Pauline White is a Real Estate Analyst, a job she has held for over 6 years. We ‘met’ via LinkedIn when I saw that Zurich’s head of HR, Steve Collinson, won a rising star Men for Gender Balance award and I was intrigued to find out more. Then I spotted that amongst her other talents, Pauline is also Vice chair of Zurich Women’s Innovation Network. Obviously I got in touch.
Jane: Pauline, what does your ‘day’ job at Zurich involve?
Pauline: I work in our Real Estate Team, and look at all aspects of our products that we use to showcase all that we offer our customers.
I am a real ‘people person’ and I look at our market, what new offerings are available and keep our underwriters up to date with this. I love connecting people, encouraging them to look outside of their own role and at the wider business.
I also enjoy networking in my company and beyond, at a local and national level. I’ve a passion for mentoring/coaching as Zurich gives me the time and space to help develop others in our business as they progress in their careers -I’m truly grateful for that.
Could you tell us a little more about that award nomination earned by Steve?
Steve was nominated for the new award category in the We Are The City’s ‘Men for Gender Balance’ category.
Steve has been with Zurich for over 30 years, in a career which has seen him drive and deliver major initiatives in HR, Communications, Finance and Operations.
Steve is truly passionate about people. He works with his UK Executive team colleagues to shape our employee offering and find new ways to build engagement and connections with our incredible Zurich colleagues. He has a particular focus on building diverse, inclusive teams and brings leadership, passion and deep business experience to his role.
Did you have a straightforward career path into the finance world?
Pretty much. I started straight from school and have only worked for 3 companies in a 39 year career.
However, I’ve been involved in many mergers, but spent most of my time (26 years) with one insurer and moved to Zurich Insurance 6.5 years ago to continue to specialise in real estate insurance.
I was nervous at starting with a new company after being in the one place for such a long time but Zurich never mentioned my age, only the experience I could bring to their business. They quickly allayed my fears about looking for a role in my late 40’s.
We have both grown up through a period when sexism was overt and often blatantly expressed. What is Zurich doing to address the gender imbalance and the issue of unconscious bias?
Zurich believe a diverse workforce benefits everybody. Each group brings diversity of thought which is good for individuals and great for our business. We measure our gender pay gap and are about to publish our pay gap data for other groups including disability, ethnicity and for LGBT employees. Only by monitoring and analysing this data can we introduce measures to tackle the issues.
We want our employees to bring their best selves to work and this was the main driver behind our family friendly policy re-launch last year.
This includes equalised company enhanced elements of maternity, paternity and adoption leave, with up to 16 weeks full-pay for all parents.
Through our Women’s Innovation Network (WIN) we also conduct a confidential survey of all of our members, which we opened up to all UK staff this year. We asked questions to measure progress and make sure that that the positive initiatives being introduced are known and becoming embedded in our company’s culture. We are more than pleased at the progress we’ve made but there’s more work to be done.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox thinks that women’s groups within organisations often allow businesses to simply ‘tick the box’ and then not change much. What role does WIN play in advancing gender equality in Zurich? Is it supported by senior management, are men welcomed, and perhaps most importantly, does it have a budget to make a difference?
WIN is absolutely supported by our senior managers. We have 2 executive sponsors and our CEO is fully behind what we are trying to do. As well as our family friendly re-launch, last year we launched an initiative to advertise all new vacancies as being available on a full time, part time or job share basis. This is to encourage more women to apply for senior positions and to show all of our staff that advancing in your career is not restricted to full time roles only.
We also insist on balanced shortlists for vacancies, and this balance applies to our interview panel, to ensure this is delivered.
Around a quarter of WIN’s members are male, and all of our training and support guides are circulated to all of our staff, not just women. True equality cannot be delivered by women alone, we need our male colleagues to join us in achieving this.
We’re living through some unprecedented times and research is coming through showing that women are most affected. How is Zurich managing this time, and do you think any of the behavioural changes that have taken place will a) continue and b) benefit or disadvantage women?
Our successful pilot and the business adopting flexwork has been a true benefit in these lockdown times. We absolutely understand that people are juggling family and work and we trust our employees to manage their workload to suit these competing forces.
We continue to look into ways of supporting and encouraging women and offer a mentor program which we piloted and is now BAU in our people team.
WIN also run sessions such as #IamRemarkable, to encourage women to help themselves and each other to reach their potential.
I’ve been coaching a lot of youngish women recently and one thing has struck me most forcibly; most are really worried what impact having a baby will have on their career path. All believe it will be negative. What advice would you give to a young woman in that situation?
I don’t believe that to be the case in Zurich though it is definitely an issue that affects both men and women. Our flexwork approach and range of family friendly working policies mean that parents don’t have to shelve their career aspirations to have children. As an employer, Zurich recognises that many men and women like to play an active role in parenting including spending precious time with new additions to the family as well as everyday things like school drops, assemblies and parents’ evenings. As family life evolves, more and more employers will need to adapt if they don’t want to miss out on a huge bank of talent.
Pauline, I am going to make you minister for women for a week. You have unlimited power to change things in the realm of gender equality. What would you do?
Give women confidence to be bolder! We sometimes are our own worst enemy by talking ourselves out of things, or thinking we are not good enough or experienced enough, when we absolutely are.
Who has had the biggest influence on your career? Do you have a role model?
My biggest role model was a Regional Manager in my last company. I was that woman who’d been pushing to get ‘seen’ and applied for a role 2 grades above the one I was on. He supported me, told me I could do it, and made sure that others in the business championed me. In the background he challenged HR as no one had leaped two grades before, restating that I was more than capable as I was the right person for the job. I landed the role, and he continued to be hugely supportive.
My role models are great communicators, who make things look easy, when they are not – like Michele Obama and Simon Sinek. Taking a difficult subject and making it more accessible for people is a gift and one that’s under appreciated.
What advice would your present self-give your 18-year-old self with the benefit of hindsight?
Be braver. The opportunities in the business and the wider market are so much more available now. I challenge myself more now than at any time in my career, because I coach others to do the same. What kind of person would I be if I didn’t take a dose of my own medicine!
Thank you so much, Pauline. It’s always so uplifting to hear of companies who, as well as talking the talk, are actually walking it, too.
If that has made you think about a role with Zurich, here’s a link to their website.
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Posted on May 28th, 2020 by Jane
