Gemma Livermore: Hi, and welcome to Seismic Sessions. Very excited to be here today for our first recording of this podcast. Here next to me, I have Rachael Rowe, RVP at Seismic. Hi, Rachael.
Rachael Rowe: Good morning Gemma. Lovely to speak to you.
Gemma Livermore: We’re also joined by Deon Pillay, head of marketing operations at LGIM. Hi Deon.
Deon Pillay: Good morning Gemma and great to be here. It’s exciting to be part of this fantastic panel this morning.
Gemma Livermore: And finally, we’re joined by Victoria Edwards, Regional HR of Asia, People and Culture at Lockton. Thanks for joining us all today, Victoria.
Victoria Edwards: Thanks for having me Gemma.
Gemma Livermore: So, today’s topic is one that I’m very passionate about, so I’m glad to have you all here for me to discuss it in more detail. It’s DE&I in FS. So, let’s get started with what enabling the financial services means to you. If Deon, if we could go to you first.
Deon Pillay: Enablement for me means that we really think about how we empower our employees throughout the, entire life cycle of an employee, starting with enabling them on day one, making sure they have the right technology, when they walk into the office, they have the right people to support them.
It’s setting them up for success from day one. The correct mentoring, coaching, but also ensuring that they feel empowered to bring the authentic self to work as well. Enablement is just not about technology only, but it’s about people and about systems and process and making sure you create a sense of belonging from day one.
Gemma Livermore: Love it.
And Victoria, what does enabling financial services mean to you?
Victoria Edwards: Yeah it is an exciting time to be a D&I practitioner. In the global world we’re in, the kind of increasingly we are becoming local and the D&I practices are all becoming around each human that works in financial services and that’s really exciting.
For me, the kind of, the big change that’s happening and the exciting part of this is, is how do we really get to know our end users deeply and make sure that the world of work works for them.
Gemma Livermore: As Seismic, we conjure up images of earthquakes and movements. So with that in mind, we’re going to talk about the seismic shifts in the industry that are creating movements which will impact us all.
Our topic is DE&I in FS and we will visit the tremors, where we saw these movements begin, the epicentre, where we are today and the aftershocks, the movements that we expect to see. So let’s get started with a question for everybody. Let’s look back at the tremors and how the landscape of DE&I looked and how it’s beginning to change.
Deon, could we go into more detail of what you saw the landscape look like when you started in your career, as opposed to how it looks now?
Deon Pillay: Absolutely. And it’s a very, very different picture, thankfully. I remember when I first started my career and, you know, I walked into the office and being one of the only brown faces in that room was quite shocking for me because, you know, London being quite diverse, you expect to see an organisation being quite diverse as well.
And actually, it wasn’t. And the balance, even the gender balance, was completely different. You would see probably 80 percent male, okay. And it was mostly men in top jobs, , the female staff seemed to be the junior managers or the PAs or somebody making tea and the ethnic minorities were most likely only in the IT department, at that point in my career.
And it was a very, very different landscape, like I say, but, you know, thankfully, we, we sort of fast forward a bit and we start to see the shift in the change where people start to recognise the, probably the importance of diversity, but it was driven mostly by regulation. That’s really important.
The actual regulator came in and said, you know, the financial services industry needs to move towards being more gender balanced and that’s started to pave the way. And I definitely recognised some of the elements of that where I believe, and I still believe, that the females were set up to fail because when the regulations came in, we saw a number of females across the industry being promoted very quickly to senior roles, but not being given the same level of support that their male peers got, you know, the coaching, the mentoring, and all the development that they needed. And they basically left to fend for themselves effectively.
And what I believe was the outcome of that was lots of people failed in the first year.
Gemma Livermore: Really interesting take take on it. And it’s not an area that I’ve heard explored before around the learning and coaching and how that was set up to fail. I’d love to know, Rachael, is that something that you’ve experienced in your career at all or seen?
