top of page

NEWS

Latest News & Blogs

NeuroInclusive News

Discover what's happening in the world of neuro-inclusion and GAIN

Last year, we held our first GAIN individual member get-together on a sunny rooftop garden overlooking the City of London before moving to the bar downstairs. We shared experiences, listened, made new acquaintances, and reconnected with familiar faces. It was invigorating, challenging, and refreshing all at once. We were immensely proud of everyone there, knowing how daunting such gatherings can be for neurodivergent people. The unknown surroundings, the journey, new people, sensory (over)stimulation and the fear of making a fool of ourselves…


But this is our tribe. We were there for ourselves and each other. No one needed to apologise, explain themselves, or follow social norms they only vaguely understood. There was no judgment. We could simply sit and talk, listen, or zone out.

We enjoyed it so much that we regrouped on May 30th, 2024. This time in the vibrant surroundings of the Barbican.


Photo taken at the last Individual members in-person gathering at the Barbican.


Once again, we had such a good time that we have decided to make the GAIN individual member get-together a recurring fixture in the GAIN calendar, but with a twist.


Introducing:


  1. Our GAIN Lunch (online)

  2. Our GAIN After Work (in person)


Once a month, GAIN individual members will have the opportunity to meet up online or in the City of London, alternating each month between an online lunchtime get-together and an in-person after-work timeslot.


Our GAIN Lunch aims to be online, informal, and relaxed. Enjoy your lunch, talk, or just listen, vent, or ask for advice. You can stay for your full lunch hour or just for ten minutes.


Our GAIN After Work will remain informal and relaxed, like previous in-person meet-ups, but after 5pm in a pub setting in the Square Mile. We have researched venues for discussions in less noisy environments. Allies are welcome!


Updates to follow. Like previous in-person gatherings, we want to shape these get-togethers around what works best for GAIN individual members. If you have any feedback or suggestions, we’re happy to take them on board!


Our GAIN (Stammtisch) Committee


Jonathan, Luke, Sam, Vina

 

116 views0 comments

GAIN (Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment, and Neurodiversity) is delighted to welcome OneFamily, as its latest corporate member. With over 2 million customers, OneFamily is an award-winning financial services organisation, owned by and for their members, providing products and services to help modern families thrive.


OneFamily's Commitment to Inclusion

OneFamily has a workforce of 700 colleagues, has a culture that encourages its team to bring their true selves to work every day and is dedicated to educating its employees on the importance of inclusivity. It plans to create advocate groups and training programs focused on areas of neurodiversity, such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, and more.


To support its neurodiverse colleagues and their families, OneFamily is establishing a Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group (ERG). This group will provide a platform for sharing feedback, offering support, and addressing unique challenges. Additionally, it has networks to focus on LGBTQ+ and ethnicity inclusion, reinforcing its commitment to a supportive environment for all colleagues.


A Shared Vision for the Future

"We are excited to welcome OneFamily to GAIN and support their journey towards creating a more inclusive workplace," said Liselle Appleby, Supervisory Board Member of GAIN. "Their commitment to neurodiversity and inclusion aligns perfectly with our mission, and we look forward to working together to achieve significant improvements in employment prospects for neurodivergent individuals within insurance."


Alison Knocker, Chief People Officer for OneFamily said, “We take equity, diversity, and inclusion extremely seriously, it’s right at the heart of who we are as an organisation. It’s an absolute priority for us that our colleagues feel comfortable and supported at work; they should never feel that they need to mask who they really are.


“So, I am delighted to partner with GAIN, who will support us as we grow the support we provide to our neurodiverse colleagues and their families.”

-- ENDS --

 

 

Notes for Editor

About GAIN

GAIN (Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment, and Neurodiversity) is dedicated to sparking an industry-owned and industry-led radical improvement in the employment prospects of neurodivergent people within the insurance, investment, and related financial services sectors. We provide industry-specific support, advice, and guidance to help companies develop neuroinclusive policies and practices, fostering a more inclusive and supportive workplace.


About One Family

OneFamily, a financial services company with over 45 years of experience that exists to make a difference in society, not to generate profits for shareholders.

We’re a mutual business set up to benefit those who rely on the products we sell and the colleagues we work with.

Committed to innovation, customer satisfaction, and inclusivity, One Family strives to create a dynamic and supportive work environment for all employees.

