17 minute read
Financial Services
Finance is where the money is, so from the outside it looks like a no-brainer that working in the sector will be well rewarded. However, as with any other sector, a brain is very much an asset, and to be a success, knowledge, professionalism and creativity are prized just as highly.
The financial services industry is diverse, spanning a broad variety of different sectors and specialisms. Once you have experience under your belt, you have the opportunity to move into other lines of the business. Enjoy problem-solving and tough challenges that let you use analytical rigour? Become a Financial Analyst. Ready to map things out and think long-term? Get to work as a Certified Financial Planner.
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Despite booms and busts, Financial Services has remained a highly soughtafter career for ambitious professionals, with uncapped earnings potential, where every entrant is on a level playing field and where your uniqueness can be an asset. Each sector provides an avenue of career development, and the opportunity to be involved with one of the most dynamic and forward thinking industries in the world. Britain is a world leader financial services. In 2019, finance contributed £132 billion to the UK economy, 6.9% of total economic output. The sector was largest in London, where half of the revenue was generated. The UK financial services sector was the ninth largest in the OECD by its proportion of national economic output. After Brexit, (and after COVID restrictions are lifted) there could well be a renewed focus on the industry and the possibilities of what the easing of EU regulations may mean.
The finance industry is constantly advancing and expanding. Not only are the possibilities endless when it comes to career paths but for destinations too. By pursuing a career in finance, you are opening the door to thousands of exciting opportunities, including international working and places where you may not have considered moving.
INCLUDING YOU IN AN INSURANCE CAREER
I started my career in insurance longer ago than I care to admit. Back then in the mid-seventies, the sector certainly wasn’t as eclectic as the UK’s social or music scene. Those were the days of the insurance man, and they were mainly men (you probably won’t remember the “Man from the Pru” adverts), calling on middle England homes to arrange insurance, and the somewhat arcane traditions of Lloyd’s and the London Market insurers.
Steve White, CEO BIBA
The reference to men in grey suits was made for those days. My slightly more youthful colleagues tell similar stories about joining the sector in the 80s and 90s when diversity had only moved on minimally.
Happily, the insurance sector has changed. There is still work to be done, but a career in an insurance firm whether in claims, underwriting, broking or a myriad of other ancillary functions is rewarding, exciting and vibrant.
My own sector is in insurance broking, the link between the customer and the provider of their insurance. The world of insurance is complex but it’s simple to liken it to shopping. You might want to buy a fridge but you are unlikely to go directly to SMEG. You can go online and buy it. You may want to see what you are buying to understand it a little more and visit a shop, a well known name like John Lewis or something more local. My own town has a little appliances dealer called Fullicks, which is always great for some valuable advice and usually as good a deal as other suppliers.
A similar model operates in insurance. The manufacture is the insurance company, with underwriters assessing the risk, actuaries and analysts pricing the cover and technical specialists creating the policy. Insurance companies may sell cover directly to the public but many sell through insurance brokers – their intermediaries or ‘shops’, which may be online or not. Insurance brokers have at their disposal a whole host of insurers and policies to choose from and part of the joy of their role is to help people find the insurance they need – for their car their possessions, their business or for themselves (life cover, income protection travel etc.)
The insurance sector is really coming of age. BIBA helps our members attract the best talent to build and drive their businesses forward, and the best talent is diverse. Research has proven time and time again that firms that embrace inclusivity and diversity will have better business results. If a leader is surrounded by clones creativity cannot flourish. Allowing employees to be themselves and bring their different experiences, beliefs and visions to the table aids decision making, long-term thinking, innovation and competitive advantage. Otherwise firms will continue doing what they have always done.
But new talent wants to know that they will be a good fit and that their voices will be heard. That is why the sector is listening to the needs and wants of their prospective recruits.
Recently research suggested that Millennials (and younger) looking for careers want far more from their prospective employers than just a good salary.
