Suzanne Williams-Charles: International business is an integral part of the economy. But it relies significantly on expatriate workers. We have to remain attractive and welcome everybody to Bermuda. The issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are increasingly important for that reason but many other reasons. This is an important topic for business but also Bermuda’s community as a whole. It is very important for us to get this right and that is why we have these conversations.

Randolph Simons: It’s hard for me not to look at this globally, partly because of my role, but also due to Bermuda’s demographics and the potential career options. Looking at this from a workforce perspective, we are very much a microcosm of differences. We’re unique in that we don’t have tonnes of industries here to choose from. And we have a very large expatriate workforce, which can be very polarising for people.

Kirsten Beasley: A global view is important, because DEI is important to our clients and to the people we want to hire. DEI is a business imperative that has to be front and centre of the cultures we’re developing. Our clients demand it of us; our employees expect it. It’s essential.

Bill Wharton: Many people don’t know that I’m not a Bermudian because I’m a black man. They just make that assumption. I recently walked into an underwriting meeting and every underwriter apart from me was a woman, and many of them were of colour. That was the first time I experienced that here in Bermuda.

We talked about a global view. My goal is not only to develop Bermudian talent in the insurance industry, but to be an exporter of that talent. I’ve lived in London. I’ve lived in Singapore. I’ve worked in New York. I want to see Bermudians everywhere there is a community of insurance underwriters. So, for me, it’s not just developing the talent in the Bermuda market, but it’s also exporting it.

Williams-Charles: Bermuda has become a talent incubator. Employers are relocating others from their other global organisations to Bermuda to learn about reinsurance, because they’re realising that the expertise and talent is here and it can be grown and nurtured and then exported.

Patrick Tannock: Diversity has the power to be transformational and inclusion enhances an organisation’s ability to achieve better results by engaging people from diverse backgrounds. DEI measurably improves an organisation’s decision-making, problem-solving, cultural awareness, innovation and enhances its ability to adapt rapidly and successfully to change.

While DEI is important everywhere, it is essential in Bermuda as international business (IB) is a key driver of the economy, accounting for a significant percentage of our gross domestic product.

As our business model is generally not labour-intensive, Bermuda is unique relative to other jurisdictions. There are not many entry-level positions but there is opportunity for access to high quality intellectual capital very early in one’s career. There is a lot of awareness about potential careers in the international insurance industry, but there is always a challenge in terms of entry-level positions and regarding the current demographics of the industry, where particularly in middle management and the executive suite they do not even remotely reflect the demographics of the local population from neither a gender nor a racial perspective. We must act with a real sense of urgency and do a better job in this area.

A lot of work needs to be done and it’s a fool’s game to perpetuate a situation where certain demographic groups don’t believe they have a fair shot to enter and thrive in the economic engine of the country.

Prolonging a scenario where people don’t believe that they have equal access on the basis of merit to opportunities in the engine that drives our economy is not sensible and could have profound negative consequences to the social fabric of Bermuda if not addressed.

DEI is essential! The business rationale has been made and there is general consensus on the benefits of diversity, but we have to move from just awareness as to why and what it can do for the companies and the community to execution to help us remain relevant and competitive as a jurisdiction.

Executive leadership must lead the charge to change attitudes and behaviours as to why diversity matters and champion the prioritisation, creation, and promotion of a culture of equity within our companies.

As an industry collectively we have to do a better job in terms of expanding where we look for the talent and making sure that diverse talent is valued and supported at all stages of career development to ensure that it is successful.

Having a diverse IB sector at all levels is central to our relevance and continued success, and Bermuda’s demographics are unique to the point where, regarding diversity, we have an opportunity to lead the world.

Hayley Johnston: Do you think we, as an industry, we do enough to inform the population about what we do here, or about the barriers to entry? Are the barriers to entry real or is it a perception?

Tannock: Unlike other jurisdictions, as IB is such a key economic engine in Bermuda, there is acute awareness. The trade associations ABIR, ABIC, BILTIR, BFIS and others have been relentless and collaborative in ensuring that the guidance counsellors at the schools are aware of the career prospects. There is no shortage of young, diverse, and highly educated talented people in Bermuda who have the skillsets and competencies to be given consideration for an opportunity to participate in the industry.

So I struggle when I hear that companies are challenged to find high quality diverse talent, especially people of colour and young black men in particular. Too often there’s a tendency to consider people who we already know or those from places/universities with which we’re familiar, rather than expanding the areas from where we solicit talent and evolve our mindsets to be deliberate about increasing the potential universe of educated prospects to increase diversity.

It’s interesting and the ultimate paradox that in an industry that prides itself on data and analytics, as we are intensely focused on harnessing data for better predictability but, notwithstanding some pockets of data collection, when it comes to data pertaining to industry demographics by race and gender we are generally lacking.

The numbers we do have paint a disturbing picture particularly regarding people of colour where there is a profound lack of diversity in middle management and the executive suite. There can be no denial as the numbers cannot lie.

Williams-Charles: There’s historically been a sense that if a guest worker comes to Bermuda, they’re automatically taking a job from a Bermudian. And that doesn’t create a good environment for people to want to come to the island. We’re a small community.