Rachael Rowe: Yes. And it’s really quite striking parallels, I think, between my experience and Deon’s. I started in investment banking many moons ago, and I came in a graduate program. We had a fair sprinkling of women in that program, but as soon as we were actually let loose into the office itself, there were very few women past a certain age and it became apparent why the very inflexible working conditions. When I made the decision myself to have children, I’m fortunate to have four lovely children, but the decision I had to take was really, was I going to continue with my career or was I going to have a family?
And there were no female mentors, there were no women in senior positions really to speak of. So there wasn’t a path that, you know, you could identify, that you could find a way through, without having to make quite stark decisions. And sadly, a lot of the women that I came into the organisation with were faced with a similar decision as myself, and most of them left the industry.
As I say, that’s many moons ago, and I think that, you know, things have improved. There is now much more of a concerted effort. My niece has actually just recently started in investment banking. And she’s finding it quite different. I think she’s got a lot of women at more senior levels within the organisation who are being supportive and actively, you know, helping her understand how her career could evolve.
But certainly, back then it was a very different place.
Gemma Livermore: And it’s good that it is different. Victoria, turning this question to you, where did you see the tremors of change starting in your career?
Victoria Edwards: Yeah, when I started my career, I was an HR generalist and it was a very fixed way of doing HR. And it was doing HR rather than enabling our people to be their best selves.
So back in the days, you know, tell my age here, of kind of personnel management and in diversity and inclusion, it was, what does the government ask us to collect in terms of your data? And then it was collected and given to the government and that was it. There was no, it was almost a kind of don’t ask, don’t tell approach to, kind of, DE&I.
And certainly, the can of worms, as they would have perceived it, wasn’t opened around people’s opinions on what work was like. And then overlaying that, the tech landscape wasn’t there. You know, I remember the first time I used reed.co.uk for an advert for a job LinkedIn and other platforms.
And so that kind of the social aspect through tech of work wasn’t there as well. And those things have, have caused us to be more accountable but also caused us to, to really listen to our people more. And what I see now is, it’s our kind of, it’s our requirement, but also it’s a necessity from our people to make sure that people feel safe and they belong.
We’d be missing a trick if we didn’t help people to vocalise the ideas and challenge the status quo, because the world of work is changing and we need to change with it. And it’s our people that are going to help us to do that. And we see that the most critical part of our DE&I is that we want to know people deeply and sign with them.
Gemma Livermore: I love that. And then I also like the irony that, in a pre-tech world weren’t as social as we are in a tech world and that tech actually made us more social. I find that quite interesting. Let’s move to the epicentre So thinking where we are now, we’ve all agreed that things used to be different but I’d love to hear of what initiatives, you’ve seen that have worked, but also I think we learn a lot from mistakes. Anything that you’ve seen that hasn’t worked, but that we can learn from. And if I could turn that question to you first, Rachael.
Rachael Rowe: Yeah, sure. So maybe to help as well in terms of context around this. So, the FCA published some really interesting research in 2021 around D&I within financial services.
And I think they, they, and maybe that’s a link we could share, Gemma with, with this podcast, and they were really looking for evidence for diversity and inclusion and the impact that that had upon business performance, because I think that that’s really where the rubber meets the road. And within FS, we need, probably to speak in that language in order to drive the platform for D&I. And I think what they found, which is really notable, is that gender diverse senior leadership is really strongly correlated with positive corporate governance and conduct outcomes, but also business performance as a whole.
And I think part of the reason for that is it really moved us away from group think. You started off talking a little bit about enablement in FS Gemma, and for me, I think it’s really all about bringing the marketing and distribution or sales sides of the business together, in support of the customer.
So in pursuit of those memorable moments along the customer journey. And that’s a constantly evolving, moving dynamic environment. And in order to be able to flex around that, we need to be innovative as organisations. And I think that is the tremendous strength for me in diversity. That we really drive that innovation.
