Swiss Re: Inclusive culture

At Swiss Re, we embrace an inclusive culture that brings together the best of different generations, genders, gender identities, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities, cultures, skill sets and thinking. We can unleash the motivation and creativity of our employees only if they can be who they are and feel included. Our business success depends on our ability to create and sustain a culture that builds on diverse teams, encourages fresh perspectives and brings innovative thinking. We draw upon our diversity to understand our clients and markets, develop smarter solutions together and help the world rebuild, renew and move forward. In this way we work towards our vision to make the world more resilient. A commitment to inclusiveness is therefore fundamental to our organisational performance and part of our Code of Conduct.

Gender

We believe that increasing the proportion of women in leadership is critical to our success. While women continue to be underrepresented at our executive and senior management levels, we’re making progress toward parity in gender representation. We’re also focused on retaining talent and increasing the number of women who join Swiss Re at all levels. Our Group Executive Committee members closely monitor talent flows in their businesses and regions to ensure that all talents have opportunities to thrive.

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LGBTI+

Swiss Re is committed to provide an equal and safe work environment for LGBTI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) employees and is a signatory to the United Nation’s Free & Equal Standards of Conduct to tackle discrimination against LGBTI+ people. Our leave (parental & bereavement), gift and insurance (medical, death & critical illness) benefits now extend to LGBTI+ partners as well as to unmarried heterosexual partners across our locations globally – in the few locations where a significant cultural or legal barrier still exists, we continue to work on solutions. We’ve also introduced all-gender toilets in more than 20 Swiss Re locations. Our Together with Pride employee network comprises about 1 000 allies and LGBTI+ employees and has active local chapters in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US. During Pride Month, we colour our logo and decorate our buildings in rainbow colours to show our support for the LGBTI+ community.

Race & Ethnicity

Swiss Re is committed to take concrete actions to raise awareness and understanding as well as to embed race and ethnicity inclusion more deeply in our culture. We’re working to gather voluntary data on employee diversity across different dimensions, respecting the local laws. To increase awareness globally, we also run leadership dialogue sessions on inclusion through the lens of race and ethnicity and observe the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. New chapters of Mosaic, our employee resource group for people of colour, have been established, and we’ve recently launched Kaleidoscope, an employee resource group focused on inclusion of different nationalities and ethnicities. We’re also looking closely at our people processes to ensure equal treatment of all employees and to avoid any negative impact of biases.

Mental Health

Our vision and culture help us stay connected, support each other and remain resilient, enabling us to deliver our best. We understand that to make the world more resilient, our people need to be resilient first. A person’s mental wellbeing is as important as their physical wellbeing. This is why we encourage our employees to be open about their health, both physical and mental, and why we work hard to break down the stigma surrounding mental health issues. Since we have an opportunity as an employer to effect real change, we’ve joined The Global Business Collaboration for Better Workplace Mental Health by signing a public pledge to advance progress in workplace mental health.

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Inclusive workplace for everyone

Living an inclusive culture is one of our greatest strengths and fundamental to our success. We want every employee to feel heard, respected and included. We’ve rolled out a holistic plan for advancing inclusive leadership and culture at Swiss Re. We also conducted an extensive review of our practices, governance and communication as well as of our people processes through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion and are now working on the recommendations. When it comes to managing multiple generations, we want to celebrate new perspectives by recognising we can all learn from each other. Furthermore, we continue to work with local and regional teams to identify and address other dimensions of diversity.