SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Leading the change Jo-Anne Yanuziello, Tina McAvella and Colette Taylor are leading Sovereign Insurance through unfamiliar territory DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION is an increasingly vital focus for many insurance companies. More organizations are striving to address barriers of entry and help more women and people of colour into leadership roles. While entry-level positions in financial services in North America are made up of roughly equal portions of men and women, McKinsey & Company found that women are severely underrepresented in leadership roles; only two in 10 women hold C-suite positions.
For several years, Yanuziello was the only woman on the senior leadership team before she was joined by Colette Taylor, VP of commercial and specialty lines solutions, and Tina McAvella, VP of underwriting and risk engineering. This significant increase in female leadership set an important precedent, while also increasing collaboration and highlighting the value of varied perspectives. “I feel the strength of our complementary styles when we are working on strategic plan-
“We aim to embrace difference and look for those who will add diversity and value to our organization” Jo-Anne Yanuziello, Sovereign Insurance Sovereign Insurance prides itself on prioritizing its people and championing an inclusive culture. Recently, Sovereign partnered with its parent company, The Co-operators, to build a strategy, design a D&I hub, and create a cross-functional, company-wide steering committee to move D&I forward. Sovereign also practices what it preaches – women make up half of its senior leadership team. “One item we’ve been discussing more with our HR team is embedding the concept of ‘culture add’ versus ‘culture fit,’” says Jo-Anne Yanuziello, Sovereign’s VP of marketing, human resources and corporate admin. “We aim to embrace difference and look for those who will add diversity and value to our organization.”
42
ning,” McAvella says. “We have worked hard to understand each other’s style, communication preferences and core competencies. At the core, there is respect and an honest desire to listen.” Mentorship in various forms has played an important role in each woman’s path to leadership. McAvella says while she’s never been a fan of mentor/mentee labels, she’s had many people invest in her journey throughout her career. Yanuziello has also benefited from informal mentorships and often turns to her current team for support and to challenge and expand her thinking. Taylor, meanwhile, has actively sought out mentorship from other women in senior leadership roles. “Having that support and insight is essen-
tial to my ongoing growth and development, and the concept of paying that forward is important to ensure I honour all the time those ladies have invested in me,” she says. Collaboration has never been more important, as COVID-19 has only intensified the stresses of a hardening market, climate volatility and emerging risks. McAvella says underwriters are carefully navigating within this framework to ensure years of soft-market pricing are corrected while still being mindful of the challenges insureds are facing. “These forces put negative pressure on the insured’s perception of the insurance industry,” she says. “It’s difficult enough to explain a pricing correction in an environment that is otherwise normal, but at this unusual time, the industry’s correction seems harsher. We understand the difficulties businesses are up against, which is why working in alignment with our values and executing with empathy for the broker and the insured is more important than ever.” Amid these challenges, the leaders at Sovereign have prioritized supporting their team, starting with simply having realistic expectations. “We can’t expect everyone to be at the top of their game every day,” Taylor says. “I believe that enthusiasm mixed with openness and authenticity allows the team to truly understand the value and importance of what we do for our customers and the communities they serve.” The pandemic has also brought on significant challenges specific to female professionals. According to the Prosperity Project, one-third of Canadian women have considered quitting their jobs to take care of home responsibilities through the pandemic, and working mothers are more than twice as likely to have considered this compared to those without children. “It is key that we continue to foster work environments that provide all leaders with the opportunity to balance their professional and personal responsibilities and offer the flexibility needed to ensure they are able to bring their best self to their role,” Yanuziello says, adding that this starts at the top. “If leaders feel empowered, they can promote this environment for team members and truly make an impact organizationally.”
www.insurancebusiness.ca
42_Sovereign-SUBBED.indd 42
11/11/2020 4:55:57 am