Diversity efforts receive a boost from #MeToo
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Companies are responding to the #MeToo movement by seeking to create better workplace environments, say experts.
“What we’re seeing is a much stronger willingness to promote diversity in the workplace, promote female leadership in the workplace and afford opportunities for women to seek additional challenges” as well as equal and fair compensation, said Laura F. Coppola, New York-based regional head of financial lines, North America, with Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE.
In addition, “More companies are having executives leave for personal conduct issues than you have had in the past,” said David L. Wales, a partner with Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP in New York.
If a company has an employment practices liability problem, “don’t sweep it under the rug,” and if senior management is involved, “the board needs to confront it,” said Kevin LaCroix, executive vice president of RT ProExec, a division of R-T Specialty LLC, in Beachwood, Ohio.
Directors “need to be asking what would happen if an issue arises,” said Denise Kuprionis, president of The Governance Solutions Group LLC, based in Cincinnati. “Who does it go to? What resources does an employee have? Do we have an anonymous help line? What if it’s the CEO?” she asked.
She suggested that board members invite employees out to dinner: “It’s amazing what folks might say.”
“They have to have a firm (human resources) department that is directing good training with follow-through,” and the training must be for all employees, including managers, said Phil Norton, Chicago-based president of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s professional liability division.
Rob Yellen, New York-based executive vice president of Willis Towers Watson PLC’s FINEX North America practice, suggested companies conduct a culture survey. Based on its results, “they will be able to do proactive things to change the culture and improve their risk profile,” he said.
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