Called Gain - the Group for Autism, Insurance & Neurodiversity - the initiative has been launched to promote greater understanding of neurodiverse individuals, and to recognise the great potential for neurodiversity in the insurance, investment and wider financial services industry.
According to insurance industry veteran Johnny Timpson, a disability champion and one of Gain's steering committee: "While we are all neurodiverse, one in seven of us are neurodivergent, and one in 100 of us has an autism spectrum disorder.
"It is for this reason that a number of people across the industry have collaborated to found Gain as a not-for-profit hub to aid insurance, investment, pension and mortgage firms and colleagues to acquire the information, knowledge, skills they need to better support neurodiverse customers and colleagues."
Financial services, in particular, has been a place where too few neurodiverse individuals have entered the workplace or reported positive job satisfaction.
Neurodiverse individuals make up a significant portion of society and bring a different lens to business.SchonhoferGain believes that the industry could benefit greatly from the skills that neurodiverse individuals often excel in, such as a methodical approach to tasks, a strong attention to detail, alternative creative thinking as well as looking at situations from a different perspective.
The new campaign group therefore seeks to create opportunities for autistic and neurodivergent people to engage in rewarding work, by helping business leaders to recognise the benefits of building a diverse workforce to meet the growing need for talent.
Open to everyone in financial services, Gain works with and trains directors and managers to understand how to recognise and harness the strengths neurodiverse individuals bring to the workplace.
Diversity training
Over the past few years, MetLife has been championing neurodiversity in its workplace. In 2020, the provider won several accolades at FTAdviser's Diversity In Finance Awards, partly based on MetLife’s work with Genius Within, which helps arrange neurodiversity training for managers and provides support to employees diagnosed with autism and ADHD.
But more widely, neurodivergent individuals face barriers to working, particularly as they often experience the world differently to others in social, education and workplace environments.
People who are neurodiverse can, but not exclusively, include people living with conditions such as autism, dyslexia, ADHD and dyspraxia. The autistic community in the UK demonstrates a largely untapped source of growth and opportunity for employers.
Although one in every 100 people in the UK have an autism diagnosis, only 21.7 per cent of autistic adults access full-time and paid employment.
Of those who do work, job satisfaction is over 20 per cent lower than the national average, with problems including colleague stigma, poor career support and jobs that do not match their skills.
Barbara Schonhofer, co-chairperson of Gain, said: “Business life is constantly changing and is no longer quite so predictable.
"Business leaders today need to have the ability to deal with complexity in familiar and non-familiar environments where it is important to be adaptable, juggle priorities and anticipate different scenarios while, at the same time, making the call when their markets are constantly going through disruption."
She said that, more than ever, business leaders needed to have people in their teams and businesses that bring a diverse mix of skills, backgrounds and abilities in order to be fully representative of the customers and clients they serve and deliver for their stakeholders.
While we are all neurodiverse, one in seven of us are neurodivergent.TimpsonSchonhofer added. "All the evidence points to Gain bringing a winning formula to deliver better business results for the future. Neurodiverse individuals make up a significant portion of society and bring a different lens to business.
"They also operate in different ways from the neuro-typical and this needs to be understood if they are to bring their whole value to the workplace.”
Founder members of Gain include: Marsh McLennan, Swiss Re, Zurich, Principal, ISC Group, arcQ, Ambitious about Autism, E2W, Expand the Circle and other senior insurance and investment individuals, including those with lived experience of autism.
To find out more about how companies are improving their equality and inclusion policies across the workplace, read the report of the FTAdviser Diversity In Finance Awards 2021.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
