Dive In, the festival for diversity and inclusion in insurance, is unusual in being both a global and sector-wide festival. Originally conceived by Inclusion@Lloyd’s, its aim is to pool resources, widen perspectives and share diversity and inclusion best practice to effect change faster.
From one city (London) in 2015, the third festival in 2017 comprised 95 events with 7,895 attendees in 32 cities across 17 countries, including Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, and Mumbai for the first time.
The theme of the 2017 festival was the Diversity Dividend, driving the business case for D&I, with UK speakers such as Jonny Benjamin and Neil Laybourn on mental health in the workplace, and Dr. Michael Kimmel on why gender equality is good for men as well as a series of insurance CEOs who shared the corporate measures in place to advance D&I and their ongoing targets. International cities hosted equally impressive speakers from the likes of international actress Nandita Das in Mumbai on the panel alongside the General Insurance Corporation of India and the CII, to former professional basketball player Emmeline Ndongue-Jouanin in Paris sharing her personal vision of diversity and why it’s crucial for teamwork.
The festival’s immediate results in reaching its goals was shored up by quantitative research of 25% of its 7,000+ attendees, revealing that 96% agreed diversity and inclusion was good for business and 68% of first-time festival goers said their understanding of the issues had changed as a result.
Dive In used its community to conduct the first global research into perceptions of inclusive cultures in insurance. Comparative data was collected from 2,800 respondents from 150 firms in 17 countries on where respondents believed the greatest focus was needed for better D&I practice and culture change. Two-thirds choose support for gender and LGBT diversity and mental health as priority areas.
The survey also revealed that almost three quarters (71%) of insurance professionals believe that the culture in their firm needs to change to attract and retain top talent – proof that people had understood the message that an inclusive culture is part of a successful talent strategy.
At the end of 2017, Inclusion@Lloyd’s confirmed that it would continue to mandate Dive In for 2018 and 2019 in response to industry demand.
