For Lloyd’s to be a destination of choice for global talent the focus remains on facilitating a high-performance culture that attracts and retains the best talent from all backgrounds through:
- Embedding oversight of culture and providing support through Lloyd’s culture upskilling programme
- Engaging with market firms to develop the underwriting talent pool
- Focusing outreach and talent programmes on key skills and capabilities the market needs to grow and innovate
- Maintaining support for women to progress into leadership positions
Gender
Lloyd’s continues to make progress. There are 36% women in leadership positions, an increase of +1pp from last year. There were improvements at all leadership levels, with women making up 27% of Boards (+2pp), 31% of Executive Committees (+3pp) and 38% of Direct Reports to Executive Committee (+2pp).
Of the 63,000 people that the return covers, women now make up 44% of the total workforce (+1pp) and in 2024, 45% of new hires were women.
The Gender Pay Gap continues to reduce, with the average for market firms 31%, a reduction of -3pp. This is a lagging indicator which shows the increase of women in leadership positions is flowing through reductions in the gender pay gap.
Ethnicity
Lloyd’s ‘one in three’ hiring ambition showed progress, with 22% of new hires in the last year coming from an ethnically diverse background, an increase of +1pp, and at early careers level, 29% of graduates and apprentices hired had an ethnically diverse background, an increase of +2pp.
This progress has contributed to a continued increase in ethnically diverse representation in the market workforce up to 14%, +1pp from last year, and +5pp over three years. Ethnically diverse representation in leadership positions increased +3pp to 12%.
Disability, Sexual Orientation, Age and Social Mobility
Diversity data collection increased for other characteristics and showed 2% of employees disclosed a disability, long-term illness or health condition and 2% of employees disclosed they are LGB+, consistent for the fourth year.
Age data shows the proportion of the market under 30 years of age is 24% and 52% are under 40 years. Collection of social mobility data increased with 26% of firms collecting data on socio-economic background and 32% of firms collecting schooling, however disclosure rates mean it is not yet representative to report. Early indications reinforce the importance of opening up access to career opportunities in insurance to a broad talent pool.
Attracting talent to insurance
The volume of hiring was lower in 2024, with 11,443 new hires, down from 12,215 the previous year. 950 graduates and apprentices were hired.
78% of firms participated in market or industry-wide outreach to attract talent to careers in insurance in the last year. This includes outreach activity via Lloyd’s, the London Market Group’s Futures Academy, The Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA), LIIBA and others. 71% of firms also work with outreach partners at a firm level, reflecting a significant effort from across the market to attract talent into the industry that may not naturally find their way into insurance.
Practices to support high-performance and inclusive cultures
In the last 12 months, 70% of firms provided training on inclusive behaviour to employees and 65% trained their leadership population, while 64% provided training to employees on speaking up and psychological safety. This shows a focus on building cultures where diverse perspectives are shared and everyone can contribute. This is complimented by firms fostering inclusive behaviour through communication, policy and feedback. Lloyd’s measures inclusion through the Culture Survey, which will run later in 2025.
More firms have adopted inclusive hiring practices to open up access to a broader talent pool, focusing on the essential skills needed (73%, +13pp), having a consistent selection process for all candidates (94%, +9pp), providing inclusive hiring training (83%, +8pp), and using inclusive language in job descriptions (92%, +7pp).
