Greater London Enterprise Awards 2021

71 | Greater London Enterprise Awards 2021 The Gender Inclusion Network is a charitable organisation operating out of London. Focusing on the promotion of equality in the insurance industry, its efforts have been pushing the sector towards betterment since its inception, bringing more and more professionals into its community by the day. In doing so, it has been able to promote the importance of gender equality amongst insurance providers, working hard to deliver education and guidance to those looking to improve themselves and their business operations. A company dedicated to the creation of an inclusive corporate world, the Gender Inclusion Network is an insurance industry network and advisory charity that is dedicated to bettering gender equality in the modern world. Fundamentally, it uses its positionality as a front-running voice in the insurance industry to offer insights, informative content, inspiration to advocates, and resources to allies, mentors, and authority figures who wish to learn more about the importance of gender inclusion. By seeking to achieve gender equity and balance, its promotion of inclusion has become well known amongst its peers and market segments, and it uses this to reach its target audience; entry level to middle management professionals working in insurance. In essence, by reaching out to such people and bringing them into its network, the Gender Inclusion Network makes itself a place of learning and understanding. Furthermore, it takes away the mysticism of where to find resources on such things, making itself the one-stop hub on everything gender equality related that an insurance provider could possibly wish to know, catalysing positive change and allowing people to come together over learning. Creating this community of education and respect is ensuring that, step by step, its work is changing its industry for the better. The Gender Inclusion Network in this manner continues to grow and develop by bringing in yet more colleagues and peers across the professional ecosystem. It knows that in order to foster change, one must connect with the people who can make it happen, showing them on an interpersonal and empathic level how their efforts could change the lives of so many people across the UK. Moreover, this means frank and honest discussion of what works and what doesn’t. Recently, this has been applied to the hybrid method of working that has come about in Leading Champions of Financial Equality 2021 the last few years, something that allows people of all genders to operate flexibly and with better work-life balance, as well as making maternity, paternity, and other such life occurrences less of a roadblock for professionals. Ultimately, it wishes to ensure that the working environment is one that is friendly to all and hostile to none. In order to achieve this, each employer needs to recognise that different people need different things, and that ensuring the working environment is one in which everyone has access to the same rights and opportunities is pivotal for the health of society’s future. Being based in London – the insurance hub of the UK – the Gender Inclusion Network has been able to massively benefit from meeting people face to face in order to promote ideas of inclusion and positive change. However, with the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became more important than ever that such things could be conducted remotely, and so the Gender Inclusion Network pivoted sophisticatedly to ensure this was possible, making for a hybrid environment that allows those outside of London to get in contact easier. Being a charitable network that thrives from the money of sponsors, all committee members are volunteers who are dedicated to the cause, working hard to make the next push towards equality a successful one and looking forward to hosting educational events related to International Men’s Day in November. Company: Gender Inclusion Network Contact: Jane Harley Website: https://www.genderinclusionnetwork.co.uk/ Aug21585