Discussions around diversity and inclusion in the captive insurance industry are more dynamic compared to the broader insurance industry, but progress is still somewhat slow, according to a panel at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association’s (VCIA) virtual conference.
During the ‘Rise up: advancing women in captive insurance’ panel session, Nancy Gray, regional managing director for the Americas at Aon, noted that the captive industry has done “quite well from a gender perspective, but this is not necessarily true throughout the overall insurance industry”.
Wilda Seymour, vice president and corporate director of professional liability at Franklin Casualty Insurance, highlighted that captive managers are most likely to address a problem in a parent company when a diverse group of people engage in discussion to create solutions.
Seymour said: “Therefore, from a business perspective, diversity can help to advance strategic objects.”
Following this, Stephanie Mapes, president of Paul Frank + Collins, affirmed that a lack of diversity in firms prohibits a helpful understanding of and response to clients’ needs, as diversity among the workforce translates into diversity of thought, ideas, and approaches.
Mapes added: “If you look around the table and everyone looks like you, you have eliminated all other existing universes and lines of thought.”
The panel also emphasised the importance for diversity to follow inclusion in order to recognise differences among the workforce rather than ignoring them.
Mapes explained that in terms of promoting diversity and inclusion within your own organisation, it is important to be flexible, such as casting a wider net in the pool of applicants.
Seymour added: “It is the parent captive owner we look to be the navigator. If at a parent level there is an awareness that more can and needs to be done for diversity, such as mandatory unconscious bias testing for senior leadership, this will translate throughout the structure.”
She pointed to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, which consolidated diversity efforts eight years ago to develop an office of diversity with a mission to foster a fully inclusive environment. Following this, five of seven university entities have female CEOs.
Gray added that Aon currently has a diversity leader with specific targets, and has introduced training on unbiased hiring, while Mapes noted that 17 out of 35 captive service providers in Vermont have female CEOs.
The panel reflected upon advice they would have given to their younger selves, with Mapes stating that she would have tried to initiate more change rather than taking the male-dominated environment as a given and sticking to the mantra that women must “perform twice as well to go half as far”.
Similarly, Seymour recognised that women in the captive insurance industry today acknowledge that they have an important voice and unique perspective, with the confidence of knowing they are in the room or at the podium because they have something important to share.
Gray added: “We need to be our own advocates, confident in what we can achieve and vocalise it. It is also important to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and seize networking opportunities that you otherwise may pass on.”
It was affirmed that people in non-leadership positions can also promote diversity and inclusion in the captive industry by developing diverse networks of friends and colleagues, and identifying instances of unintentional bias.
The panel also recognised the efforts of the Captive Insurance Companies Association’s (CICA) Amplify Women initiative. CICA president Dan Towle explained it aims to “foster education, influence and networking among women in the captive industry”.
Made up of a committee of both men and women, Amplify Women intends to recognise women in the captive industry as role models, given that they make up 60 percent of the workforce but less than 20 percent of management.
Towle noted an early achievement of the initiative would have been displayed at the CICA conference in March this year but was cancelled following the COVID-19 pandemic.
