The business case is watertight, so let’s start taking intentional action

During the interview, Sean discusses:

• The critical role business can play in creating opportunity for all, whilst advancing their own strategic, people and financial goals. 
• How employees should feel like they can be themselves at work, focusing on the critical role of ED&I for the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and retaining staff. 
• The impact of potential future cuts to public services on inequality and social mobility.  

• the need for businesses need to reflect the communities they serve – and how this should be enough to improve representation
• The critical role of data for firms who don’t know where to start but need to better understand the workforce; what gets measured gets done, and that statistics can really drive action. 
• The importance of learning from mistakes, using data and insights to bounce forward and monitor things proactively.

Why is diversity and inclusion important to you personally as a business leader and what are three benefits from taking action to advance Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)?

To me diversity is about ensuring that our workforce represents the communities in which we operate. Inclusion is about ensuring that our colleagues can bring their full self to work and be their absolute best in the office.

Thank you for limiting me to three benefits because they really are endless. Firstly, by embracing D&I you can open-up a whole new talent pool and bring in diversity of thought to the organisation, which has been proven to spark innovation.

Secondly, allowing people to be themselves at work means that they can spend more of their energy on their clients, rather than on adjusting their behaviours to fit in with perceived norms, which can be really tiring for people.

And thirdly, work just becomes a much more fun place in a diverse, inclusive, and safe environment in which all colleagues, regardless of their background, can feel a real sense of belonging in their organisation.

On a personal level, witnessing colleagues over time feel the tiring need to conform, to assimilate, and to integrate into the norms is one of the reasons why I feel so driven by advancing the D&I agenda.

As someone who grew up in a small flat on a Council estate for most of my childhood, I've often felt fortunate to work in this industry and to work at Aon in the roles I've been given. But I shouldn't really feel fortunate, and neither should anyone else from a less well-off or otherwise underrepresented background.

I am concerned that the crises we continue to live through have, and will, impact underrepresented groups more than others. Since 2004, the IFS report that the gap between private school and state school funding, in real terms per head, has doubled. With government spending cuts likely, it's hard to see how that gap can do anything other than continue to grow. And I really believe that business can play a critical role in creating opportunity for all, while also really advancing their own strategic, people and financial goals.

It's one of the reasons why here at Aon we're really focused on social mobility and why we've launched a work insights programme, where we're providing 3000 work experience placements for 16 to 17 year old's over the next three years .

What would you say is the biggest risk of not advancing social mobility in the workplace?

As we emerged from the pandemic, organisations have had to totally rethink their employee experience to ensure all colleagues feel included. There's a real business risk in being unable to attract great people with diverse characteristics who can help you challenge the status quo.

If you can't give people the space, the culture, and the opportunity to thrive, then it won't stay. Or they could do the bare minimum, which is something that's being referred to as “quiet quitting”. Or you end up with continuous knowledge loss. Without diversity, there's more likely to be groupthink and a lack of innovation.

What do you think the role of senior leaders are in the process of embedding D&I across the business and making it a strategic priority?

In the first instance it's about making D&I a strategic priority for the whole leadership team at the Exco table and communicating that we will all be measured on it individually and collectively.

The CEO can build a business case for D&I, ensuring that everyone understands and is bought into why it's a priority. To do so, I think the CEO must insist on seeing robust data. 

We, and many of our clients, are using our diagnostic tool - the Human Sustainability Index - in onboarding colleagues to provide us with real insight into the person, their needs, and their experience of our culture. We use that data to continuously enhance our inclusion strategy throughout the employee lifecycle.

Establishing business resource groups containing people who are passionate about the topic from across your organisation can help drive and embed this agenda. Having a head of HR at the leadership table is also essential. I would say if you haven't done that already, I think that's one of the first things to do.

What is your advice to anyone who is not thinking about accelerating their D&I agenda in a business?

I'd say think again. I agree the business case is watertight. I'd also argue that to some degree, and ever the optimist, I'd hope it's not relevant anymore. I hope that the idea that you need a business case for wanting your employee base to be representative of the communities in which you operate and feel able to give their whole self to the organisation, is becoming outdated.

However, we do still need to change, and we do need intentional action to drive that change. You should ensure the actions you're choosing are those that will have the biggest impact.

If, like many organisations, you realise that senior female representation in your organisation is lower than it should be, then find out why. The key starting point is diagnosing where the biggest challenges exist.

I note that recent study in Harvard Business Review found the underrepresented study participants who read a business case for diversity were 27% more concerned about stereotyping and a lack of belonging than when reading that the business case was a business value without any explanation or justification. The business case is indeed watertight. But I really hope that we can stop making the case and start taking intentional action. Younger generations are increasingly socially aware, and colleagues expect an inclusive environment for themselves and for each other.

What is your advice to a business that doesn't know where to start? 

The first step is to understand the makeup of your workforce; really understand how representative it is and understand how diverse it is.

Understand the effectiveness of your managers – they are key to inclusion.  Do you have a group of colleagues in management roles who are able to drive the business through their people and understand and celebrate the differences amongst their teams?

If you understand that effectiveness of managers, you can train them to fill any gaps in knowledge or behaviours. That's a great starting point because you need to understand the challenges you are trying to address. 

What lessons have you learned as a business leader when approaching diversity and inclusion? Have you done things that haven't worked or has your approach changed over time? 

The first thing is I've learned a lot, but I’ve still got a lot to learn from the team around me and clients. In the most advanced of organisations, D&I isn’t an isolated challenge, instead it becomes ingrained as part of who they really are. 

I’ve learnt that statistics really do drive action, however crude those stats might appear at first glance. For example, the gender pay gap reporting has driven real action around increasing senior female representation in organisations. As the co-chair of our new social mobility business resource group, explaining that 89% of CEO's in our industry of financial services come from a professional background, compared with only 39% of the working population is a catalyst for action.

When I reflect overall, I've learned that ED&I, is a continuous loop. It's not like a business growth initiative, which often has an immediate financial return. You shouldn't be too disheartened about even going backwards at times. It's about learning from mistakes, using data and insights to bounce forward and monitor things proactively. We're trying to fix things that haven't worked for us as well as we hoped. We are constantly reviewing what is and isn't working. 

The leadership role I'm now in is a privilege and it's a significant responsibility to positively impact the lives of so many. Behaviours that are not inclusive negatively impact the experience at work, at home and ultimately colleagues’ mental health. We're here to enrich the lives of people around the world. Work is such a big part of life; we need to make sure that it works for everyone.