When I was beginning my career, I admit my checklist began with pay and pension and had a nod towards location, working hours and holiday allowance. Candidates now want to know that the culture of the organisation they are considering is a fit for them, that the core values reflect their own sentiments on the environment, community and equality. Equally, they want to be confident that their individual aspirations will be met including skills development and mentoring and coaching, but they also want the flexibility to work how they want and have the opportunity to develop outside the workplace.
In Deloitte’s Global Millennial Survey 2020* Millennials (born on or after 1981) and Generation Z (born on or after 1996)** responded that more companies were doing more to respond to the need of future generations with 71% of both Millennials and Gen Z agreeing that employers were working towards “creating a diverse and inclusive working environment”.
“Two-thirds of millennials said that working remotely enables a better work/life balance. Half of all respondents said they’ve felt more able to bring their “true selves” to work by having their offices at home and nearly seven in 10 millennials said the option of working from home in the future (post-pandemic) — and avoiding commutes—would relieve stress”. Millennials and Gen Z have remained focused on larger societal issues. “They continue to push for a world in which businesses and governments mirror that same commitment to society, putting people ahead of profits and prioritising environmental sustainability.”
All of this, reinforcing the idea that now there is more to a career than pay and progression.
Where does this leave my entreaty for you to view insurance as a place to leave your career hat?
From the outside, insurance may appear not to offer much choice. I beg to differ. As mentioned earlier, my organisation is centred around insurance brokers – the intermediaries that help their customers to find the insurance protection they need. So, if you know nothing about insurance can you work in it? Well that is the point. Insurance brokers like any other business need a whole host of skills to create a successful business.
Technical insurance disciplines bring their own rewards. Underwriting, claims and actuarial functions are really about finding solutions. Allied to the need to understand insurance (usually via training and professional qualification), there is the need to present yourself as an authority, to share knowledge and explain, sometimes technical, principles. An insurance broker may have this technical background, but in reality, they are people people!
Opportunities abound A successful broking firm should be able to relate to, understand and communicate with customers – and with their insurance underwriters that provide the cover. This means that the more diverse the firm in terms of its people the better they are able to relate to those needing their help and the more successful they will be.
Insurance brokers come in many shapes and sizes, some focused almost entirely on one-to-one interaction with clients where empathy and the strength of personal relationships is paramount. Others will be multi-department businesses. As well as having the insurance broking technical and relationship management teams there will be a whole raft of employment opportunities to appeal to a wide range of applicants. In our sector IT is vital and more, brokers looking to innovate are placing a massive reliance on online solutions and even artificial intelligence – a natural born innovator would not be disappointed with their remit in many broker firms. For the more creative types, insurance is a highly competitive market so many firms need fantastic marketers, communicators, media experts and social marketing gurus.
If people are your thing, then consider a role in human resources or learning and development.
With opportunities also abound in administration, research, legal and more insurance can really be an eyeopener once the uninitiated dive into the sector to find out more.
Which brings me back to the culture of the sector. It is unrecognisable as the world I joined in the seventies and that is change for good. There are many organisations and initiatives that help to promote inclusivity and diversity. Businesses and their employees pay attention to this and rely on the likes of Lloyd’s Dive-In festival to get ideas and develop good practice. There are networks such as iCAN (the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network) and ACIN (the African and Caribbean Insurance Network) that help promote and celebrate difference as well as Government’s Women in Finance which promotes equality and of whose Charter BIBA is a signatory. There are numerous ways to join in with areas of personal interest. At BIBA we rely on our members to help shape our direction and among them are our Young Broker Ambassadors. They are passionate about their careers in insurance and about promoting the sector as a prime place to forge a career, regardless of background, education, or experience and they are helping create a buzz that means as a sector we truly are shaking off that grey image of the past.
**The Pew Research Centre
ABOUT BIBA
The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) represents the many interests of insurance brokers and their customers. BIBA wants to help our members attract, employ and retain talent in order to be able to thrive and serve their customers well. That broking talent must reflect the make-up of society in all its diversity. To be successful firms in our sector need to have varied life experiences in terms of race, social background, sexual orientation, age, religion, education to list but a few areas – and to be able to show that they are inclusive and tolerant of those differences.
