Partners&, a leading insurance advisory business, has organised a full programme of events for colleagues during National Inclusion Week (27 Sept to 3rd Oct 2021).
National Inclusion Week is designed to celebrate inclusion in the workplace in all its forms. Partners& currently has over 380 colleagues.
Since the company launched in April 2020, CEO Phil Barton has championed the well-being of colleagues, not least with the choice of the company name, Partners&.
We are building an eco-system of partnerships between our people, our clients, and our partners. That every individual should feel they belong and included at work is important to us, so they can bring their best selves to all that they do. During National Inclusion Week, we’re looking forward to hearing from the speakers telling their stories and most importantly, getting feedback from our colleagues. At the end of the week, members of the leadership team and I will head a round-table discussion about what ‘inclusion’ means at Partners&, pick up on any lessons we’ve learned from the week and pledge any changes to our belonging and inclusion strategy.
The advice-led insurance broker already has a comprehensive belonging and inclusion, wellbeing and performance strategy in the form of BEAT, which stands for Belonging, Energy, an “&” culture and Together. BEAT is run by the HR team alongside BEAT Champions. hosting numerous activities, from talks on developing a mindset, behaviour and tools to improve a person’s mental physical and social health, to online barre, boxing and dance fitness classes.
Partners& kicked off National Inclusion Week with an ‘InclusiviTea’, which will encourage people to spend time over a cup of tea or coffee, get to know each other and discuss the events of the week. Invitations containing a tea bag were sent out to all members of staff in the post prior to the event, to encourage participation.
The BEAT team have organised five, web-based events for National Inclusion Week, which are open to all members of staff to attend online. The focus for these talks will be three of the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2021, race, sexual orientation and faith. The remaining six have been timetabled for 2022.
- Monday 27th – Jon Miller, UK sales director at Partners&, will address the issue of race in a webinar called ‘Minorities in Insurance’. Jon will be addressing unconscious bias, barriers for people of colour and the challenges he has faced during own career.
- Tuesday 28th – Adam Sutcliffe, head of business affairs at NBC will give a talk on sexual orientation entitled ‘Reflections’. Adam was a strong campaigner against section 28 in the late 1980s, paving the way for the formation of Stonewall.
- Wednesday 29th – Lynn Toynton, Laura Dean, Rehana Azam, a representative from our eco system, Yehuda Aronovitz from YuLife, Gursheen Anand, Swati Chopra and Christine Hanson will discuss what their belief means to them as they discuss ‘Faith at work – a celebration and roundtable’.
- Thursday 30th – a talk from external speaker Fran Boorman, founder of Goal 17, on mentoring for all employees entitled ‘Build for the Future.’
- Friday 1st – the leadership team will come together for a round table to reflect on the events of the week. Staff have been invited to submit questions to the panel in advance and there will also be a Q&A on the day.
Creating an environment where our people feel comfortable to bring their best selves to what they do is core to our employee experience strategy. We have a highly engaging BEAT programme delivering regular company-wide events to challenge the status quo, and National Inclusion Week is providing a focal point to discuss and address these important issues.