I see it in my own team that, you know, it brings so many different perspectives to bear. But what I feel is that there’s an onus on us as leaders to give space for those perspectives to land. And I think that’s something that certainly I see more and more organisations open to and adopting, but I’d be really interested to understand more from Deon and Victoria around this.
Gemma Livermore: Deon, can we come to you on that question?
Deon Pillay: Um, it was really interesting to hear how the, the FCA research and the papers has helped, you know, really shape the thinking around this, this, diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry. And it’s really interesting because we see that come up again this year with the consultation paper that came out recently from the FCA and the PRA.
And that’s really going to make a difference for organisations. So currently we, I think we are, we’re in the place where we’ve built these really diverse teams that you talk about, Rachael. But what we are seeing is that lots of the organisations haven’t really embedded DEI into their culture, which is causing a bit of movement, I would say, across the industry.
And where we’re seeing it is people are now recognising that lots of the window dressing is actually falling apart, and people actually leaving these organisations because they haven’t really ingrained diversity into the culture of the business. So there is a shift that we see right now where we’re moving from away from diversity and more to inclusion, where we really want to create a sense of belonging.
And what’s really important is that you have to start thinking about the end to end life cycle of your people and therefore the entire journey from recruitment, to the point that you onboard somebody, to the point that they progress throughout the organisation. And it’s important as leaders that we really fulfill those promises that we, we sort of set out from day one.
If we say we are an inclusive. organisation, that we value people and we really want to help support them in developing their careers, we must make sure that we invest in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and ensure that we provide the right level of coaching, mentoring, and sponsorship to enable these people to really thrive in these organisations.
The other thing that I thought really worked well was, and you talked a bit about it, Rachael, about your diverse teams, I think it’s really important to have a diversity of thought. And I certainly, as a leader, that’s one thing I always make sure we do have. But the one thing we must be mindful of is that we don’t start to alienate people because of diversity.
And for me, that’s really important. And what I mean by this is we need to be very clear about what it means to be equitable in our hiring processes. And I always say this to, to colleagues as well. It’s really important to make sure that we select the best person for the job. And we hear this narrative from people saying, well, actually, what I’m finding is that it’s very much focused on ethnic diversity.
And absolutely, that’s where we see a massive challenge. But equally, what we must make sure we do is that we continue to focus on bringing in the individuals who haven’t had the opportunity and those who have the right skill sets the values of the behaviors to really impact our businesses and the bottom line
Victoria Edwards: It’s interesting what you say there, Deon and just to kind of build on that, I think as a profession, we weren’t really understanding occupational psychology well enough back in the day to really understand how we quantify culture.
And then to correlate that to kind of, to kind of, commercial performance, we were just asking the wrong questions. And so if I think about this and just an example that I kind of reflect on a few companies back, we had a question raised from an employee about a multi-faith room. And so we just asked the question back, you know, why would you want a quiet room?
And we were asking the wrong question. What we weren’t saying is actually, what’s the experience that you need to enable you to fully show up at work? And because we were answering one question, not about the whole experience, we weren’t actually solving the problem. We thought we were, but actually now we know through the lens of occupational psychology and how we quantify culture, that these are the system symbols and behaviors in the workplace.
So the things that make up culture and it’s really important to get those three things quantified, because otherwise you’re just looking at it through a very, very small lens. Makes me think about that one, Deon.
Gemma Livermore: I love that. And Victoria, I’d like to turn to you at this stage, because I know that you’re working across different jurisdictions and different regions.
Do you see a change in the lens for DE&I in the UK compared to Asia, as an example?
Victoria Edwards: Yes, every single country is different and in kind of global DE&I roles, it’s really important that we understand the local legislation, but also culturally what’s going on. I find myself reading newspapers in different countries and getting different perspectives, as well as the legislation because the environment is changing so quickly.
The thing that’s really important is having some really clear principles and frameworks that you can kind of pin everything into. And for us at Lockton, that is around making sure that our associates are at the heart of every single thing that we do, and that we always do the right thing by our associates.
