Sponsored by Munich Re & Swiss Re | In partnership with Women in Insurance (WiN) and WTW
2024 marks 10 years since the Dive In festival was inaugurated, and what better way to end the festival than with an impactful and candid discussion on something that we can all resonate with at some stage in our life - caregiving. To put it in the brilliant words of Pearl Ang, our panelist from the Special Olympics: “Even caring for yourself is a form of caregiving.”
Zheng Xinmei, Senior Client Manager at Munich Re set the tone for the evening by opening with key insights gleaned from more than 75 responses contributed by the WiRE and WiN community. The survey responses found that:
Caregiving responsibilities are common; additionally 50% of respondents have childcare duties, with remaining 50% comprising of caring for elderly, other relations and special needs.
There are perceived inequalities in terms of how support exists for different caregiving needs
Career progression and financial stability are of significant concerns for individuals with caregiving responsibilities
Our moderator for the evening, Mira Gajraj Mohan, Senior Director of Employee Experience at WTW shared a snapshot of WTW’s 2023 Gender Equity Report for Singapore Reinsurers, drawing on WTW’s annual compensation survey across job grades and functions of 32 organizations.
The analysis indicated that female representation across all job functions decreases at senior levels, with the gender pay gap widening with increased seniority. This also corroborates with a more structural issue, and that women tend to take on more, and often the disproportionate burden of caregiving responsibilities, which our panellists later on covered.
From left to right: Mira Gajraj Mohan, Boo Hui Yun, Sanjiv Agarwal, Tan Siew Choo & Pearl Ang
Our Panelists:
Boo Hui Yun – CEO & Head of Asia & Middle East at Munich Re Specialty – Global Markets, Syndicate Asia
Tan Siew Choo – Head of Engineering & Property Solutions, Asia at Helvetia Singapore
Sanjiv Agarwal – Head of HR, Southeast Asia at Swiss Re
Pearl Ang – Senior Manager of Health at Special Olympics
Our panel went on to share their candid and personal anecdotes on caregiving, policy setting, leading by example and creating a safe culture to discuss individual caregiving needs.
Key takeaways:
Better understanding & awareness of evolving and aytpical caregiving needs beyond parenting . Pearl shared her experience working with caregivers of neurodivergent individuals and the unique challenges they face often requires additional empathy and support from their workplace. Furthermore, Mira and Sanjiv discussed a rapidly aging population & reflected upon how corporate infrastructure needs to keep in pace with needs of changing demographics.
Organisations should offer caregivers with the flexibility where possible to tailor working hours, such as switching to part-time work or reduced responsibilities, or even a sabbatical. For example, one company has introduced family care leave available to all employees instead of utilizing annual leave (meant time-off) for other caregiving needs.
Leaders and managers need to create a safe space where employees feel comfortable to share their challenges and work together to find a win-win solution. Senior leaders Hui Yun and Siew Choo shared their own personal anecdotes on juggling caregiving responsibilities and professional aspirations, and how their experience has shaped their own leadership style now. It is all been about making the choices in life.
Change starts with yourself. Most importantly, individuals need to initiate the conversation with their managers instead of suppressing their struggles.
Special thanks to our esteemed panel for a thought-provoking dialogue. We hope the momentum continues to drive positive changes in our industry and organisations.
We are also very pleased on our first ever WiRE x WiN collaboration and look forward to more successful partnerships in the future!
Comentarios