Casting a wide net

If you want to foster a culture of innovation at your business, you need to cast your net wide as you recruit new talent.

Aon Bermuda has done exactly that through an intentionally open hiring process that has welcomed people with previous careers in banking, accounting and retail.

“We have hired from different industry sectors across Bermuda,” says Giles Harlow, managing director of the New Ventures Group at Aon Bermuda.

“This industry is not rocket science. It’s very specialised, but it’s absolutely something that can be trained.”

Harlow’s team includes one person recruited from the Milan Milan Italian lifestyle store in Hamilton, and another with a degree in criminal justice.

“She was very used to juggling multiple complex cases at the same time,” Harlow explains. “So she has the transferrable skills she needs to manage multiple accounts.

“I would like to peel back the onion a bit more when it comes to resumes in previous jobs – go a bit deeper to understand what those transferable skills might be, especially for those people looking for a career shift.

“Take a second look at something that might not be immediately obvious to the hiring manager. There’s some great talent out there.”

Such a process, of course, leads to a more diverse workforce, which Harlow believes can address an innovation gap within the insurance industry.

“There’s a positive correlation between DEI policy and innovation,” he says. “Hiring diverse teams helps us to close that innovation gap.

“We want to avoid being like an echo chamber and group thinking. We have been very focused to ensure we are getting a diverse team and not falling into any of those traps.”

One of the biggest traps in Bermuda’s international business circles is that predominantly white men have hired people who look like them for key roles.

“Probably the biggest thing I have observed is that when people are looking to replace staff, it’s easier to look at those who are already in the industry and from the same set because it means they can avoid training,” Harlow says.

“It’s something we have absolutely tried to avoid here. On a number of fronts, we have been trying to address a lot of that.”

Aon’s methods have included hiring technology to eliminate bias in job adverts that might turn off certain candidates, and setting up internship programmes to help young Bermudians get a foot in the door.

DEI training is provided, staff are encouraged to make individual pledges, a DEI council holds regular meetings and breakfasts are held to enable staff from different sections to mingle.

“I look at the employees we have here in Bermuda – employees from all over the world in the same building across three floors,” Harlow says.

“We are doing a lot more to integrate the groups so we get different ideas as a committee.”

This approach makes Aon more attractive to new recruits.

“Everybody has a lot of choice these days,” Harlow says. “People have more choice working for somewhere that follows that culture of diversity. It’s not necessarily the dollar amount people are looking at when they want to move.

“Aon promotes from within. People want to join Aon because it recognises that and it’s very good at nurturing employees.”

Harlow can reveal first-hand that it also makes Aon a better place to work.

“It’s wonderful,” he says. “It’s really fun actually when we sit down in a meeting and people are firing off different experiences and expressing different viewpoints.

“You might think you already have the right answer, and someone comes out of the blue and says something completely different.

“It really resonates when that’s a viewpoint I hadn’t considered and everyone gets on board with it. That keeps it interesting.”

Ltd. He started his career in the UK and moved to Aon Bermuda in 2012 where he has been instrumental in the design, development and build out of innovative intangible risk transfer products both within the Bermuda market and globally.

Mr Harlow joined Aon in 2009 and holds a Masters of Arts (Hons) from the University of St Andrews.

How far can we go

when

we let nothing hold us back?