Dive In: ‘Culture of openness’ key to creating supportive environments

When someone asks ”how are you”, they are often not equipped to handle the honest answer.

This was certainly the case for Rachel Bassett, senior associate, business development and brand manager at Willis Tower Watson (WTW), who said that in a previous job, she has shared with colleagues that her father was suffering from dementia due to alcohol abuse and it was met with total disengagement.

Bassett was speaking at the Dive In Festival during a session entitled Beyond the Policy – Supporting Carers and Families in the Insurance Industry.

She added that the empathy and support from her manager at WTW made her wish that she “could have felt safer talking about it sooner” so that she could have spent more time with her father before he passed away.

More policies for supporting families and carers have been introduced over the years, such as enhanced flexible working.

And the panel were all in agreement that the culture of a firm dictates the policy.

For panellist Christine Simpson, professional indemnity underwriter at Howden, this culture made all the difference when she returned from her first maternity leave with “terrible imposters syndrome”.

Now a mother of two children and 11 years into the role, Simpson explained that when she believed she was not a part of the team as the market had changed, she also felt too inexperienced to be dealing with additional responsibilities.

However, Simpson told delegates that it was the support and openness of her manager speaking on the way he raises his children and about his lifestyle that “makes it easier” for her to be able to talk about what she needs.

She continued: “[It’s] about role modelling at a leadership level, demonstrating and being visible about the fact that people have responsibilities.

“The way that works for businesses is to accept that culturally, you’ve got to be performing as well. If everybody was disappearing all the time then the business would [grind] to halt, but if somebody is in a leadership role and they’re demonstrating that they and their team are all performing, and yet there is [still] empathy, [that means] there is flexibility.”

‘A culture of openness’

Meanwhile, Jake Arundell, inclusion and diversity manager at Gallagher, stressed to delegates that “policies only go so far” and it is a “culture of openness” that will maximise these policies.

As father to an almost two-year-old daughter, Arundell opened up to the panel about his own parental guilt when looking to take up a policy or use back-up care.

He explained that “voicing that [guilt] does make a huge difference for people” and that “normalising these conversations” and “sharing stories” about colleagues who have taken up enhanced policies can provide much-needed support.

“My personal experience is that those conversations have happened less in male-orientated teams,” he continued.

“I’ve also now sat in a female-orientated team as part of HR and I absolutely advocate [that it’s] been an absolute game-changer as a parent and how accepted it feels to take up offerings, or policies or practices as well.”