By Dawn Frazier-Bohnert, Executive Vice President, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Liberty Mutual Insurance
At Liberty Mutual Insurance, I like to say that diversity is about all of us — it encompasses all the different dimensions that make us who we are. When diversity is about all of us, inclusion requires all of us. If we are to truly be successful, we need to show all our employees that they are included in Liberty’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion journey.
Over the last eight years my team, along with partners across the business and with the support of our senior leaders, have worked hard to put the right foundational pieces in place for further growth in DEI. We started by building employee awareness of DEI definitions and concepts. We rolled out an unconscious bias awareness eLearning and created a Men as Allies initiative, with tools and community building for men, particularly white men, to recognize their role in DEI and build their skills. We also introduced “Understanding Race & Ethnicity” workshops to explore how we each can experience the workplace differently depending on this dimension of diversity.
These efforts were crucial in building a strong DEI foundation for Liberty. But awareness was just the first step. To see change, we had to move our employees from awareness to action. We needed tools to help them strengthen their inclusion skills so they could take action to build a more inclusive workplace.
That is why our DEI team, in partnership with SunShower Learning and VISIONS Inc., created the Inclusion in Action eLearning video series. The interactive, self-paced series features relatable workplace scenarios to teach employees 9 inclusive communication skills that can cultivate better work relationships and produce positive outcomes between employees and with customers.
The skills range from being trustworthy to stepping back to practicing both/and thinking. For example, episode three, entitled “Practice Self-Focus,” encourages viewers to reflect on why they react a certain way in response to someone else’s actions.
The video series received a Telly Award and has been viewed by more than 35,000 Liberty Mutual employees. Employees gave it 4.6 out of 5 stars and two-thirds report that their managers continue to reference and use the video teachings for more constructive conversations. We’re seeing these tools become a part of Liberty’s culture – including being integrated into our onboarding process for new employees.
Having a DEI foundation in place and Inclusion in Action as a tool, we were better prepared than some to deal with the challenges of a very difficult 2020, with incidents of racial bias, injustice and increased political polarization. It’s heartening to hear a colleague say they will “try on” another person’s idea to move from either/or thinking and find common ground.
Due to the success of the program and encouragement from industry peers, Liberty and SunShower made the Inclusion in Action series available to organizations of all sizes to help build more inclusive workplaces. I’m proud to say that in 2020, Inclusion in Action won Business Insurance’s Award for Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year! All of the profits from sales of the eLearning go to support More Than Words, a Boston-based nonprofit that empowers youth of all backgrounds who are in the foster care system, are court involved, out of school or facing homelessness.
Looking to the remainder of 2021, we know that we still have much work to do, and as a global organization, we understand the role we play in making sure it gets done. We’ll continue to have honest, constructive, sometimes difficult conversations — using our nine inclusive communication skills — as part of our ongoing efforts to listen, learn and most importantly, ensure that we have an equitable and inclusive workplace where employee feel they belong.
