Project Work by team Turien & Co.

Our assigned clients are the insurance companies AnsvarIdéa and Turien & Co. They have a shared management, and therefore operate as one organization. AnsvarIdéa already focuses on sustainability, but the organization as a whole now wants to gain further insight in how to improve Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) within their company. During our SDG Traineeship, we will provide them with relevant insights regarding these subjects. We started by doing desk research about their company, market and competitors. After this, we sent out an (anonymous) survey to the employees with questions regarding Diversity and Inclusion to collect relevant data regarding the current situation within the company (the zero measurement). After receiving many responses to the survey, we conducted interviews with several employees to gain deeper insights into the status quo and processed all results. After collecting the relevant data we started working on three different profiles that the organization can choose to follow, in order to make Diversity and Inclusion measurable and to develop long term goals. We are currently working on possible opportunities for AnsvarIdéa/ Turien & Co to improve Diversity and Inclusion within their organization.

There are two SDGs associated with this project, namely SDG 5 (Gender equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced inequality). By first looking at the male-female ratio within the company, we started working on SDG 5. Later on, during the interviews, we gained more insight into whether employees experience obstacles when it comes to gender equality. In addition, inclusivity is related to reducing inequality, SDG 10. The aim of this project is therefore to not exclude anyone, but rather to foster togetherness based on diversity and inclusiveness.

The challenging part about these two SDGs is that they cannot be implemented within a couple of weeks. There are no short-term solutions, because in order to achieve these SDG goals, longer-term goals and change are needed. For now, we will give tools to the company and it is up to them to keep working on it.

What is particularly nice about our assignment, is that we get to work with an organization that is already open and familiar with the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development; AnsvarIdéa is a sustainable insurance company. Therefore, there is no need to convince our client of the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals, as they already acknowledge the severity of the current environmental crisis. This led to us being able to start working on our mission, to increase diversity and inclusivity, right from the start. AnsvarIdéa and Turien & Co acknowledge that there is still a lot of room for growth on these two topics and are therefore eager to learn more about it.

As mentioned, we set out a (anonymous) survey and interviewed a select group of employees. It was very valuable that we had the opportunity to speak to different people throughout the organization, given that everybody has different experiences with these topics. The interviews really helped us to get familiar with AnsvarIdéa/Turien & Co and served as a great foundation to the recommendations that we are currently developing.

The challenging part of the topic of diversity and inclusivity is that it is often considered to be a sensitive topic. People have clear opinions about the importance of D&I and their willingness to collaborate on boosting it. Because of this, it is quite challenging for an organization to determine how to approach this matter; it is important for everybody to feel listened to, which means that you have to keep in mind both the supporters and the opponents. This makes our assignment challenging at times, as we have to create our recommendations in a way that they are (somewhat) acceptable for the organization at large. However, this is also what makes our assignment a very interesting learning experience; we are constantly thinking about all the different layers and people that are involved in the organization. We are finalizing the three profiles we are creating and are excited to show the final versions to AnsvarIdéa and Turien & Co.!