Lloyd’s staff urged to ‘behave’ during party season

Employees at Lloyd's of London have been told to watch their behaviour during the Christmas party season, according to reports.

The market’s chief executive John Neal told magazine Financial News that staff have been emailed warning them to be "particularly careful".

This approach is not surprising given Lloyd’s recent efforts to address the laddish culture that has been blamed for accusations of sexual harassment. Almost one in 10 (8 percent) of staff at the 300-year old insurance market said they had witnessed sexual harassment in the past 12 months, according to a survey commissioned by Lloyd’s. The EC3 based organisation has also faced critical articles about its male dominated culture in recent times, including a particularly detailed piece by Bloomberg.

Last month, the market launched a campaign to encourage more people to speak up against unacceptable behaviour they see at work. The #SpeakUp campaign is part of a raft of measures implemented by the market to tackle the findings of Lloyd’s Annual Cultural Survey (published September 24, 2019). It is also intended to speed up progress towards a culture of integrity, respect and inclusion.

The campaign aims to highlight the importance of speaking up and provides clear guidance on how individuals can take action if they see or experience unacceptable behaviour.