest market return also showed progress in ethnically diverse hiring. Lloyd's said 21% of new hires in the last year came from an ethnically diverse background, an increase of +4pp. Representation of this group in the market increased by +2pp to 13%. Meanwhile, ethnic minority representation in leadership positions remained unchanged at 9%, “with developing a diverse talent pipeline for Board roles a particular area of focus”.
Furthermore, the report showed that 71% of firms are currently working with partners to undertake outreach activity, +12pp, and are adopting inclusive hiring practices to remove bias in recruitment processes.
Data on various diversity metrics revealed that the percentage of employees who have disclosed a disability, long-term illness, or health problem has remained unchanged at 2% for the past three years. Similarly, the proportion of employees identifying as LGB+ has also stayed consistent at 2% over the same period.
Although it highlighted an increase in wider inclusivity policies and practices such as menopause support (54% of firms, +23pp) and drugs and alcohol policies (97% of firms, +13pp).
The collection of diversity data collection showed improvement - including ethnicity (+6pp), disability (+6pp), sexual orientation (+15pp) and social mobility (+16pp).
The MP&P was conducted from December 13, 2023, to January 31, 2024. 68 out of 69 firms participated in MP&P this year, achieving a 99% response rate. This includes all 55 managing agents and 13 out of the 14 brokers that were invited.
Sara Gomez, Lloyd’s chief people officer, said: “Today’s update shows the steps we’ve taken to improve the culture in our market, from our oversight framework, to our upskilling programme and our public targets, are working. Whilst we’ve hit our short term target for 35% of leadership positions to be filled by women, and the market continues to make progress on representation of diverse groups, we still have a way to go on our culture journey. We will continue to support the market so that Lloyd’s is a destination of choice for global talent, and attracts the best and brightest minds, wherever they come from.”
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