BIBA is committed to bringing about positive change among our membership, suppliers and the wider insurance sector and is committed to embedding an inclusive, collaborative culture among colleagues within the association and to actively seek diverse representation within BIBA’s governance structure and on our member committees.
Our aim is to help our members to realise the value and potential of diversity and inclusion, to promote the approach and help provide the tools to achieve it.
BIBA is a signatory of the Inclusive Behaviours Pledge; and supports inclusion@lloyds, iCAN (Insurance Cultural Awareness Network) and the AfricanCaribbean Insurance Network (ACIN).
USEFUL LINKS
iCAN https://www.i-can.me
ACIN https://theacin.co.uk
Women in Finance https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ women-in-finance-charter
BUILDING A DIVERSE TALENT PIPELINE IN A CHANGING WORLD
Ama Ocansey is UK Head of Diversity and Inclusion at BNP Paribas, a leading bank in Europe with a presence in 71 countries. Present in the UK for over 150 years, today the Group is formed of 10 divisions, with over 9,000 staff.
The business case for diversity and inclusion has long existed, and we are seeing a growing recognition of its importance across the financial services industry, alongside the legal and moral imperative to treat all people with equal respect and dignity. The message is clear: diversity unlocks potential, encourages innovation and improves financial performance.
It is a message that has, for some time, been grounded in cold, hard data. According to the most recent McKinsey report on the business case for diversity, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than those in the bottom quartile; this percentage rose to 36% for companies with the best ethnic and cultural diversity.
In under 15 years, we have lived through two economic crises with important lessons to be learned from both. Following the 2008 financial crisis, diversity and inclusion was hailed by many as an antidote to the toxic culture of group-think that led to catastrophic failures of risk management and a resulting recession that led to disproportionate economic and social impacts on minority groups. And yet, the pace of change within the corporate world remained glacial at best.
Fast forward to 2021 and, once again, we are experiencing a crisis with similarly long-term and disproportionate impacts. 2020 was a year that saw global calls for action on racial equality following the death of George Floyd and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement. This presented a renewed opportunity for Black communities to speak their truths and lived experiences – both in society and in places of work. For organisations, these external pressures highlighted an urgent need to take a harder stance against racism and discrimination, and look more broadly at issues of representation and inclusion. This is reflected in the priorities of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the conduct regulator for financial services firms, which has highlighted diversity and inclusion as a critical part of building a healthy organisational culture, managing risk and serving consumers from diverse segments of society.
Speaking at 2020, in the review of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi said: “I would question if any firm can adequately respond to the needs of these consumers if they do not have the diversity of background and experience required to overcome biases and blind spots”. Mr Rathi also drew attention to the importance of looking at how gender intersects other areas of diversity, particularly ethnicity. That year, the Women in Finance Charter submission form added questions on other underrepresented groups Last year the Women in Finance Charter submission form added questions on other under-represented groups.
This external pressure is not limited to the regulator. Clients are increasingly asking about diversity and inclusion commitments before entering into a relationship with a financial intermediary. And as the integration of ESG – environmental, social and governance factors – into investment decisions continues to gather pace, investor activism is not limited to environmental issues. Many investors are now pushing for greater engagement on diversity from the companies in their portfolios, thanks to the growing data sets on the link between diverse companies and financial outcomes. We are also seeing corporates and financial institutions using innovative financing to help drive positive social outcomes within their organisations. For example, at BNP Paribas we recently supported investment giant Carlyle on a $4.1bn sustainability-linked loan, whereby the price of debt is directly tied to the company’s goal of having 30% diverse directors on the boards of the companies it controls within two years of ownership.
Internally, employees are holding management to account, and diversity and inclusion are now multi-disciplinary. For example, risk and compliance teams must consider how they are embedded within regulatory compliance and organisational risk. Procurement teams must look at supply chain management. Communications specialists are increasingly involved in developing a progressive narrative and shaping organisational policy to encourage leaders to take a stance in the public domain. While there is reason to be encouraged, it is an uncomfortable truth that driving change at every level of the business remains a material challenge. According to Brightpool research conducted in 2019, 46% of CEOs in financial services believe that their company performs better for ethnic diversity, while only 25% of HR directors share this view. Progress depends on more than just policies and programmes. It depends on a deep cultural shift that addresses everything from leadership buy-in and career support to the values, behaviour and even language we use.