ABIR has tried to do things with students, we’ve tried to open doors, our members offer a lot of opportunities for interns, but there’s still some type of disconnect where some people feel like this industry is just not for them.

It is very eye-opening to see companies in our membership looking for interns and not getting candidates.

We need to figure out the right way to reach these individuals. It might not be a cocktail party. If you’re talking about reaching different demographics, we must create the right environment.

Deshay Caines: When looking at diversity, we must look at it from both sides. To your point about people feeling welcome coming to Bermuda, many guest workers don’t feel welcome when they come here. It’s a very us versus them dynamic, with people who don’t understand the industry. There is the idea that they have taken a job from a Bermudian.

It boils down to education. However, in terms of Bermudians and diversity in general, yes, we’re in the schools, yes, we do all of that kind of education work, but at the same time, it is about representation.

It can be difficult for someone like me looking to break into the industry because we do not see ourselves in organisations when we go there to interview. Senior management is not an accurate representation of our population in most organisations.

Some of our parents were wary of us coming into this industry because of stories of bad experiences. It’s definitely something we have to look at from all angles. Not just people from here, but people we welcome to our shores.

Tannock: Although we had significantly more entry-level positions in the mid-1980s, the commercial insurance industry in Bermuda has never been a labour-intensive business model and we have to have an honest conversation about how the model keeps evolving, especially as the world is so hyperconnected and everyone is being challenged to do more with less.

Bermuda is an expensive jurisdiction and to ensure that we are cost-competitive relative to our competition, the model today is lean where for the most part the jobs in Bermuda are jobs that cannot be done effectively elsewhere.

Additionally, we cannot ignore the impact of technology on the number of entry positions that are available. We have to make sure that our people at all levels understand that it is extremely competitive. Just because you get a few rejections doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.

When applying for jobs in the IB space in Bermuda, as in other jurisdictions, sometimes it takes a while. I know it was challenging for me and it took almost 18 months before I got a taste of an opportunity.

It’s important to manage expectations but we can also do a better job in terms of equipping our young people with the appropriate soft skills to augment their academic pedigrees. That’s a journey that needs to ramp up when they are applying for scholarships. It makes a big difference.

It’s still not a level playing field. When applying to a scholarship committee some of the requirements were several extracurricular activities, and I can recall many years ago as a young person being stunned when I was asked as it was the first time I had ever even heard the word and didn’t have a clue what it meant.

Some applicants don’t have any extracurricular activities as they might be working a second job to supplement the family’s revenue, but they are still learning skillsets such as how to multitask and that shouldn’t be viewed negatively but as a positive.

We as an industry need to broaden our mindset as to who has the right stuff to be successful in this industry. It can be complicated but it doesn’t have to be and aspiring to a culture of equity of opportunity premised on meritocracy has to come from the executive suite. We don’t expect, nor is it practical for, the CEO to be involved in the selection process but setting expectations and ensuring that the slate of candidates interviewed are diverse and representative of the Bermuda community has to come from the top.

The more diverse the scholarship committee, the better off it’s going to be in terms of selecting diverse candidates for consideration.

Wharton: I agree that if you have diversity on the scholarship committee that will help. I was caddying and washing windows as a kid. That was my extracurricular. You learn how to interact with everyone in society. You develop the skillsets to interact with people.

That is a huge benefit to us. I recently met a young person someone had asked me to mentor. He was fantastic but did not make eye contact. That is the sort of soft skill we need to help with.

Nicholas West: We recently did a round of mock interviews with students from a range of different schools. I agree that there are many ways we can help students prepare to enter the job market, whether practising for interviews or proofreading CVs.

Caines: There should be committees around hiring. A lot of times in our industry, it’s very much who you know or who you have a relationship with. We need to be a bit more specific about how we are hiring. Diversity does not mean hiring a bunch of black people or women and then figuring it out. It’s interviewing a diverse pool of candidates and then picking the best candidate from that pool.

We have to do a much better job in many of our organisations. Committees for hiring are essential, with different people so you can get different perspectives, as sometimes one person can miss or overlook something.

Simons: If you’re bringing in folks from diverse backgrounds, you have to provide a plan that also allows them to succeed, because they may not have that safety net. A lot of the folks who are maybe are not diverse, they have safety nets.

Caines: I agree we need organisations willing to put in the work with people who have a different background, come from another industry, or don’t automatically know who to ask what to do. If your organisation isn’t in the position to provide this level of development, I would stay away from it because you will do more harm than good.

You must have the time to spend to give them everything they need to succeed. Identifying this is more important than hiring just to fit a quota.

Tannock: We have to evolve our mindset to a place where DEI is not that thing over there but is a strategic priority that is innate within our DNA and as central to our success as any other strategic priority. This must be driven from the executive suite to ensure that DEI doesn’t become just a catchphrase or tick the box policy, but a principle embedded in the culture that is championed by the leadership and embraced throughout the business.

It has to be central to what we do and it’s a fact that the companies that have the most diverse people in positions of leadership tend to be the most diverse and the most profitable.