Lloyd’s of London inches closer to 35% target for women leaders

London — A quarter of firms operating at Lloyd’s of London have reached the commercial insurance market’s target for 35% of leaders to be women, though progress on diversity is “incremental”, Lloyd’s said in a report on Monday.

Lloyd’s has been trying to improve diversity in the market, which employs about 45,000 people in insurance and broking firms based in the City of London financial district.

Lloyd’s, which has previously acknowledged issues with sexual harassment and daytime drinking, published its first culture report in 2020 and has set targets for improvement. Eighteen firms, or 26% of those surveyed, met or exceeded the target for 35% of boards, executive committees and those committees’ direct reports to be women, Lloyd’s said.

It added that women fill 30% of leadership positions. The 35% target is supposed to be met by the end of 2023. About 63% of firms increased their proportion of women in leadership in the past year.

However, the average gender pay gap across Lloyd’s market firms remains high, at 37%. Implementation of policies on alcohol and drugs are also among areas that needed to improve, Lloyd’s said.

Ethnic minority representation rose one percentage point to 9%. Eleven firms reached Lloyd’s “ambition” for one in three new hires to have an ethnic minority background.

“Representation of women and ethnic minorities [is] improving across our market — but we can’t be complacent,” Lloyd’s of London CEO John Neal said. “We need to keep that momentum going, and address any areas of weakness, to maintain Lloyd’s unique ability to attract, connect and grow the best talent in our industry.”

Of the 9,500 respondents 88% said they did not want to raise concerns about behaviour at their organisation.