Firms still need to go further to make their workforces truly reflective of the society they claim to serve.
Talking to Simoney Kyriakou, content plus editor for FTAdviser, Lauren Davey, HR director for MetLife, called it the “right thing to do” to improve diversity and inclusion among companies in the financial services sector.
She said: “As a responsible employer, MetLife is committed to diversity as one of our priorities. Firstly, because it is the right thing to do.
“But it is also about relevance. To remain relevant, diversity is not just a ‘nice to have’ - it is a must-do.
“Companies who don’t pay attention to workforce equality are not in danger of being left behind - they have already been left behind.”
According to Ms Davey, MetLife also believes it makes business sense to have a diverse workforce.
She added: “We have a vast, diverse customer base and we need employees to build relationships with them and meet customers’ needs.”
Referencing the news which broke in May this year, when a receptionist was sent home from PriceWaterhouseCoopers for wearing flat shoes instead of high heels, Ms Davey said: “MetLife asks people to dress smartly but we are not dictatorial in terms of what that means.
“I do believe this shows the industry has a long way to go. MetLife is trying to address the situation in that when we recruit people, we have the right behaviours in place, so there is no conscious bias during the recruitment process.
“Evaluation is key - how do we uncover any issues? How do we make sure we put measures in place to identify the issues and identify our progress on those, so we can meet our goals?
“Finally, we are keen on development. We have a bunch of great women at MetLife, so we need to make sure we keep them with us, engage them, develop them, retain them and make sure they are celebrated in their roles.”
On the question of anonymised CVs, whereby any names, gender, age or other identifying information is removed, Ms Davey said it was a “great tool” as it could remove unconscious bias at the CV selection stage.
However, this would not go far enough as this would not remove bias from the interview process. She said: “The hiring managers will still see these candidates, so I am passionate about removing bias from the whole process, and the way to do this is to focus on best practice throughout.
“We need to train these managers to understand their biases, and understand the competencies of the role, so they can hire for the role and not according to any unconsious bias.”
Ms Davey explained the ‘like for like’ process, whereby a manager subconsciously hires someone who is like them in thought, manner, dress and ideology - and this is something which needs to be ironed out for the sake of diversity.
But do shareholders really care there is enough diversity in the boardroom? Ms Davey thinks so. “Profits are a by-product of diversity and best practice”, she said. “The more diverse your population, the more ideas you will have, the more innovative you can be, the better your products are going to be and therefore you will serve your customers better. It’s a business-driven agenda.”
In May, a study by Tilney Bestinvest, based on the five largest Investment Association sectors, estimated the proportion of funds managed or co-managed by women has been stuck at just 7 per cent for the past three years.
According to Jason Hollands, a director for Tilney BestInvest: “gross gender imbalance in the asset management industry is an irrefutable fact”.
He said: “The unanswered question is why this is the case when women represent a large ratio of university graduates and improved diversity is evident in many other professions?
“For example almost half of GPs are women and one in four partners at law firms are female. It’s clearly not healthy for the long-term success of a human capital intensive industry to have such an extreme imbalance like this because it suggests it is not drawing upon the widest pool of talent.
“If the industry shows it is serious about understanding this problem and addressing it, it will speak with greater authority when engaging with boards on matters of diversity.”
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
