Tali Shlomo speaks on our Diversity and Progression event
Tali Shlomo, People Engagement Director, Chartered Insurance Institute
I am always humbled when I am invited to speak at events, to share my insights, reflections and learning as we unlock talent through diversity, inclusion and wellbeing. It was wonderful to attend the recent event with the Chartered Body Alliance and as I reflect on the morning, I was struck by the level of engagement.
Navigating a shift in workplace culture requires collaboration to share good practice and learning and this event most certainly did that. Celebrating achievements and progress was where I started my panel contribution with the Chartered Insurance Institute leading on the ethnicity pay gap reporting, halving our gender pay gap in three years and the connect mentoring programme.
Whilst recognising the progress we have made it is vital that we don’t lose sight of our direction of travel. The FCA, Gender diversity in UK financial services report 2019 states diversity has remained stable with women representing 17% of FCA approved individuals. The women in finance charter annual report 2019 suggests progress has been made and female representation has increased from 34% to 38%.
The 2019 Hampton-Alexander report which shows that women now hold 32.4% of all FTSE 100 board positions, up from 30.2% last year and up from only 12.5% in 2011. The FTSE 100 is very close to meeting the 33% target for Women on Boards.
So how do we continue to make progress and create an inclusive workplace culture for colleagues to thrive and to achieve their potential. Mentoring is a vital component of this journey enabling colleagues to learn from lived experiences as we navigate through the career opportunities. Career opportunities can come in different ways and being mindful of work allocation is one way to create those opportunities to learn new skills.
Inviting colleagues to events where there is an opportunity to network and learn is an impactful approach to creating an inclusive leadership style.
One of the many benefits of being part of a professional body is the extensive networking opportunities and I would invite colleagues to get involved and join the conversation. The power of networking is phenomenal whilst enhancing your technical skills it also provides the opportunity to build rapport and discussions on a broad range of topics and themes whilst meeting new people. In turn, we start to learn what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes and hopefully recognise what our bias might be and how these might impact the decisions we make.
Many thanks to all who joined us for the breakfast event and to all those who contributed on the day.
To read our latest Diversity and Progression report, click here.