INSURANCE CULTURAL AWARENESS NETWORK ///// 31
Diversity and Inclusion Report 2019
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“iCAN is just one of the networks tackling
aspects of D&I, and we’re all here to help.”
www.intelligentinsurer.com
MISSION
The foundation of all of this is our members—an amazing, inspiring,
passionate group of people who come from every part of the insurance
market and who drive what we do. Listening to them has ensured that
we make a lasting impact by staying true to our mission of creating a
more diverse and inclusive industry for all.
Listening to the companies we work with and to the conversations
that are going on around us every day have helped us to understand
what the issues are.
What have we learned so far? Here are some simple rules of thumb
that helped to guide our efforts, and can help you too:
• Be coordinated: topics such as gender equality, LGBT and disability
shouldn’t each get a bit of focus and then move on. Think about the
overall environment you are creating and how these areas fit together;
• Take it seriously: it is not a tick-box exercise that you can fix right
away. To make lasting change, you need to allocate time and
resources;
• Listen to your community: what are your people telling you they
want to change? They are your greatest source of knowledge, so
start from within;
• Establish ownership in your business: the community should own
it, but if it doesn’t have senior sponsorship or support, it can never
truly be effective;
• Set your goals: figure out where you want to get to in the future,
and map out achievable steps to get there; and
• Measure it: how do you know if you are making an impact, if you
can’t measure the results?
Once the process is started, the hard work begins. Don’t forget,
there are resources out there—iCAN is just one of the networks
tackling aspects of D&I, and we’re all here to help. We’re all focused,
driven and determined to make a difference.
On a final note, it is worth remembering that we can make a
tangible, lasting impact only when we work together across the
industry we’re all involved in.
If you want to know more, have a conversation, or get involved, get
in touch. n
Ajay Mistry and Kishan Mangat are co-chairs of the Insurance
Cultural Awareness Network (iCAN). www.i-can.me
solutions: developing multicultural leaders, building an effective
industry network, and celebrating role models. While this won’t fix
everything, we believe it provides a strong platform to enable lasting,
industry-wide change.
Although simple on the face of it, to make real progress in those
areas it takes single-minded determination, focus, creativity and a lot
of hard work. At iCAN, we’re committed to doing just that, and we’re
proud of what we’ve done so far, whether it is a partnership with a
national recruitment firm to promote career paths for BAME and
international colleagues in insurance, or publishing a role models
book with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), or hosting a
wide range of events featuring topics from the ethnicity pay gap to
wellbeing and speed mentoring.
Our social media presence is vibrant, energetic and positive. We are
a partner network of Inclusion@Lloyd’s, and we’ve established strong
partnerships with key companies in the industry such as Allianz
Global Corporate & Specialty, Chubb, Premfina and Zurich, who take
these issues as seriously as we do. Their support has been invaluable.