For Raheja QBE, Diversity & Inclusion Are The Driving Forces for Org Success

Insurance as an industry offers consumers a plethora of options. As the workforce demographics shift, insurance companies must also adapt to reflect the changing landscape. There are a variety of factors employers must consider when it comes to the workplace. Today, many insurance companies are adopting modern frameworks founded on the principles of diversity and employer branding to create a more inclusive and efficient work environment.

Building an Employer Brand

Employer branding is important as it helps organizations share their culture and what it stands for from a business, customer, and employee perspective and also how these aspects align to form an organization’s purpose. Employees today are keen to work for those organizations that demonstrate trust and care – be it for employees, customers, and society at large through honouring the commitments made, meaningful growth, learning and development opportunities, and roles where employees can further their career prospects and be relevant in these changing times.

Employees want to be part of those ecosystems and contribute where companies are genuinely interested in creating value for their employees and customers and meaningful and impactful ESG initiatives. Similarly, adopting diversity and inclusion practices is rapidly becoming an important objective for the employer and a major factor for consideration for employees and consumers.

The Role of RQBE’s Culture to Attract and Retain Women in the Organization

The business case for diversity and inclusion is only growing stronger. It is now well established that diverse and inclusive work cultures have several positive employee and organizational outcomes ranging from broadened talent pools and promoting collaboration to better customer satisfaction, enhancing productivity, and building a positive brand reputation to just name a few. We also see that inclusive cultures boost morale, have lower employee churn rates, promote innovation, and hence, drive enhanced performance.

With over 250 employees working across various business verticals, we have incorporated a number of progressive practices such as offering flexible work options, crèche facilities, and providing meaningful work to enhance our employees’ work-life balance while simultaneously promoting a professional work culture thereby enabling and empowering our ecosystem and making it a comfortable place for women employees to contribute, learn and grow, thus attracting and engaging more women to the workplace. This has led to a 30 per cent participation of women in our workforce at the head office.

“Employees today are keen to work for those organizations that demonstrate trust and care – be it for employees, customers, and society at large through honouring the commitments made, meaningful growth, learning and development opportunities, and roles where employees can further their career prospects and be relevant in these changing times.”

Upskilling Opportunities through Gender Diversity

Today, there is enough and more evidence to show that diversity and inclusion have a positive impact on overall performance. According to McKinsey reports, “Diversity Wins: How inclusion matters”, the most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform non-diverse companies on profitability. Their analysis also finds that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity on executive teams were 25 per cent more likely to experience above-average profitability than peer companies in the fourth quartile—up from previous years.

RQBE also strongly believes in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, as this brings about unique talent, perspectives, and skills into the workplace, which can improve collaboration, enhance productivity and result in a stimulating creative and positive work culture. It is now clear more than ever before that diversity in business attracts better talent and boosts employee retention.

Aside from constantly persevering to improve the workplace environment through adopting new-age modern practices into company objectives, it is equally important to request employee feedback to gauge employee morale and understand the deficits in a company’s practices.

Creating a Culture of Feedback – Employee Feedback Matters

As a listening organization, RQBE conducts regular employee surveys for an employee pulse check on various parameters of engagement and feedback and uses that to design people interventions. Furthermore, the feedback is worked on and acted upon in a very systematic manner to not just incorporate suggestions, but to implement them on a company-wide scale to enhance morale and productivity at every level.

Based on employee feedback, we have strengthened our R&R programs, carried out collaboration initiatives, and enhanced automation efforts in the organization. We recently conducted an “Appreciation Week” for employees with the theme of building a culture of appreciation at the workplace and expressing gratitude towards others. There were 858 appreciation cards under several categories exchanged among colleagues, making the initiative a big success. On R&R, we have several platforms including special MD & CEO awards apart from regular quarterly/half-yearly awards to drive a culture of meritocracy and recognition.

We strongly believe that it is necessary to invest in technology to digitize employee processes, enhance employee experience, and increase employee productivity throughout the employee life cycle to continually make RQBE a better place to work and which people love to be a part of. With this belief, we are looking at both digitalization and digitization by revamping our present automation state to cater to the new age of employee expectations. These include making things simple and intuitive, empowering managers and people leaders with data to make more informed people decisions through capturing and integrating data at various points in an employee life cycle, and processing the data into meaningful information that managers can use for objective and smart talent decisions.

Looking at these changing times and employee feedback, several technology interventions, learning interventions, and journeys in addition to several flexibility options have been put in place across all verticals. After all, our people are our competitive edge and the driving force behind every business.

About Author: With over 20+ years of well-rounded experience, Saba has been at the forefront of the company’s growth. She has conceptualized and driven people practices supporting startups, business growth, and digital transformation.