It’s, kind of, ingrained in our culture. if you have those principles really clear and the, kind of, mission very clear, it’s very easy to then implement those frameworks locally, because you’re always asking yourself, are we doing the right thing by our people? And thus, are we going to do the right things for our clients?
It’s a very straight kind of transaction. They’re almost if our people are at their best, they will be at their best for our clients, and that’s what drives our decision making there. But also it is this thing around making sure that we get really good data regularly from our people, and if we know something is changing I was reflecting back on when I came back to the UK, it was around the time of the Sarah Everard case.
You know, lots of organisations put out statements, but it’s also then getting to know and really understand what was the experience for all of your people, not just women at that time. And how can you support all of your employees in the workforce?
Gemma Livermore: I love, I love that view of it, of looking at it as an everybody thing and being inclusive in that way, rather than siloing the different, the different areas of an organisation. Deon here, we, we did mention at the beginning, like looking at ways that it’s gone wrong. And I know outside of this podcast, we’ve spoken about DE&I before, and you’ve mentioned how it should never be a tick box exercise. I’d love to share your thoughts on that here as well, if that’s possible.
Deon Pillay: Yeah, I think, you know, back to the point, lots of organisations see, or saw, D&I really as just ticking a box and doing what they thought was right or addressing or putting some window dressing up to say, look how diverse and inclusive we are. And it goes back to the point that Victoria made around people. People aren’t stupid. People know when you’re not, not really truly living and breathing DE&I, especially now we see Gen Z coming into the workplace as well. And they’re asking some really searching questions around people’s values and the values of the business. And therefore I think it’s really important for us to not just tick boxes and say, oh, look, we, you know, we have, we are, we are diverse company, we have an equal balance of people. What’s really becoming important right now is the next phase, which is inclusion. How do you then take these diverse people that you brought into your organisation and really make them feel included in everything that they do in work, so that their experience at work is one that makes them want to perform at their best, and they’re also empowered to perform at their best.
And Victoria made some really good points there about people, because people are the heart of every single business and organisation. And if you don’t really respect your people and listen to their needs, because everyone has a diverse needs and you only cater to one type of person, then you will fail in the, in the DEI space, right?
And lots of the tick box exercises that people do is like, oh, look, we’ve hired 25 black people. We’ve hired three Indian people. We’ve tried to get this balance right. So it looks like we’re diverse, that doesn’t work because very quickly, you lose those people because you aren’t giving them that nuanced experience that they require.
You aren’t giving them the right tools, the training and development that they need and therefore they’re looking for the next opportunity that will give them that. So really think about how you approach diversity, equity and inclusion with that lens where you are sort of balanced but equally being equitable in how you approach it.
Gemma Livermore: I love that and that leads very nicely on to our aftershocks phase of where we see the movements of the future and into this I’d like to bring in what you just mentioned there, Deon, is that there’s a new generation coming through and their lens is going to be very different to ours. We’re of a generation where we remember that it didn’t used to be as good as it is now.
And that we see that movement, whereas they, as Rachael mentioned with her niece at the beginning, they haven’t had that experience. So looking at that and looking at what we know as a generation, how do you see the future of this changing? And here I personally very much see what Victoria mentioned earlier, whereas the technology is really making that change with us at this stage and enabling and bridging that gap, that is coaching those that need coaching and learning, to return to work or that are neurodivergent and learn in those different ways. So if we can explore that and start with Rachael, that would be great to hear your views.
Rachael Rowe: Yes, thank you. And it’s really building on some of the great points that Victoria and Deon have made.
So, I think that where we’re going is that we will be looking at the employee journey within an organisation, in a similar way to how we consider the customer or the client journey, outside the organisation. So, I think that will be soup to nuts, if you like. So I think that will start with, you know, attracting talent, attracting diverse talent into the organisation.
