Operational efficiency International case study
Raising LGBT
awareness in Italy
Aon wanted its LGBT diversity and inclusion efforts in Italy to
match the values of the wider company, and for employees
to feel able to be themselves. PETER CRUSH reports
The organisation
Aon is one of the world’s leading professional
services firms offering clients risk, retirement
and health consultancy services. It was formed
through the merger of Ryan Insurance Group
and the Combined Insurance Company of
America in 1982, before taking its Aon name
in 1987. The business currently employs
more than 50,000 people across 120 countries
and generates annual revenues of more than
$10 billion.
The challenge
Italy is one of Europe’s most resistant
countries to the outward recognition of gay
rights. As a strongly Catholic society it scores
just 22% and ranks 35 out of 49 European
countries in terms of its gay rights, according
to ILGA Europe’s Rainbow Index for 2019.
Same-sex civil unions have only been legal
since 2016, and even then only after provisions
for second parent adoption were removed –
meaning same-sex couples still don’t have the
same legal rights as opposite-sex couples.
This cultural background inevitably
filters into diversity and inclusion in
the workplace. According to a recent
report by ISTAT (the Italian National Institute
of Statistics) 40% of Italian homosexuals/
bisexuals have faced discrimination at school,
university or work.
All of which can create a difficult
backdrop for the regional offices of a
business where diversity is a global
boardroom concern, says Donato Parma,
HR director of Aon Italy.
“In our Italian offices Aon employs staff
speaking 28 languages, so diversity is
everywhere around us,” he says.
“Internationally our priority is to make
a difference and have a positive societal
impact wherever we are, but at the moment
we are in strange political times. Although
we already run bias-awareness training
we felt we needed to have something
specific around LGBT awareness
in Italy.”
And so Parma, together with Aon’s HR
director ARS EMEA Claudio Dozio and Igor
Suran, executive director at local non-profit
diversity awareness organisation Parks – Liberi
e Uguali, set about improving LGBT awareness
across Aon’s Italian offices of Florence, Milan,
Rome and Turin.
Aon Italy worked with a local diversity awareness non-pr The strategy
Parma was keen to create a “workplace where
people feel free to be themselves”. But given
the cultural context, the approach taken was
a gentle one to “start conversations” and
encourage dialogue more organically,
reports Dozio.
Aon decided to adopt Parks’ Power of
Inclusion programme, which focuses on
coaching and mentoring managers about
inclusivity. The programme was launched in
May 2019, with one eye on the aim to be part
of the nationwide Pride events taking place
in July.
“The programme supports those who may
not have the tools in house to help live and
encourage the values of diversity,” says Suran.
“We know that people can be unwilling to let
managers know they’ve married, or be
reluctant to take their paid marriage leave if it
means having to come out, so managers are
equipped with training and skills to help
support colleagues who want to ‘come out’, or
to help or advise trans or transitioning people
with questions they might have.”
Training sessions started with 100
managers over the Summer, and by the start
of August the top 35 senior managers had
received training, with more planned.
Coaching is also being rolled out at
board level.
Dozio explains that from the outset “the
plan was to cover all possibilities of HR
policy, and be completely non-discriminatory”.
“We decided to create a local LGBT
committee,” he says, adding that the
programme was also supported with
specific benefits, including making no
distinctions in policies between married
48 HR November 2019 hrmagazine.co.uk
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