‘Diversity and inclusion goes beyond creating more awareness’

Like many other companies, Athora Netherlands also paid attention to worldwide Pride Month last month. With progress flags, rainbow cakes and other activities to raise awareness about diversity and inclusion (D&I) within Athora. But it doesn't stop after a month. Within Athora we are working throughout the year to raise awareness of this theme, for example by making adjustments to our personnel policy and the communication of all Athora labels.

Pride Month kicked off on June 1 with an online broadcast hosted by the Athora Group. All Athora country offices presented how they deal with the D&I theme and showed which developments and activities are taking place within their division. Furthermore, Athora employees could enjoy rainbow cake in the first week of Pride Month, the Progress rainbow flag was hung in Athora's offices, there was a Pride photo competition for all teams and extra attention was paid to this topic via social media channels and intranet.

Developments D&I within Athora

Diversity and inclusion are getting more and more attention in the Athora Group. For several years now, Athora Netherlands has had a separate Diversity Committee that focuses on improving D&I policy, partly on the basis of topics identified by employees. Pride Month is an important communication moment to provide an update on the developments of D&I within the organisation. “Our activities go beyond raising awareness. We are in the process of making adjustments to our personnel policy and our communication. That is really a different phase,” says Derk Jan Broekema, D&I Officer at Athora and member of the Diversity Committee. “For example, the Athora collective labor agreement does not specify how parental leave is arranged for female-female or male-male families or more parent families. Parental leave for fathers has been expanded since August last year. Mothers are, of course, already entitled to leave. But suppose the family consists of two mothers, is the second mother entitled to paternity leave? If we want to say it correctly, it is therefore about the second legal parent. And how is parental leave arranged for a family of two fathers if the mother is the sole surrogate mother? These are important points that are now being included in the negotiations for a new collective labor agreement for 2024.”

The Diversity Committee also works on communication within Athora. The Zwitserleven brand, for example, is in the process of renewing a number of means of communication and making them more inclusive than is currently the case. Derk Jan: “For example, we are working on improving the registration of same-sex partners in our administrative systems. And, for example, to add 'gender X' to the administration of all Athora labels. The latter means a radical change and it will take some time to adapt all systems accordingly.”

HR: including language use and guidelines for recruitment

Within HR, the theme of diversity and inclusion mainly comes back when recruiting new colleagues. “In vacancy texts we use inclusive language as much as possible so as not to exclude anyone,” explains Marlies Schut. She is the point of contact for D&I at HR. “Our guidelines in the recruitment policy are aimed at increasing diversity within the organisation. Diversity is about the diversity of our employees. We strive for a balanced workforce so that our organisation is a reflection of society.”

Athora also wants to attract more young people, which is why HR is looking, among other things, at formulating new employment conditions that better suit this target group. Or to other media channels to post vacancies. Athora also participates in the Dutch Association of Insurers on guidelines on D&I, so that smaller insurers can also work with this subject.

The fact that the theme is alive and well within the Athora Group and the individual Athora country offices is evident from the fact that a strategy and vision have been developed, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) have been formulated and numerous initiatives are being developed. Marlies: “We are now looking at how the business units can align the policy within the group, but only in outline because the spearheads and initiatives are different for each country.”