Then being able to provide an onboarding path for that individual, which works for them, you know, people were learning different ways. They may have different limitations in terms of, you know, how they can access information, the timeframes that they, you know, that they’re able to onboard. You talked about working parents at the beginning a little bit as well, Gemma.
So, and then as they go through their career, being able to access coaching and bite sized support when they need it, as they need it and we can use AI to surface that information and wrap that on a personalised basis through the learning journey. So I think that’s how I would see things evolving as, as Deon said, I think, you know, the, the folks that you have within your business are a really critical asset for the value of that organisation.
And so I think that we want to take care of them as best we can to help them be as effective as they can within the business. So I think it’s very exciting actually, what’s ahead of us in that sense.
Gemma Livermore: Very much so. Victoria, I’d love to hear your views on this as well, particularly as you’re entering into a new, a new role into a new region and how you see that scoping out as well.
Victoria Edwards: Yeah, I am, I consciously look at my support network and I always turn to our young people. Every time that I come across any challenge in, in work and life I have been mentored at Lockton by one of our apprentices since I first started and they’ve been through an amazing journey. The wonderful thing about that, and I hate to call it reverse mentoring because I think when you put a badge on it, you start, it becomes something else, but what really at the heart of it is, is that person says to me, Victoria, that is not good enough and is frank and honest and gives me a perspective that I do not get anywhere else. And calls out every time that we’re putting corporate washing over stuff and says, what’s really going on here?
We know something’s going on. Why are you saying it like that? Why are you speaking about this? And this could be a communication that comes out centrally or something that comes from a holding company. But what it gives me is a really great sense check and pulse onto actually, what are people saying on the ground?
What are people saying who are first jobbers? We’ve got such a responsibility, especially to people who are entering the industry to make sure that their, their experience is reflective of where we think their future is going to be. But also, we really actively work with our alumni. And we consider our alumni, those people who’ve kind of said to us, you know, at some point in the next five to 10 years, I’m thinking about sunsetting my career.
And that’s not because I’m going to leave, but actually how can we work together to pass on my knowledge to the next generation, but also that I can phase down my work. So that works for me and my family. As I kind of get ready for retirement and whatever’s next in that. And so I also have a member of our alumni team who I turned to for his wisdom.
Even this week had a tricky thing going on where I was doing a business case for something. Can I just, I was like, can I just have 10 minutes, please? You know, I just need your wisdom. How would you approach this? And so there’s something there about kind of training our our older people as coaches to unlock their expertise and to know that they don’t need to solve everyone’s problems, but actually if they can become more coach like and bring on the next generation, but also ensuring that the kind of the voice of every generation is there at every stage. It can get really powerful when you speak about, kind of, what goes wrong in this. What I don’t like seeing is when people hire a Chief Diversity Officer and they say, great, we’re going to report it to the board and it has power.
And that’s not where the power is because you’re not empowering people to drive change. If you put people into roles and connect them into the right people, so they have the heartbeat of the organisation, that’s where you build kind of culture change. And that’s where we can have a really positive impact on DE&I.
Gemma Livermore: I love that idea and I love the cross generational idea that you’re coming up with within Lockton, where you pass that knowledge on because I think so much knowledge can be lost as people go through their careers and then end their career and why not pass that on to the new generation, it’s so fantastic.
Deon, have you seen anything like this or is there anything that you’d like to raise at this stage about the future?
Deon Pillay: Yeah, I think, you know, we touched on it earlier, and it’s about this whole concept of inclusion. And sadly, what we have seen through all the great diversity work that’s been done over the last couple of years, a number of people still feel very excluded.
And now it’s about how do you make sure everybody in your organisation feels a sense of belonging, and that inclusion piece becomes really, really important, along with the cultural shift. Victoria made some really great points earlier around, you know, the different generations. The one thing we still miss as, as, as organisations is your existing employees, those people who have been with you for a longer period, what I call the mid career people.
