Key learning points

1.How Zurich is changing company culture by embracing diversity and inclusion

2.The learnings from Zurich’s D&I initiative

3.How to get leaders on board with D&I change

Today on the Risky Mix podcast we’re delighted to be joined by Steve Collinson, Chief HR Officer at Zurich UK. As well as sharing his personal journey and passion for D&I, Steve is here to talk about Zurich’s impressive efforts to overhaul company culture and improve both diversity and inclusion across the organisation. From flexible work initiatives to more inclusive employee benefits, Zurich has led by example over the last few years, and we’re really looking forward to hearing more about the progress they’ve made and what they’ve learned along the way.

Being a Zurich ‘lifer’, Steve has worked in all sorts of change-focused roles, eventually becoming Chief HR Officer in 2018. Steve shares his passion for change at work, particularly through listening to employees’ lived experiences, not just examining data. His core goal was simple: ‘To put weight to the voice of our own people’.

We ask Steve about the change employees were asking for. Taking gender as an example, he tells us that whilst Zurich’s workforce had gender parity in their most junior roles, the same could not be said for senior positions. He emphasises how important it was for the firm to be open and honest about its starting point and progress; Zurich still published its ethnicity, gender, disability, and LGBT pay gap data, despite the reporting government’s break in 2020.

Steve engaged The Behavioural Insights Team, who challenged Zurich to introduce a ‘behavioural nudge’. Now, all job roles are advertised as 'part-time, job-share or full-time', which made a significant difference; the proportion of women hired rose and the number of applications for all positions more than doubled. Moreover, the number of women working part-time has risen significantly – almost one in four female hires in the last 12 months are employed part-time.

When asked about Zurich’s progress with inclusion, Steve tells us that the firm has put massive effort into diversity, yet inclusivity is almost more important – as it’s critical for employee retention. He introduced various initiatives, including having employee resource groups visit the board at least twice a year. Steve also worked to introduce benefits and policy to ‘celebrate diversity’ – including equalising parental leave, and creating menopause, premature babies, IVF, and other policies – not just for support, but to also create a conversation around these experiences.

We also ask Steve how he got leaders on board with his ideas. Steve notes that he was lucky to work with a supportive CEO. But he has also stressed the importance of D&I to his executives, with the knowledge that ‘a more diverse and inclusive, empowered and engaged organisation delivers a better bottom-line result’. But Steve also adds that he avoids ‘opening Excel and creating a business case for every scenario’ as many initiatives ‘were simply the right thing to do’. Where costs are associated, communicated these in advance and planned for them.

And the result? Engagement in the company is ‘at levels that would have been dreamed of five years ago’ and Zurich is the only insurer ranked in the top fifty places to work on Glassdoor. 

Yet whilst Steve is very happy with the progress made, he believes the company still has a way to go. Steve realises it remains a challenge in financial services to attract workers from the black community, which he argues is a reality leaders need to accept and resolve. He is adamant that Zurich seeks a diverse and balanced applicant pool ‘at the top of the funnel’ and wants to ensure that the recruitment process is free of unconscious bias that does not create disadvantage to certain groups.