Whilst there are some clear examples of success, overall the (re)insurance industry has failed in its attempt to attract and retain a diverse talent pool at all levels.
As an entrepreneurial new business, we are determined to change this – not for change’s sake but because we believe that a diverse and engaged colleague base with fresh perspectives is crucial to help us deliver innovative solutions for our clients.
We’re proud to be building a business that attracts and retains the most professional, creative minds in (re)insurance broking and inclusivity is key to our ambition.
No more empty words, let the numbers speak.
Our diversity statistics
Paying lip service to diversity changes nothing – to show our commitment we will be completely transparent and publicise our diversity statistics.
They don’t look good. We intend to do better.
This data is based on our colleague base as at 31st December 2020. We will update these statistics on an annual basis and look forward to demonstrating significant improvements over the next few years and beyond. We have set clear internal metrics on where we want our diversity mix to be.
1. Gender
2. Ethnicity
3. Sexual Orientation
4. Social Mobility
We also looked at social mobility and the social-economic background of our colleagues. Only 5% of our colleagues were entitled to free school meals. Supporting social mobility is one of our firm’s inclusion priorities and we want to attract the best talent, regardless of their background. Our social mobility statistics have helped us shape our approach to the way we recruit. We’re focusing our social mobility efforts on entry level/2nd job roles and we will work hard to ensure future work placements and apprenticeship programmes are totally inclusive.
Our key initiatives
We have introduced a number of initiatives to improve our diversity and inclusion at McGill and Partners for 2021 and beyond:
1. Flexible working structures
We have established a ‘Contract of Trust’ with all our colleagues which allows us to apply leading-edge practice with regards to maternity/paternity leave as well as fully flexible working hours and holidays without set limits.
2. Executive leadership bonus risk
Our Exec team have agreed to put 10% of their individual bonus at risk on an annual basis which will be dependent on the improvement of our annual company diversity stats. This demonstrates that we intend to profoundly improve our stats year-on-year.
3.Being bold in recruitment
We have introduced a number of core frameworks for our recruitment process which include committing to a diverse shortlist for all vacancies as well as mandating a diverse interview ‘panel’ for every role.
4. Introduction of Colleague Resource Groups (CRGs)
We have now established 3 Colleague Resource Groups across the firm: Pride at McGill, EDGE (Ethnically Diverse Group of Employees) at McGill and Women at McGill. These groups will help to foster awareness, respect and inclusion and promote the causes of the diverse groups they represent.
5. Partnering with purpose
We have partnered with The Brokerage to launch our Apprenticeship programme which will begin in Q4 2021. We will continue to partner with other firms to support our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion to bring in diverse talent to McGill and Partners and support the broader community.
We acknowledge we have much more work to do. Every colleague at McGill and Partners is expected to do their part in ensuring we build a truly diverse and inclusive business. Each colleague will take personal responsibility for creating change hire by hire, month by month, increment by increment. We are making inclusivity personal.
If you would like to explore opportunities to work at McGill and Partners, please apply here.