And why don’t we often give them the same opportunities like we have for the grad program to bringing young, talented people, we let them rotate across the business, learn new skillsets, to understand the wider part of the business, yet we don’t offer the same opportunities to our people who are mid career.
And that’s, that’s a great way of getting and retaining people because they feel more valued, they get to explore new ideas, new concepts and work in different departments, and maybe find new careers within the existing organisation. I guess we also see a number of straight white males feel a sense of disconnect because currently they feel through diversity and inclusion, they are being excluded.
So how do we re-engage, disengage and help them understand that through equity hiring and through opportunities that they still are valued and there’s opportunity for them as well.
Gemma Livermore: I love that idea. And I love the idea that you mentioned about the sort of like graduate scheme, but for people later on in their career and Rachael, I’d love to turn it to you at this point, I know that you’re passionate about using coaching and learning throughout people’s career in terms of technology. Now that we’re a hybrid society and where that can take people in their careers. So I’d love to turn it to you at this point and hear your views.
Rachael Rowe: Yes, thanks very much, Gemma, and you’re right, I do have a real passion around this because the essence of a team is that you have different skill sets, that you have different perspectives, and there’s diversity in thought that, that for me is a really strong team. But, but in order to be able to create and sustain that kind of team, there needs to be a way to individually support each of those folks so that they’re able to give of their best.
And as Deon said, you know, feel that they belong within the organisation and that they have a key role to play, which they do. And I think that’s very, that that is best achieved by being able to use technology in an efficient way. And this is something which I think is a sort of surfaced throughout the pandemic, in an efficient way to be able to meet people where they are and what I mean by that is, that they can digest information that they can access learning and coaching, you know, at a time that is convenient to them. And it doesn’t require always to have a manager or a mentor or somebody else within the mix, but it’s kind of a self serve model, if you like.
I also believe passionately, and it’s something Victoria talked about, that the idea of mentoring, and I also agree it’s not something maybe to label because it really requires a voluntary aspect on both sides, but I think that’s something that kind of goes up and down and across an organisation.
And just finding those folks that, you know, are able to be a little, a little bit of a kind of a springboard for, for ideas and support as and when you need it. And I think that comes from the culture of an organisation and really that, that kind of that intersection of diversity, equity and inclusion that Deon talked about.
But I think that that is something that will gather more and more traction and we’re seeing it already through organisations so it’s, kind of, a real understanding of the need for that individualised learning and coaching aspect.
Gemma Livermore: I love that. Something that we’ve touched on slightly along here is the hybrid working that’s come about post pandemic as well. And I’d love to hear your views on how that’s changed the landscape of D&I and whether you think it’s something that’s going to continue within our industry.
Victoria, I’d love to hear your views on that.
Victoria Edwards: I think the key thing with hybrid working is organisations getting comfortable with managing productivity and performance. And I see a bit of a backlash now in the market around actually people, some parts of our market wanting visibility, wanting people in.
And I do get the argument around kind of coaching and mentoring, but we’re in a different world. And coaching needs to be as easy as Google, and as easy as Google isn’t saying to someone, you have to sit next to me for me to pass on my knowledge. And the key thing here is, how do we help everyone to become a bit more coach like and a little bit more comfortable with coaching in different kind of ways, that will really enable that hybrid working?
I would consider myself to have been a hybrid worker myself for the last 10 years, but I’ve been really, really lucky and it shouldn’t be luck that I’ve worked for organisations that trust that I deliver and I deliver a great product, and have just let me get on with doing that. And we’ve got a long way to go where we have leaders and managers who are truly, truly trusting of that kind of performance and that delivery is there.
Because a lot of the process we put in place is because that trust doesn’t exist and we really need to think about it.
Gemma Livermore: Yeah, and I think trust has a lot to do with where D&I has been in the past and where it is now, and where it’s going, and it’s that ability to build trust amongst all of our staff and our talents.
Deon, what are your views on that?
