The importance of diversity and inclusion at Aviva
This year we changed our company statement to “with you today, for a better tomorrow” to reflect how, as a business, we would like to support our customers and treat the communities that we serve equally.
We provide workplace pensions to over 4 million customers, and peace of mind through insurance and investments to millions more. Our customers are representative of the whole of UK society. To ensure that we truly understand what our customers need from us, we recognise that our business and workforce must be diverse. We don’t just need to understand our customers, we need to be our customers.
With auto-enrolment now well established, membership of the occupational pension schemes and Master Trusts that we work with will be more diverse than ever. The challenge for the pensions industry is to consider how to reflect that in our approach, both on trustee boards and as advisers.
Each will have its own hurdles to overcome when it comes to improving diversity and inclusion, but with inaction no longer feeling acceptable from a cultural, moral or legal perspective, what can the industry do to ensure it is representative of its savers?
Taking the pulse of pensions: PMI’s fifth survey results
It has now been two years since we ran the first PMI Pulse survey. This initiative, developed by the Policy and Public Affairs Committee, was intended to serve two specific purposes. The first was to assess PMI members’ confidence in the general direction of UK pensions policy and the performance of The Pensions Regulator (TPR). As a result, the first four questions of any Pulse survey will be the same. The second purpose of Pulse is to seek members’ views on specific topical issues. Pulse surveys are issued every six months and, over time, we are able to track trends in members’ views on policy.
Barnett Waddingham’s recent survey of UK private sector pension trustees – ‘Top Pensions Risks - 2020 Vision’ - found that board diversity was ranked as one of the lowest concerns, with almost half of the respondents saying this was a minimal risk. Only 14% rated diversity in the top 3 risks for their scheme.
Progress has been made in improving diversity and inclusion within the pensions industry but more still needs to be done. Representation is important; inspiring learning is a must; and apprenticeships can open the door to recruiting a more diverse workforce.
‘Diversity and inclusion’ – it’s good for your sole (trustee)!
“You never learn anything whilst you are talking” is a relatively well-known phrase; even Rocky Balboa quoted a version of it in the 2015 film ‘Creed’. An equally valid, but far less catchy truism is that you also learn nothing (or very little) if the only people you listen to already share your views.
