As Black History Month kicks off, February presents a great opportunity to not only celebrate the history and accomplishments of African Americans, but also to meaningfully assess and advance diversity, equity and inclusion measures with the goal of ensuring lasting change rather than lip service. To that end, the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA) recently updated its research on its members’ experiences and challenges in the insurance industry, releasing the new study The Next Steps on the Journey: Has Anything Changed? The new research updates NAAIA’s 2018 report The Journey of African American Insurance Professionals, evaluating what progress has or has not been made over the past five years, particularly given the increasing focus on DEI programs and, specifically, many companies’ discussions of DEI efforts after the murder of George Floyd brought the Black Lives Matter movement to the fore.
“On one hand, there is a prevailing sense from Blacks/African Americans in the sector that companies are seeking to find credible and practical ways to solve longstanding inequities,” said Omari Jahi Aarons, executive director and chief operating officer at NAAIA. “However, the report highlights that many of these actions are falling short because they are not addressing inequities at the foundational level.”
For example, most survey respondents agreed that their organizations were committed to diversity (60%) and inclusion (61%), and nearly half felt that their organizations were committed to advancing equity (43%) and equality (48%). Nevertheless, 84% of respondents said they continue to encounter obstacles in their career progress compared to other under-represented groups because of either conscious or unconscious racial bias.
Respondents shared several key changes that risk and insurance organizations can make to “more fully achieve and prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion,” such as enhancing recruitment and talent identification initiatives and placing greater focus on recruiting from HBCUs and institutions with substantially diverse student populations, promoting African Americans to officer-level roles, increasing board diversity across racial and gender identities, addressing compensation and pay inequities, increasing pay transparency, offering more mentorship opportunities and extending support through executive coaches.
To support the advancement, networking and development of African American risk practitioners, the report offers a number of recommendations “to catalyze conversation and action” for risk and insurance professionals, including:
Recommendations for Black/African-American risk and insurance professionals:
- Demonstrate success: Attracting talent to the risk and insurance industry will depend upon the full engagement of Black/African-American insurance professionals who can illuminate under-informed or unaware communities and constituencies about the opportunities in the industry.
- Seek and offer mentoring: Throughout the research, mentoring was mentioned as a critical factor for career success and satisfaction. Individual professionals can articulate their respective needs for mentoring and can provide mentoring to, and with, each other.
- Get and provide exposure: Getting exposure and gathering knowledge about the industry can be a powerful, effective remedy to longstanding barriers for underrepresented groups. Individuals can consider their own social networks to foster partnerships to strengthen industry exposure, increase validity of career opportunities and encourage young people to view risk and insurance as a viable and rewarding career path.
- Advocate for self and for others: Individual professionals must find ways to take charge of their careers, connect and exchange ideas with other professionals. The research revealed that most participants did not belong to any industry-related associations, which could hinder career progress and success. Expanding networks and deepening ties to the industry should be a top priority for every individual, and membership costs should be viewed as an investment in personal professional development. Facilitated introductions for employers and NAAIA to Black/African-American organizations can also foster engagement and collaboration.
While many organizations have introduced DEI programs and proclaimed support for African American employees since the Black Lives Matter movement took root, the survey found many of these moves lacking in actual impact thus far. “Respondents identified the tragic murder of George Floyd and many other Blacks/African Americans and People of Color as the catalyst for centering conversations on race and the risk and insurance industry has responded with a host of new initiatives to address disparities,” NAAIA noted. “Respondents reported increased exposure from initiatives specifically DEI-related training (57%), support for employee resource groups (35%) and mentorship programs (21%). However, these initiatives have not translated to career advancement.”
To help employers improve their DEI efforts, the report also offered the following recommendations:
Recommendations for employers:
- Avoid performative actions: DEI-driven activities and training notably emerged in response to the events of the last few years. However, many organizations are “checking the box” by undertaking noticeable, but not meaningful, initiatives. A thoughtful and careful review of DEI initiatives is an important first step to ensuring that they are not merely performative, requiring courageous conversations by several stakeholders about the purpose and intent of each activity or program.
- Turn barriers into gateways: With intention, employers should ensure that there are measurable DEI goals and outcomes visible at all levels of the organization. Measurements can include internal or third-party pay equity and workload balance analyses or tying compensation to the successful implementation of DEI initiatives, especially at middle managerial levels.
- Use leverage: More employers could leverage the vast networks of employees and employee resource group participants for recruitment and to influence internal mobility, as well as to increase levels of employee engagement. Often, employers underestimate the power of personal connections and references within minority communities, foregoing opportunities to build awareness and enhance their brands both internally within their organizations and externally.
- Provide meaningful, substantial support: Supporting NAAIA local chapters through sponsorship, mentoring and partnerships and cultivating multiyear partnerships with Black/African-American community professional, civic and youth organizations can lift a company’s profile. More importantly, these types of partnerships also allow for employers to create greater access to internal subject matter experts to communities that are underserved on relevant macro business and professional development topics (e.g., financial literacy, wealth creation or cybersecurity).
- Connect human resources, senior executives and ERG leaders: Several respondents noted that beyond nominally sponsoring an ERG, many executives were not directly involved in planning or activities. Most of the ERGs are organized and driven by employee volunteers, which often renders them less effective because of time and work constraints. If human resources, senior executives and ERG leaders can convene to discuss mission, alignment with company goals and resource allocations, there is a greater likelihood of continuous progress.
For more of the report’s findings and recommendations, click here to read NAAIA’s The Next Steps of the Journey: Has Anything Changed?