 

For follow-up questions, comments or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Liselle Appleby, Communications & Marketing Lead, GAIN

 

 

30 views0 comments



QBE is committed to creating a more inclusive workplace for all. With more than 13,000 people working across 27 countries, we recognise the importance of learning from our successes across the globe when building an accessible environment and aim to ensure that level of accessibility can be delivered for all.


2023 was an important year for QBE, as this marked the establishment of our partnership with GAIN (Group for Autism, Investment, Insurance, and Neurodiversity) in the UK. QBE has signed up as an Industry Transformer for the next 3 years, not only to drive more awareness of neuroinclusion internally to our organisation, but throughout the insurance sector.


To launch our partnership QBE conducted an audit through GAIN, which highlighted several opportunities to shape a more accessible workplace environment. Some key focus areas included the fluency of our People Leaders when supporting their neurodiverse team members, optimising our accessible working environments, streamlining our reasonable adjustment request process, and more clarity around the purpose and goals of our employee network, EO Workability, that focuses on neurodiversity and disability.


One year on and we are proud of the progress we have made off the back of this audit. Some key milestones to note include:


  • Restructure of our employee network – Establishing official roles and responsibilities within the network, as well as dedicated workstreams, and clear goals for 2024.

  • Launch of our assistive software ticket system – Our IT Service Desk now includes a dedicated ticket system focused on providing assistive software in a consistent and urgent manner.

  • Distribution of our Inclusive Hiring Principles – Holding our Hiring Managers and Talent Acquisition teams to account to ensure they are creating a more accessible recruitment process.

  • Prioritising accessibility within our new office – Seizing the opportunity of a recent office move to ensure workspaces were optimised for accessibility, prioritising dedicated quiet spaces and adaptable meeting rooms, for example.

  • Building out accessibility-focused resources – To further support our managers with fluency surrounding neurodiversity, we have created a People Leader Toolkit and Neurodiversity Workplace Guide to support when having conversations with colleagues.

  • Established our Workability Coffee Mornings – regular virtual catch ups where colleagues from all over the organisation can learn more about neurodiversity, ask questions, and meet people from across the business who may be having similar experiences.



By ensuring neuroinclusion has remained part of the conversation throughout the past year and making a shift from commitment to tangible actions, we have observed an increase in the sense of belonging for our colleagues who identify as neurodiverse or with a disability, resulting in us closing our belonging gap of 5ppt or less (measured through our employee surveys).


In addition, our progress within the UK has been recognised and commended, with our global divisions being inspired to drive more focus on accessibility at a global level also.

Progress hasn’t been without its challenges, and there have been some learning experiences. Taking the conversation of neurodiversity wider than the UK has proved difficult, since the term is not as widely used throughout other countries. Awareness that different countries are at different stages is imperative to ensure that we make our people feel comfortable to join the conversation. With support from our Global teams this has supported us in taking a globally consistent approach.


We recognise there is still plenty of work to be done, with commitments to continue to streamline other adjustment request processes across the business, separating our disability and neurodiversity within our employee surveys, and delivering an inclusion fluency workshops series later this year to name a few.


By Harry Benham, Inclusion Manager at QBE




Note, you can learn more about careers at QBE by visiting the Careers section of their website, here.


To learn more about the benchmarks that GAIN provides our member companies, check out this video.

75 views0 comments

Latest Blogs

GAIN (Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity 

Our mission is simple: to spark an industry-owned and industry-led radical improvement in the employment prospects of neurodivergent people in insurance, investment and related areas of financial services.

To help achieve this, we have created a community hub of neurodivergent individuals, corporates, partners and researchers, all working together to create inclusive and diverse workplaces across our industry.

As part of membership packages our individual and corporate members can access this online hub providing a wealth of resources, events and partner offers.  

Receive our monthly NeuroInclusive News Email

Thank you for subscribing to the GAIN Neuroinclusive News. I am pleased to confirm your email address has been added to the newsletter database. I enclose the latest version of the newsletter for you to review at: https://gaintogether-25854110.hubspotpagebuilder.eu/june-news With best wishes The GAIN Team

© 2023 by GAIN (Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity).  

GAIN Together Community Interest Company. Registered in England No: 13351142

bottom of page