iCAN's Ajay Mistry reflects on the "Networks and Employee Activism" GreenKite webinar

Last month, iCAN Co-Chair Ajay Mistry spoke on the ‘Networks and Employee Activism in Insurance’ webinar hosted by GreenKite.

During the panel discussion, the guests had very interactive and insightful talks about the importance of networks and their future.

The other panel members included GreenKite Chair Karen Graves, Mary Bowie (Senior Counsel at Miller Insurance Services LLP and Co-Chair of the Insurance Families Network), Lee Vu (Assistant Vice President Reinsurance Claims at Argo Group and Founder of MRIA, the Multicultural (Re)Insurance Association) and Michaela Gibson (Inclusive Culture Programme Manager at Apollo Syndicate 1969, Co-Founder of The Insurance Families Network and Co-Creator of the 50 over Fifty Initiative).

Below are some of the key points that Ajay raised in terms of the purpose, challenge, and iCAN initiatives:

  • Influenced by global issues, social and legal changes, the networks now have more power than they previously had. But, at the same time, the COVID-19 -related disconnection caused a big challenge for networks as people couldn’t meet as much as before.

  • Networks are here to represent the understated groups and, in an ideal world, we are striving not to exist at all. Volunteer-run networks are united with their passions and members are learning from each other whilst working towards change in their spare time. However, sometimes employers can forget that it’s their responsibility to fight against bullying and other workplace issues. Networks don’t exist to abdicate the company’s responsibilities.

  • One of the reasons that networks exist is that people don’t like talking about certain issues to their managers or HR teams, instead, they choose to go to their employee-run networks and discuss the issues with their peers. In networks, like-minded people are able to raise issues openly and create actions.

  • We have seen the individual company network leaders who are creating impact and getting people involved. We’ve got to make sure they survive, thrive, and keep moving forward. Because if they don’t, our mission as an industry-wide network becomes much harder.

Finally, Ajay recommended the below steps if you want to support networks:

  1. Get involved with the network – find out more about them, their mission and the activities they get involved in. If you can add value, why not take that step? If your company has no network, speak to us about how to start one off!

  2. Ensure that you have time in your workday to get involved in the network’s activities – if this is an issue, ask your company why you can’t have more time to be involved in the firm’s D&I activities. If your company truly cares about D&I then your manager will allocate some time for you – if this is a problem and HR / Senior executives cannot help, this is why organisations like iCAN exist – so get in touch!

  3. Next time when you go to a diversity event bring a friend who is not a part of that group.

  4. Make sure to register to the iCAN mailing list

Watch GreenKite’s ‘Networks and Employee Activism in Insurance’ webinar in full below:

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