Deon Pillay: I think that the really key word is the word trust, because, I trust that I empower my team and I know that my team are much more effective when they’re actually working from home because I know that the time that one of the mums would be actually traveling is the time she would spend actually doing work and the same in the afternoon.
Not that I’m forcing my team to work extra hours, but because they feel valued and they feel like, you know, there’s a balance between being able to work from home very flexibly, they end up putting more time in. And I think the more, we as leaders, adjust our mindset to think about how different people have different needs, you know, we talk about, you know, working parents sometimes want to be able to pick their kids up and spend more time with them.
As long as you’re offering that flexibility, you’ll find you get much more productivity out of your individuals. You find a happier work environment and you’ll find greater retention because people want to be valued, they want to feel trusted to do their work really well. What we are seeing, to Victoria’s point, is this ask from lots of companies to go back to five days in the office.
And I can tell you, for us, we’ve been very lucky at LGIM in general, that we get to work, you know, minimum two days at home. So we get to choose if we want to work more or less, but it’s great to be able to come and connect with clients, or connect with peers and spend time in the office as well. So I think the hybrid working balance is really, really important as well.
Gemma Livermore: Love it. And retention is a big topic that we’ve spoken about before, Victoria, and I know you mentioned that it’s always better to retain staff. Is that something that you could mention here?
Victoria Edwards: Absolutely. The amount of times in my career where I’ve had to do the calculation for leaders of how much it costs to hire, onboard and get productive with a client, a new member of staff versus retaining.
It’s almost gets a little bit boring, having to do that kind of recalculation and reminding everyone commercially that it is better to retain than to, than to hire externally. And retention is so critical because you don’t just lose the technical knowledge, you lose the connections and you lose what you’re building culturally in groups of people.
And we need to think about the kind of the ramifications of, of, of losing individuals and what we’ve said to them because effectively we’re breaking our employment promises. If people’s heads are being turned and we’re not helping them to see future careers and, and growth, do I have space to learn and grow at Lockton, is a question we keep asking ourselves.
If we’re not answering that question with yes, then we’ve got some work to do ourselves. And it’s that continual process that, kind of, we do keep an eye on, on attrition, but more kind of deeply on this one, making sure that we know what we’re trying to solve when we’re looking to retain individuals.
Gemma Livermore: Love it. This is a topic I could talk about all day, but unfortunately we are coming towards the end. But I’m really grateful for you to join me on this conversation. I always leave feeling inspired when I’ve spoken to all of you. To wrap up, I’d love to take your one word takeaway from today, obviously have an extra sentence to give us the reason why.
And Rachael, if we could start with you, what’s your one word takeaway from today’s session?
Rachael Rowe: Yes, one word is a challenge because as you say, this is such a wide ranging topic and it would be good to talk on and on about this. I think my one word is belonging. And for me, I think that really conjures up what we’re trying to achieve is to create a culture where everyone feels that they can be their best, they can be themselves, and they have equal opportunities to do that.
So my word is belonging.
Victoria Edwards: Mine would be empowerment. I think it’s really critical that we don’t think that we’ve done the work on D&I. And knowing that we’ve got more work to do, continuing to uplift the voices of others, ensuring that all voices are heard and really breaking down barriers and questioning our assumptions on the employee experience.
Gemma Livermore: That’s great. And Deon, what’s yours?
Deon Pillay: As Victoria has stolen my words, sorry, I’m going to go with people. Because people are the heart and centre of our organisations and if we don’t do right by people, we don’t do right by society and we don’t do right for our clients as well. So I think people are key to everything that we do around DEI and therefore we have to be people centric as leaders as well.
Gemma Livermore: I love it. I love all of this. And I would say that mine is learning, partly because I’ve learned a lot from all of you today. I also love the ideas that Victoria raised around learning from cross generational across the business. And I think it’s something that we’re always learning. D&I isn’t something that you can master.
It’s constantly changing. So it would be my word. Thank you to everyone for joining us today. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. And yeah, thanks and goodbye.
