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How important is the freedom to be yourself at work?
Well, the first thing is that you spend a lot of your time at work. More time than anywhere else. Being your authentic self is being true to your identity. When you are comfortable at work you engage more, your performance is higher, and you contribute more to the company in general. Authenticity is important not just for the individual but also for the organization as a whole in that way.
How does authenticity affect morale?
Well, we should talk about the culture itself. You see, every organization has a culture. Part of my role is to have programs that maintain inclusive environments. You can’t have diversity without inclusion. When individuals feel like “the other,” it is associated with stress levels rising. Science has borne this out. And you can’t fully contribute to your organization and your team. We ask leaders to be more inclusive not just for their employees, but also because it affects their organization.
How does your company work to create equality?
That is a challenge for most organizations. Especially within an industry, like insurance. Insurance is traditionally old, white and male. However, we have partnered with other insurance carriers and other operational companies to understand where we are today and where we want to be. And we spend a lot of time letting individuals know that this is a place that they can call home. We work on policies to engage with specific underrepresented groups. A very important part of being inclusive is who your allies are within your organization, so we spend a lot of time accruing allies.
So you have a quota of inclusion? A target?
Well, we don’t use the word “targets.” But there are definitely goals that we engage. It is no longer the quota system, and we don’t hire diversity for the sake of diversity. We still want quality talent because we still have to deliver to our clients. We have to make sure that our unconscious biases are identified and eradicated so that we can have equity. I don’t believe there can ever be parity. But there has to be equity.
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