Mark Lomas: ‘Broader’ perspectives needed to address ‘complex’ risk landscape

At 2022’s Airmic Conference, Google’s head of international insurance and captives, Alison Quinlivan, compared the UK insurance industry to a “slow, cuddly sloth” when it came to the market’s quest to innovate against emerging risks.

Speaking during a panel discussion that explored how business culture and diverse voices were vital in mitigating new threats, she advised that the insurance industry had to enter its “tiger” era – being “aggressive and out there looking for new meat”.

Fast forward to today (August 2024) and an event that is gunning to address exactly this topic – among other diversity and inclusion (D&I) linked subjects – is the 2024 Dive In festival, happening between 24 and 26 September.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Lloyd’s head of culture Mark Lomas explains that the “deliberate” theme for this year’s festival focuses on the “critical role of inclusive cultures for long-term success”, hinging on the strapline ‘a sustainable future: the next 10 years’.

Lomas continues: “An inclusive sector brings in the best talent. It fosters the best innovation, you get the best performance and raising awareness of how you do that in a practical sense is what Dive In has done for the last 10 years.

“If we think about how complex the world is now, the risks are evermore intertwined [and] evermore complex, so developing solutions that are effective needs a broader variety of perspectives to bring to the table. That’s why this theme is really important.”

Call for ‘better’ leadership

Feedback from Lloyd’s latest Culture Dashboard – which combines data from its annual market policies return, bi-annual market-wide Culture Survey and 13,000 employees – called out improved leadership as one component needed to create a more inclusive and higher performing marketplace.

The survey, published on 1 July 2024, showed that 80% of respondents felt that their leaders’ role modelled their organisation’s values. Although this result is 14 percentage points above the financial services benchmark, it is still an eight point decline compared to 2022.

Lomas pinpoints this as a global trend that is not specific to insurance, however, and is therefore “not something to be alarmed about at this point”.

He adds that this drop in percentage points may be a consequence of employees’ expectations that the “constant communication and touchpoints” used by senior leaders during the Covid-19 pandemic were going to be maintained – however, many staff have found that this level of conversation has now tailed off.

Lomas additionally notes that during this “complex time across the world”, people generally “have less trust in leadership” and, therefore, leaders need to be “better”.

As an example, he says that peer-to-peer communication is a useful method for “growing trust”.

Values-based interviewing

Lloyd’s has sought to create a more inclusive screening process for senior role candidates, Lomas continues, which included the introduction of values-based interviewing at the beginning of this year.

The market also requires all hiring managers to adhere to its Inclusive Recruitment initiative, which first launched in November 2023.

The scheme promotes practices such as asking potential new starters about reasonable adjustments they might need and ensuring that hiring managers complete inclusive hiring training prior to conducting job interviews.

Lomas says the results of this initiative so far have been “excellent”, with Lloyd’s now having a 50:50 gender split across the market and exceeding its ambition for one in three new hires to be from an ethnic minority background.

“Over time, as organisations become more diverse and – critically – more diverse up the management structures, you achieve a critical mass,” Lomas explains.

“Once that’s achieved, inclusive practices [and] diversity have become a norm in thinking about how you deliver your business.

“Eventually, we will get there. But the key is putting in place really robust, objective and inclusive practices. Then what you get out [at] the end of it is [a] really highly talented, technically competent and diverse talent pool.”

To recognise individuals who are fostering inclusive cultures within their teams and organisations, Dive In has introduced a Nominate My Manager campaign alongside this year’s festival.

Nearly 200 nominations were made worldwide between May and July this year and the winners will be announced on 20 August 2024 via Dive In’s social media channels.

“Inclusion is not about being nice to people, it’s about having the practices in place that enable high performance,” Lomas says.

“We all want to work in places where we feel we can do our best work, where we feel included and the business we’re working for does well.”