“Well, I Never!”

2020 was, without doubt, a challenging year for businesses, and 2021 is trailing not far behind.

This week has seen Lloyd’s publish the findings from their 2020 annual culture survey Lloyd’s culture survey shows progress towards a more inclusive market. It certainly makes for interesting reading.

From one of the world’s oldest industries, insurance in some respects has been slow to change with the times and adopt to the evolving world around it. The survey tracked the markets collective progress towards a more inclusive environment. It looked at areas of businesses that need attention (and action) if the time of change is to happen. 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are sitting up and taking note and as such, this serves as a timely reminder to businesses to look at their policies. Lloyds looked at 5 areas as part of the survey:  Ethnicity, Gender, Leadership, Speaking Up, and Wellbeing. Lloyds champions the need to have robust polices in place that reflect and show innovation, with the belief that these helps drive high performance of business. Covid-19 has taught us many things and shown us many new ways of working. HR operations and policies need to reflect these and taking time to review them is critical.

Some of the report findings include:

Gender Balance – Women’s perceptions have improved by 7 points on average across all characteristics, with men’s scores up 3 points. There was a 5-point improvement in the number of respondents believing that people do not have equal opportunities (2020: 14%; 2019:19%).

Speaking up – There was a 5-point improvement in the percentage of respondents who would feel comfortable raising concerns about behaviour in the Lloyd’s market (2020: 50%; 2019: 45%). There was a 16-point improvement in those who raised a concern feeling they were listened to and taken seriously (2020: 57%; 2019: 41%).  

Wellbeing – Fewer respondents said that working in their organisation had a negative impact on their health and wellbeing (2020: 15%; 2019: 23%). The survey showed there was no improvement in respondents feeling under excessive pressure to perform at work (2020: 40%; 2019: 40%). The survey picked up a single digit count of people saying their line manager had supported them throughout the coronavirus crisis.

Leadership – There was a small decrease in the number of respondents who do not believe senior leaders in their organisation take responsibility (2020: 8%; 2019: 16%). The survey showed a small drop in the proportion of respondents who said that people in their organisation turned a blind eye to inappropriate behaviour fell to 15% (2019: 22%).

If you cannot spell progress, this shows it in action, perhaps. But whilst these findings show improvement, there is still more work to do towards building a more inclusive and open environment for staff, whether they are currently working in an office, on furlough, or at home.

IHRS are here to help. If you would like more information and assistance, please contact me at kwatkins@ihrsolutions.co.uk or call me direct on 07566 766954 or call our helpline on 01604 709509.

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