Industry’s lack of ethnic minority senior leadership is ‘everybody’s problem’

It was the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 that initially reopened marketwide discussions around the lack of ethnic minority representation across the insurance sector.

Although attempts have been made to improve ethnic diversity within the industry - for example, insurer Zurich has reported its ethnic minority pay gap figures since 2020 - British Nigerian Oke Eleazu’s appointment in May 2022 to become MGA ManyPets’ UK chief executive highlighted how few senior leaders in insurance have an ethnic minority background.

Upon his appointment, Eleazu said: “I want this to be something that inspires others to do the same. If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”

This view is shared by Kishan Mangat, co-chair of the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network (Ican) and senior associate at law firm DWF, who has a mixed West Indian and Indian heritage.

She told Insurance Times: “There’s a lack of representation at the top. Those coming into the industry from an ethnic minority background will not be able to see people [like them] in senior roles.

“Ultimately, that does influence your own career progression as you tend to look for people who are similar to you [and who] come from a similar background [to act as a] ‘guiding light’.

“When I started practising law in insurance about nine years ago, I didn’t realise that you could have a very fruitful career in insurance.” 

This lack of ethnic minority representation in the insurance sector is why industry networks such as Ican and the African Caribbean Insurance Network (Acin) were formed, in 2017 and 2018 respectively. 

“I am an advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion in insurance and I am happy to be that. Equally, I believe [representation] is everybody’s problem and that the burden should be shouldered by all,” Mangat added.

When Acin co-founder Junior Garba had the initial idea for his network, alongside fellow co-founder Godwin Sosi, insurance professionals fed back that launching the initiative would be “corporate suicide” because bringing attention to race in this way was broadly viewed as being detrimental for the pair’s careers.

Mangat added that Ican has faced similar criticism, risking becoming “just a token” rather than a vehicle for meaningful change.

Garba, who is black African, noted: “It’s no secret - the industry has lacked adequate levels of representation at all levels.”

Talent attraction

A key issue in promoting ethnically diverse senior leaders is having that initial pipeline of talent within the industry in the first place. Therefore, Ican and Acin have both worked to create recruitment arms (see pass notes) to support the introduction and promotion of more diverse talent.

These kinds of projects are important because historically, the insurance sector has presented itself as a “closed shop” where “everyone knew everyone”, explained Mangat. This was certainly her experience upon joining the industry.

She continued: ”There was an element of nepotism [when I joined the sector]. The industry has recognised that now and is trying to address issues around recruitment practices and bias.”

Garba agreed that ”acculturation” has been an issue in the insurance industry in the past.

“Some minorities might find it hard to settle into the [insurance] industry - this has a negative impact on talent retention, meaning less ethnic minority senior leaders,” he said.

“Also, recruiters have had very little incentives to source diverse talent and provide diverse shortlists because they know that hiring managers would rather hire their non-ethnic minority counterparts.”

Ajay Mistry, co-founder and co-chair of Ican, added that recruitment and talent attraction is central to boosting more ethnically diverse leadership in insurance.

He said: “Every board needs to be reflective of its customer base and we should be striving to recruit future leaders based on the demographic change that is appearing in UK - especially now post-Covid, as geography is no longer [a] barrier to recruitment.”

Clare Lebecq, group chief operating officer at Specialist Risk Group, recommended that insurance firms should get tougher on recruitment partners and look to attract talent from outside the industry, to ensure greater diversity.

She explained: “Be explicit about the fact that you want to see people from outside the industry who are from a more ethnically diverse background and if [recruitment firms] don’t deliver, think about changing partners.

”If you are white, you will see things through white eyes, even if you have taken [the] time to educate yourself about the lived experiences of black, Asian or other ethnical groups.”

The same thinking should be applied when crafting job descriptions, Lebecq continued, especially when these are posted on social media sites such as LinkedIn. Lebecq stressed that it is important that posts reflect a culture of inclusivity.

“We need to get better at drafting our job descriptions so that biases are removed and they are worded in a more inclusive way,” she said.

“It is helpful to ask colleagues from other ethnical backgrounds to review job descriptions and adverts.”

Tackling the ‘glass ceiling’

As well as recruitment practices, promoting ethnic minority staff into leadership roles is also important - often, these employees can be “overlooked”, noted Mistry.

“We have some excellent talent that needs to be nurtured and developed to ensure they become the next round of leaders, but ethnic minorities can often be overlooked,” he explained.

Additionally, Mistry thinks the insurance industry “should be learning from other sectors – banking and global finance, technology [and] professional services” because these markets ”have begun to tackle these issues”.

He continued: ”This means there is often a glass ceiling in insurance, which isn’t often addressed directly - despite good intentions.”

Meanwhile, Garba believes policies seeking to encourage ethnic diversity need “more effective monitoring”. This includes Lloyd’s of London’s June 2020 pledge “that one in three of all new hires should come from ethnic minority backgrounds and [that] 35% of senior leader hires need to be female”.

However, talent retention is just as crucial as recruitment.

Lloyd’s Ethnic diversity in the workplace report, published in October 2020, revealed that out of 923 insurance professionals, 39% of black respondents felt undervalued at work - black and ethnic minority individuals were also found to be twice as likely to feel undervalued than their white counterparts.

Meanwhile, 57% of ethnic minoirty respondents felt that having a senior leader support them with opportunities was motivating.

Garba added: “Talent retention isn’t just down to culture - ensuring managers are checking in with staff is also important.”