A new industry-wide organisation has been launched to champion neurodiversity within the insurance, investment and financial services industry.
Gain (Group for Autism, Insurance and Neurodiversity) seeks to create opportunities for autistic and neurodivergent people to engage in rewarding work and to foster employment opportunities within the industry by helping business leaders recognise the benefits of building a diverse workforce.
It says that while progress has been made to recognise equality gender and disability, neurodiversity is often overlook when it comes to promoting and recruiting a diverse workforce.
Founder members of this industry-wide collaboration include Marsh McLennan, Swiss Re, Zurich, Principal, ISC Group, arcQ, Ambitious about Autism, E2W, Expand the Circle and other senior insurance and investment individuals, including those with lived experience of autism.
The group points out that with one in 100 people are diagnosed as autistic, and many more are living day-to-day with other forms of neurodiversity which is often undiagnosed. However only 21.7 per cent of autistic adults access full-time and paid employment. Of those who do work, job satisfaction is over 20 per cent lower than the national average, with problems including colleague stigma, poor career support and jobs that do not match their skills.
Gain says that the financial services industry is traditionally a place where too few neurodiverse individuals have entered the workplace or reported positive job satisfaction.
Gain believes that the industry could benefit greatly from the skills that neurodiverse individuals often excel in, such as a methodical approach to tasks, a strong attention to detail, alternative creative thinking as well as looking at situations from a different perspective.
Barbara Schonhofer, co-chair of Gain says, “More than ever business leaders need to have people in their teams and businesses that bring a diverse mix of skills, backgrounds and abilities in order to be fully representative of the customers and clients they serve and deliver for their stakeholders. All the evidence points to Gain bringing a winning formula to deliver better business results for the future. Neurodiverse individuals make up a significant portion of society and bring a different lens to business. They also operate in different ways from the neuro-typical and this needs to be understood if they are to bring their whole value to the workplace.”
Ailsa King, chief client officer at Marsh McLennan adds, “With Gain, we are learning how to better support neurodiverse colleagues and attract new candidates into our industry. As a group working across the industry, we are comparing notes and practical advice on how we can do better to be an employer that is designed well to embrace all skill sets and all different perspectives within the workplace. Gain is helping us to attract more neurodiverse colleagues, who can enjoy what is a wonderful career with so many different roles for people with a wide range of skills.”
Miriam Lewis, chief inclusion officer at Principal adds: “Diversity and inclusion, including neurodiversity, are foundational to our culture and our continued success as an organization. We’re committed to advancing accessibility within our workplace, providing professional development opportunities, and supporting the well-being of all employees.”