Fixed quotas ensuring the hiring of more diverse teams are to be encouraged as they help insurers gauge progress and hold management accountable. 

That’s the view of Allianz Senior Manager Diversity and Inclusion Edyta Torpy, who made the comments at the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) hybrid seminar attended by insuranceNEWS.com.au. 

“The targets do have a place,” Ms Torpy told attendees at the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park on Thursday.  

"I'm a big proponent of targets. It shakes up complacency…and also allows organisations to look at their progress. You would never not set a financial target for the year. I think it's the same in the D&I space.” 

An Allianz booklet detailing D&I initiatives says the insurer has disability quotas in 13 countries, and other clear targets and ambitions to be fulfilled by 2024 related to gender, ethnicity, generations and LGBTQ+. 

It is targeting having 30% women in global and senior executive positions, 40% in executive positions, half in all talent pools, and at least two nationalities or ethnicities represented on all boards. 

It also aims to have “a balanced generational representation where at least 25% of our workforce is younger than 35 years” and to reach 80% of its global workforce with access to local LGBTQ+ networks. 

Ms Torpy says it is important to set targets and “hold yourself accountable to reach certain goals that you set in the organisation”, although the targets do not necessarily have to be "how many women are on your board or how many people with disability are in this area”. 

Thursday’s panel of experts, moderated by SLE Holdings CEO Raj Nanra, explored the progress of diversity and inclusion in insurance and shared experiences and insights on the theme “building a home for inclusion, overcoming unconscious bias”.   

Accenture Director Simon Corcoran agrees D&I quotas have a role to play. 

“When…the target is not being met, it should prompt questions around why. Why are we not hitting that target? Why are we not on track? And how do we course-correct it?,” 

Mr Nanra told the seminar it’s important to have the courage to "be the first one to step forward,” or progress in inclusion will stall.  

"I can tell you, as a young Indian coming to Australia in 1967, dad had a beard and a turban. My parents forced us to put ourselves out there and not be scared. 

“We're going to put our foot in our mouth, or we're going to have a couple of setbacks, but if we all sit back and wait for the next person…things will stagnate, and we all know what happens when water stagnates – it becomes a cesspool.”