DEI through the lens of the BMA

At a distance, BMA House is just a building on the corner of Victoria and Parliament. You may walk past it every day, but did you ever wonder what it is like inside? Well, each day is different, but for today, we will focus on three letters: DEI. Here is a snapshot of DEI through the lens of the BMA.

Let us get started! If we zoom in through the front doors and past the reception and elevators, you may see staff in the lunchroom warming favourite dishes from their home countries—locations that span the globe. The BMA is proud of our blended staff, which consists largely of Bermudians alongside highly skilled individuals from over 30 countries. Therefore, when possible, we celebrate this cultural diversity through gatherings such as potlucks, where staff can share a little taste of home with coworkers.

The BMA’s diversity shines through differently each day. For instance, on International Women’s Day, we capture plenty of purple—purple shirts, pants, dresses, shoes, and Women play a prominent role at every level. This starts at the Board where a third of members are female and many serve in leadership positions, such as our Board’s Deputy Chair and three of our Board Committee Chairs. This runs through the rest of the organisation, across all levels of leadership and into each department, with over half of our staff being female. We also have diversity of age—from Generations X, Y and Z to Baby Boomers—creating a powerful mix of deep experience and expertise alongside fresh perspectives.

we refocus the lens, you will see that, at the BMA, we do not just want staff to come to work each day, do their job and go home. We want them to have a strong sense of belonging, purpose and inclusion. To create an environment that fosters this, we actively invite and value the authentic voices of our diverse workforce— for instance, our annual strategic planning process. The annual planning starts with an all-staff call to action, where departments host discussions with staff at every level to listen to a range of perspectives and insights on where the BMA should focus.

There is also a lot more to the ‘I’ in our DEI approach. If we ride the conference room. Now, focus in on the employee behind his computer in the corner. His screen shows how we are enhancing our broader inclusion efforts as he works through modules that target resilience, well-being and self-awareness, which is part of our newly launched training on psychological safety. This is the belief that, regardless of your lived experiences, you can freely share your thoughts, opinions and ideas without the fear of being degraded or shamed. His manager, a few desks down, is working through modules that teach her how to create a trusting and empowering environment where everyone can participate.

We endeavour to ingrain this mentality across our operations and cross-functional, diverse working group supports management in its role to adopt and embrace our aspirational culture. The CIT itself is diverse, with two-thirds of the team being people of colour and two-thirds female. It is also a space where we search for avenues to include these diverse voices. But, why tell you when we can show you. It is nearly time for CIT’s 2 p.m. meeting. Let to see staff at all levels, from the our Graduate Trainees, sitting at the same table to share ideas and insights. We are excited to offer this opportunity for participation at a broad level, particularly to those just entering the workforce. For example, through our Graduate Training Programme, we offer recently graduated Bermudians a seat at the table to learn and contribute their perspective within the BMA and through industry and peer regulatory secondments.

Participation, however, is just a pathways that allow our colleagues to reach their full potential. For some, this requires access to and equity. If we walk down the hall, we may be able to also catch a glimpse of one of our Assistant Directors working to develop

Up. This is a truly comprehensive offering where employees coaching to cross-departmental secondments. For a snapshot of one of the BMA’s more targeted equity measures, as we walk

Following the pandemic and job losses that the island experienced in its wake, we created a new community–focused programme through which unemployed Bermudians could apply to be hired and trained in an entirely new set of skills, and tangibly contribute to helping our community recover.

This should give you a good picture of the BMA’s DEI path to date. As the landscape changes, we will continue to adjust our lens to focus on DEI in a way that drives our success as individuals, as an organisation and as a community.