At BNP Paribas, we have much to do. We are lucky to have a high level of engagement from the very top, but we must ensure that race and ethnicity measures in our sector are raised to the same degree as gender equality and other areas of diversity.
Last year, an important landmark on our journey was signing the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter, providing a framework for action on race and ethnicity; and establishing a dedicated cross-business working group of diverse talents to drive this work forward, focusing on four main areas: Recruitment, Retention & Progression, Data and Culture & Awareness.
To achieve this however, we need to start by addressing our talent pipeline, particularly within our Early Careers programmes, and see specialist partnerships as a key part of this. We have started working with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a charitable organisation helping us to strengthen our capabilities to attract diverse profiles of candidate, including those from Black, Asian, Mixed race and other ethnically diverse backgrounds. We have also joined 10,000 Black Interns, a UK-wide initiative that aims to transform the horizons of young Black talent in the UK by offering paid internships, and one that demonstrates the power of collective action across sectors.
We are lucky to have some great employee-led initiatives supporting this work, such as B.L.A.C.K. – which stands for Building Leaders Allies Careers and Knowledge – a programme in our Global Markets division founded by two employees. It aims to promote the benefits of racial diversity internally and forge partnerships with schools and universities to reach more diverse talent, complementing our broader engagement with local communities. We’ve found that initiatives that drive progress from the bottom up, and not just the top down, are crucial if we are to bring everyone along on the journey. We also want to ensure that talented individuals can progress, and find themselves on a level playing field when it comes to moving into leadership positions. Our focus is on looking at existing mentorship and sponsorship programmes within our business and elsewhere, and looking at how the different benefits of each could support specific groups.
Alongside our work on diversity, we are equally focused on inclusion, and ensuring that all employees feel safe and valued. According to the same McKinsey report,bold action is neccessary to create a workplace where employees thrive, even when companies are relatively diverse. We want everyone thrive, even when companies are relatively diverse. We want everyone to feel able to bring their ideas and experiences to the table, and use them to do better business. Part of this is promoting psychological safe spaces for staff to speak up, to tackle more overt forms of discrimination and inappropriate behaviour, as well as educating on the microaggressions that might make employees feel uncomfortable. We are actively working on improving our organisational culture and have introduced a new online forum where employees can submit questions to senior leaders and peers, openly or anonymously. We are also piloting unconscious bias and inclusivity training. This is particularly important for our younger employees, many of whom are entering the financial services industry, or full time employment, for the first time.
A feeling of belonging is something we seek to embed even before they’ve joined us. Alongside our formal graduate recruitment process, we run informal pre-assessment briefings, helping candidates prepare for the interviews and exercises, and offering tips on presenting themselves in a corporate environment. Those who secure spots on our graduate or internship programmes are matched with a buddy from a previous graduate intake before joining, and we have a vibrant community of young people, six employee networks and events such as our annual Early Careers Network BBQ to help them feel included from the start.
Corporate culture is changing, and the demands of employees, investors, regulators and society are converging when it comes to building diverse and thriving workplaces. Internal and external pressures are mounting, and financial services firms, like other sectors, must work harder to accelerate change in the face of a new economic downturn that threatens progress on diverse representation. Organisations must answer urgent calls to tackle issues as racial equality that have been overlooked for too long. Inclusion must be put front and centre of organisational culture and engagement. Employees must be given a voice, while being able to hold management accountable for the burden of real change. We are committed to transparency, to collaborating for progress, and to working to reflect the diverse society we are.
Find out more about BNP Paribas Early Careers programmes: https://careers.bnpparibas.co.uk/ early-careers/graduates/
Follow us on social media:
@BNPParibasUK https://www.linkedin.com/ company/bnp-paribas/
