The start of this decade has seen a call for greater inclusivity and equity on all levels of society, and now more than ever organizations and companies have the opportunity to embed greater diversity and inclusion. Companies are called to create the post-pandemic workplace and the economy of the future and implementing policies and practices that create inclusion in the workplace has become an imperative, not only because it impacts on the employees’ lives, but also on the broader communities in which the companies operate, working towards social justice and equity on a more general and fundamental level.
On this matter, the World Economic Forum published a report called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 4.0”, a toolkit dedicated to leaders willing to accelerate social progress in their companies and that highlights the opportunities and challenges that rapidly emerging technologies represent for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The toolkit outlines how companies leading their geography and industry for themes such as diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, significantly outperform homogenous workplaces over time, across a wide range of key performance metrics, which are:
– Profitability: 25%-36% more likely to outperform on profitability
– Innovation: Up to 20% higher rate of innovation and 19% higher innovation revenues
– Decision-making: Up to 30% greater ability of spotting and reducing risks
– Employee engagement: Statistically significant causal relationship with engagement and retention for all employees.
On the other hand, companies that are not in line with their regional and industry peers in these areas see a competitiveness penalty, being 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability than their market mean. Then, the report outlines three different areas of action that are key in order to implement new practices, which are:
– Talent Sourcing and Selection: this area includes all topics related to recruitment, from job advertisement and the identification of the best candidates, based on merit and skills.
– Organisational Analysis and Monitoring: this area comprehends wide themes related to the organization of the company, such as the measurements of the behaviors that create inclusion and exclusion; creating opportunities for learning and development; understanding employee experience and engagement levels.
– Employee Experience, Reward, and Development: in this area we can find activities such as training and incentivize managers and employees to enhance inclusion and belonging in their daily interaction; conducting objective
For our part, RGI has always been a group that values any kind of diversity, and many different programs were implemented in all three areas, committing to create an inclusive workplace in terms of cultures, backgrounds, gender, and empowering each and every one of the employees.
First of all, RGI Group is composed by a mix of cultures and backgrounds, with more than 1.200 professionals in Italy, France, DACH & Slovenia, Ireland, Africa & Middle east, that together make an inclusive space and environment where differences become strengths and where everyone is committed to the values of the company, which are passion, innovation, teamwork, sustainability.
Then, in RGI there is a specific attention for gender diversity. In fact, in RGI women represent 30% of our employees and 25% of our management positions, numbers that can be considered an excellence compared to the statistics of women representation in the insurtech sector.
On top of the numbers, there are continuous actions in place aimed at promoting gender diversity within the company, such as the initiative that was launched on the International Women’s Day 2021: last March 8th Cécile André Leruste, Group CEO introduced an internal event to celebrate the #IWD2021 and discuss how talented women progress in their career by using a tarot cards tool developed by the Circle of Leading Women in France and NB Lemercier. Some talented women in the group were asked to pick a tarot card, choosing a word or concept that was either a challenge for them or something they are really using to develop and grow within the company, and then exchanged their thoughts about it in a video. The result has been a set of #RGItalentedwomen stories, which engaged all employees to both exchange thoughts and raise awareness on the topic.
Then, there are many other initiatives that focus on diversity and on representing RGI as an inclusive workplace, giving the chance to every employee to be part of the team and feel empowered in his or her own skills and characteristics. Among the different initiatives, there is an ongoing activity, “IT’s RGI”, aimed at telling the stories of the employees of the group, giving their point of view and sharing their path. Then, RGI always encourages its RGI People to work towards creating a community, sharing images, videos and thoughts on international days and cross-cultural recurrences. For instance, for the last World Music Day, all RGI People were asked to disclose their diverse backgrounds by sharing their very own music. The result is a video that shows how RGI values the fact that its common identity is made by many different voices and instruments, which all together create a very well harmonized orchestra.
Finally, to affirm the Groups effort in order to value its employees and as part of RGI’s commitment to inclusion, starting from this year, RGI showed widely RGI’s pride through its logo in rainbow colors on all social media profiles and on the website during the Pride Month. A statement that confirms and shows how RGI firmly believes that what makes people different can also bring them together and foster an environment of innovation and success.
