Valérie Lavoie, president and chief operating officer, Desjardins General Insurance Group

Inclusivity means so much more than just hiring to meet a target, or having gender parity in the workplace, says Valérie Lavoie, president and chief operating officer at Desjardins General Insurance Group.

Of course, having a diverse group of employees is important, she adds. But the industry needs to think beyond the hiring process and foster a dynamic environment for employees to grow and develop their skills.

This means discussing unconscious bias. “We need to identify and follow metrics in hiring processes and promotion processes to identify where this unconscious bias may come from and act on [it],” she says. “If we really want to improve, we need robust processes and metrics to follow that.

“Again, it is not a question of numbers. It is to make sure we’ve got a lot of perspectives to enrich the discussion around the table. It is demonstrated that diversity brings more value.”

For more than 30 years, Desjardins has been working to create a community for women in the workplace to allow them to grow and inspire each other, Lavoie reports. And when Guy Cormier became Desjardins Group president in 2016, he set clear targets for parity in management committees and boards across the group. “It has been proven that greater gender equality can boost economic growth through better use of talent,” Lavoie says.

Lavoie has been in the industry for more than 30 years and has seen improvements year-over-year. Despite this progress, she says women are often perceived as not having the confidence to pursue a new position, or apply for a job opening for which they don’t feel fully qualified.

“By creating opportunities for women to feel supported, they grow the confidence they need to take risks and pursue new opportunities,” Lavoie says. “This benefits any industry or organization.

“We need to encourage and support women, by opening conversations with them and with women in leadership roles, answering their questions, undoing the myths through mentorship and being strong allies.”

Support starts from a young age, when girls see their parent or female role model succeeding in their career. It then continues with support from companies, coworkers, partners and society. “It encourages young women to be freedom thinkers, thought leaders and feel confident in their ideas to allow them to pursue a path that works for them, regardless of their gender,” Lavoie says.

In the Canadian P&C insurance industry, women have made up a high proportion of the workforce over the last few decades — up to 66% as of 2022, according to statistics from the Insurance Institute of Canada.

For women, the P&C insurance industry has changed for the better over the years, Lavoie says. Work conditions, government programs like Quebec’s universal childcare program, more remote work since the pandemic, and the industry’s resilience to more challenging economic conditions, have all contributed.

“However, we still need as an industry to improve the proportion of women in leadership roles,” Lavoie says. Stats from the Insurance Institute show that even though women make up two-thirds of the industry, only 25% to 30% were in senior executive positions as of 2017, the latest figures available.

“It’s important for me to let everyone around the table give their opinion and to make decisions based on different positions and various views,” Lavoie says. “The voice of our members and clients is…always heard in our decision-making process.”