Briefing: Neurodiversity could be insurance’s talent success story

In all the discussions around the insurance industry’s talent pipeline, it can be easy to discuss challenges, problems and things the industry doesn’t do too well. 

This is valid – there is certainly more that our sector can do to promote equal opportunities around gender and ethnicity, with some cultural attitudes towards subjects like social mobility and non-financial misconduct also in need of updating.

But it is also incumbent on the industry to not get too down on its self. Even the most committed social justice crusader would admit that systemic changes in the workforce take time, especially where cultural attitudes need to be examined and updated. 

Progress is definitely being made and, while there are legitmate questions aimed at whether this is quick enough, the sector should not be shy about highlighting its talent successes – especially if we are to attract a new generation of employees that increasingly put stock into their employers’ social commitments. 

I would argue that one such success story in insurance is the platforming and supporting of neurodiversity.

A workplace superpower

Neurodiversity is a catch-all term for the natural variations in human brain processing and is most often used to refer to a group of neurological conditions that include autism spectrum disorders, dyslexia, dyspraxia and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 

In recent years, there have been a slew of news stories from some of the sector’s big hitters that show a willingness to not just accept and adjust to neurodiverse colleagues, but platform and empower them.

Just in 2025, Aviva reopened its supported internship for young people with autism, Zurich UK began offering neurodiversity assessments for its employees and QBE continued its Inclusion of Diversity initiative, which included measuring and supporting neurodiversity among staff. 

Outside of these concrete steps, the sorts of roles that insurance companies can offer – most prominently in actuarial or pricing teams – have long been havens for people with autism, who are more likely to bring a deep analytical mode of thinking to their roles than neurotypical people. 

And, anecdotally, I have personally met a wide variety of incredibly senior people in the market who credit their ADHD as a “superpower” for dealing with high stress environments. 

There is always more work to do and beginning to gather data on neurodiversity within insurance firms is a sensible next step, if only to better understand how staff could be best platformed. 

But the industry is already a welcoming place to those of us – myself included – who call themselves neurodiverse. Let’s shout about it a little more.