Authenticity, empathy and understanding are three of the vital benefits that strong diversity, equity and inclusion can bring to an organisation’s workforce.
Hayley North, chartered financial planner at Rose and North, explains why: "Clients want to talk to people they feel understand them and their needs and they need to feel safe to share very personal information with advisers.
"When they see an inclusive and diverse group of staff, they immediately appreciate that this is somewhere they will be welcomed and understood."
Taking diversity, equity and inclusion, or DE&I, seriously helps firms stay relevant and maximise their business potential.
DE&I ensures firms attract “a broad range of talent to the workforce and a broad range of clients to businesses because they feel seen, heard, understood, safe and valued”, North says. This, she adds, is “priceless”.
Bringing something different to the table
DE&I has other advantages. As well as exposing firms to more talent, it also provides different view points and different ways of solving problems, says Hanbury Wealth director Mandy Dale.
“In our industry, there are multiple ways to solve any problem. Every client is different, even if they look alike, their situation will never be completely the same.
"By having a rounded, diversified team to approach these problems, we will be able to provide the range of solutions that are needed for us to deliver our service in the best way."
This is something North agrees with: "We all think differently based on our own unique perspective and life experience. With diverse and inclusive workforces, we will encounter alternative ways of looking at common problems and creative solutions."
Joanna Streames, managing director at Velvet Mortgages, takes this idea further. She says DE&I creates “a space where ideas grow through the business, pulling on different skills from a more diverse workforce”.
Streames draws on the different strengths between the sexes as an example: “Women are often more naturally gifted with empathy and can, therefore, appeal to other women who have perhaps juggled careers and children, and look at things with those female clients from a different perspective perhaps to how men would when it comes to protecting their family”.
This lived experience builds empathy and this in turn fosters authenticity, which is crucial to a successful advice process.
Dale points to how important empathy is, especially as she says the financial advice process is “a very personal and vulnerable experience… you talk about your income, your expenditure, your assets, your liabilities, your ambitions, and in order to have the best possible experience and the most tailored response, you need to be completely honest. In order to be completely honest, you need to be completely comfortable.
