Karen Graves, iWIN, USAALtd. and USAASA

I believe the benefits of collaboration are really clear if you start to collaborate with people both internally and externally

Collaboration and Inclusion – Benefits and Barriers

Karen has been working in the Lloyd’s and London market for over 30 years, starting her career in the compliance arena, moving on to a COO and then a CEO role within the Lloyd’s market for an established Lloyd’s Managing Agency. She is also the Senior Independent Director for the USAA Limited and USAA SA, Vice Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust, and Chair of iWIN.

QTell us a little bit about yourself and what your current role involves as the Chair of iWIN?

AI began my career in the industry 30 years ago, and have chaired iWIN for the last three years of those. What we’ve tried to do in the last three years is to make iWIN a lot more collaborative. More collaborative with other organisations, networks and committees within our industry and the London markets as a whole. We decided to try and reposition iWIN to be more inclusive and better support young women throughout their careers. We need to understand that there’s some great female talent in our industry and I believe we need to showcase the women who are at the top in our industry and specialists in their field. I believe it’s a very powerful thing to promote female speakers where we can, because as well as trying to support and educate, it is important to become a place for people to talk about their skills and talents, which is something I don’t think we see enough of when it comes to women.

I love what we do and the events we hold, but I must admit there’s a little part of me that gives a big sigh that I’m chairing a women’s network in 2020. Personally, my work at iWIN has primarily always been a conversation about talent. However, I am also aware that I don’t want women’s voices to be lost in the whole host of other things that are happening in the market place. And so, it’s a very fine balance. We’re not a political body, but we’re there to try and support people and essentially try and be a positive force.

QWhat will the benefits of collaboration be for the industry?

AI believe the benefits of collaboration are really clear if you start to collaborate with people both internally and externally. Personally, I don’t feel companies do enough to collaborate internally. Within companies I have seen areas of a business that become silos in themselves, and I believe collaboration internally would give companies a real understanding of who their people are and where their talents lie. By doing this, you can start to think about deploying talent differently and in different places. Quite often, I have found that when you work in a place that operates on quite a silo basis, you become frustrated for opportunities. This applies in particular for women, whom when they can’t see a career path within a company, will look to leave and go somewhere else.

Externally, looking at collaboration on a wider scale, I’ve always been quite an inclusive person and believe companies are more fun, more independently-minded and more innovative if they’re inclusive. I don’t just mean with gender and race, but also by observing employees from an education perspective and social mobility; these are things that are important to me.

If you looked at the market a few years ago, there were lots of interest groups and women’s groups that were at risk of becoming silos in themselves, so ‘externally’ this is

Companies need to be very proactive with their strategies because conversation about inclusion can be very difficult

another area where we can collaborate better, so that we all benefit. Working together means we will touch so many more people and demonstrates the skill sets of the people you’re representing. A really good example of this, came at the end of last year when we collaborated with ‘iCAN’ and created a forum that talked about race, talent and barriers to progression. What’s more, we also set up a mentoring scheme called ‘Inspire’ which collaborated the work of both organisations to help mentor young people from the BAME community entering the industry.

QWhat strategies would you suggest be adopted to ensure collaboration success in the Insurance Industry?

ACompanies need to be very proactive with their strategies because conversation about inclusion can be very difficult. As a company you can support external groups such as iWIN, if their ethos matches yours and what they’re trying to do. Internally, I believe companies should be looking at it more from an operational perspective and not just an ‘HR’ one. You must proactively go out and look to collaborate with your colleagues, creating a culture where there is a way for people to raise any concerns they have, and gives them the ability to talk about the barriers they may face and come up with suggestions. Some kind of ‘employee engagement scheme’ can also be really beneficial and you really need to encourage colleagues to go to these and enjoy them.

If you’re going to collaborate, you’ve got to be able to give people the ‘time’ to do this. What’s more, you have to be given the time to think about how to do this. That’s why collaboration has often been seen as a difficult subject, because as we all know, time, in our industry, is one of the most precious commodities.

QWhat do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership within the Insurance sector?

AWomen can get side tracked as they pursue their careers. That is not to say men don’t as well, but in order to answer this question properly, I will answer this through the female lens specifically. Women can get side tracked by life circumstances, whether this be caring for elderly relatives, looking after your family or having to take some time out for yourself. I believe when you are eventually able to come back, it is incredibly hard to pick up where you left off. Rightly or wrongly, (it is changing in regards to paternity leave and sharing that responsibility), when you take a break it’s really tough to come back. I don’t think companies have really nailed how to deal with that break for a woman.

I believe we need to get better in understanding why people may look to have career breaks. I do think that it’s a real barrier to female leadership, and if companies can’t do this, they will lose talent because of it. At the beginning of your career, the industry is very good at welcoming in both men and women. However, as you advance through your career, the number of female leaders seems to drop off and arguably that is a result of this barrier. It can be really difficult to reassert yourself and you are often viewed differently or even labelled when you do return.

I believe we’re still quite rigid in our structures. We’re not flexible enough, and don’t give enough understanding to this part of a woman’s career. You have to have ways in a company (and lots do), that allow this period to be a smoother and more considerate process.

Once you’re a leader, understandably so, there are different responsibilities in caring for your company, and less flexibility with certain life circumstances. However, to get to that point of being a female leader, there’s lots of moving parts that enable you to get there, and I’m sometimes not sure that those moving parts e.g. flexibility, are really being utilised well enough.

I believe if we’re able to create the environment, where it’s easier for people to come back to work and their skills, talent and ability to lead are still recognised, this would really help to eradicate this barrier to female leadership.

QWhat will the industry’s biggest challenge be for the next generation of women?

AThe biggest challenge will be whether women want to stay in this industry or not. When it gets to a certain point in their career, whether they’re faced with cultural challenges, behavioural challenges, coming back after a career break, or even a lack of clarity about where their career path is going, I believe women face the problem of do they wish to stay in this industry or not.

We need to make our industry as open to talent as possible, wherever that talent comes from. I do believe we have a challenge to make sure this industry stays attractive and open to talent, and we have to consider how we can engage and demonstrate career opportunities to the people within our industry. We need to engage with women throughout their career, making sure they have more guidance on their career path, and we don’t create unnecessary and thoughtless barriers to this.

Beyond this, we need to think about how we employ women. I believe that when we provide thought and training in our industry, it’s ok to note that men and women need different things in their career path and different support. I do fear that we have become homogenised in the way we offer help, and we should certainly be pushing for a better way to cater for the diverse talent in our industry.

Karen Graves, Chair iWIN & Senior Independent Director USAA Ltd and USAA SA