A wide-scale effort is launching that is designed to develop better understanding of issues and opportunities for women in the insurance industry.

The Million Women Mentors’ Women in Insurance Consortium (WII) will be spearheading what is being billed as a first-of-its-kind project, though data analytics company and consortium member Verisk will be handling data collection.

“As an organization, we are committed to speaking as a collective voice for women in insurance and acting as an instrument for change,” Margaret Resce Milkint, chair of MWM WII and managing partner of The Jacobson Group, said in prepared remarks. “To enhance and elevate our diversity and inclusion efforts industrywide, we need to see real information—detailed and quality data across the entire insurance industry. The industry has been waiting for this information, and we are well on our way to meeting this goal to get the answers, to celebrate our achievements, and to set goals as an industry to do better.”

WII is calling on insurance industry senior leaders and HR professionals to participate. The WII 2019 data collection will ask companies to share valuable information about employee demographics, diversity and inclusion programs, and gender parity initiatives.

Once that information is gathered, Verisk will aggregate the information for release in the fall of 2019.

The WII survey will collect detailed information about the numbers of men and women employed throughout the industry, looking at their age ranges, highest education completed, and ethnic groups. It will further examine how many women hold management positions, and what issues are driving inequality in the workplace. All responses will be kept strictly anonymous, allowing organizations to provide candid responses.

For more information or to participate in the survey, HR professionals should contact wii@stemconnector.com.

The Women in Insurance Initiative (WII) is a consortium of organizations throughout the insurance industry committed to recruiting, mentoring and sponsoring women to drive equality in career advancement and leadership throughout the insurance industry.

Source: WII