Dive In 2019: further progress for diversity and inclusion in insurance

Kennedys was once again proud to be a global sponsor of this year’s Inclusion@Lloyd’s Dive In Festival.

Although the core, three-day, festival has finished, some fringe events are still taking place around the world, aimed at engaging and educating the sector on the importance of diversity and inclusion in insurance by providing people with understanding, knowledge and the tools to implement positive change.

We were very pleased to be directly involved in a number of events around the world, including one that saw managing partner, Suzanne Liversidge facilitate a panel discussion, in London, with ex-England rugby international, Ben Cohen, that focused on eradicating bullying and harassment. Partner Claire Bushen also joined a panel in Manchester which explored the impact diversity has on individuals and the role of those that are further along the diversity journey, to influence and assist other sectors on their journey.

Our offices also hosted official Dive In events, including:

• Inviting your human into the workspace: a workshop, in London, that identified the core elements that enable people to flourish, in turn allowing us to fulfil our potential in organisations.
• Transition in the workplace: a panel of three guest speakers, and a question and answer session, that aimed to increase professional awareness of the hugely variable journey that people go through when they transition; hosted by our Birmingham office.
• Do you want to be a London Insurance Life Ambassador?: a presentation and panel discussion, in London, that featured LIL Ambassadors relating their experiences as an ambassador and on the challenges attracting talent to and keeping them in the insurance industry.

Additionally, and in support of the festival’s annual theme of #InclusionImpact, we published a series of ‘My career story’ articles to find out about the individual career journeys of some of our people across our global network. Our Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts were also in full swing to help promote the festival’s events and the positive change it aims to implement in the sector.

Dive In has continued to engage and educate people within the Lloyd’s market on the importance of diversity and inclusion in insurance by providing them with understanding, knowledge and the tools to implement positive change. Representing every corner of the industry from the smallest brokers to the largest multi-national companies, the festival helps promote a different view of insurance to a variety of stakeholders and to prospective employees both within and outside the industry.

This year, the festival was notable for coinciding with the publishing of the results of the first Lloyd’s market culture survey, the findings of which will be acted upon via a programme of measures - the “Future Culture” roadmap - that build on the five-point action plan put in place earlier this year.

With thousands of people attending events in over 60 cities and 33 countries around the world, this year's festival has built on the incredible success of the past three years, and the energy of the festival will be harnessed to encourage action across the sector.

Kennedys is very proud to have supported and participated in this hugely important, and successful, initiative.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year's festival such an emphatic success. See you at Dive In 2020!