S4 EP49: Connecting the ecosystem of Talent Acquisition, L&D and OD - Christina Parr, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, L&D and OD, Argo Group

“Throughput is really exciting when you connect those three areas, so what does that ecosystem look like?We make sure we are branching out and seeking underrepresented talent and also talent who have amazing experience. We do that in our acquisition process”, says Christina Parr as she discusses her role of combining talent acquisition, learning & development and organizational development. “As folks flow into the organization, we're developing them to grow within the organization regardless of where they happen to come in at from a skill perspective.And then as we look at the organization and how it's developing, we have a lot of touch points, that we ask employees from a pulse perspective.”On the podcast this week, Argo Group’s Head of Global Talent Acquisition, L&D and OD talks about her career journey from high-tech and oil & gas in to insurance. “With quite a bit of reluctance I came to insurance. And until I really understood what was happening in the future of insurance, Insurtech, fintech, wasn't all that excited. I love it, it’s addictive.”Christina talks about the balance between attracting under-represented talent and through referrals. “I understand now why we tend to talk to a lot of folks who have vast experience in the market. But we also have to keep ourselves in check with that bias because if we get too heavy on referrals, we don't dig deep for underrepresented talent. It's easy to fall into just kind of staying with the folks that you've known for so long.”She shares how Argo Group are breaking down inter-departmental siloes, traditions and using data to transform employee engagement. “We want to try things in different ways. By doing that, I think it makes us far more effective. We partner with a third party who brings us about 10 million data points from around the globe. And we use those benchmarks to compare our employee engagement results.For the last five surveys, we’ve been going up and up and up, which is quite remarkable as we’ve been going through strategic alternatives.”Christina highlights the impact of the Brookfield Asset Management acquisition. “Most people in the organization were eagerly anticipating this transformation.Once the buy was completed, our executive team not only presented the direction, but more importantly, listened to people.‘What's going well, what's not going well, what do we need to change?’I very much appreciated that perspective. Values are being revisited to make sure everyone understands that integrity is first.We are transitioning the business to three towers. Casualty, Financial Lines and Surety, and Specialty Lines. They are in many different business areas and we get to be the arm of Specialty that they otherwise did not have.”In terms of the impact on the day-to-day, Christina says: “We have a focus on the right people in the right spots with the right skills. You’ve got to get the big people on the bus before you start going anywhere.We've had some shifts in how our is talent positioned. One out of 10 are getting a promotion in some way, shape or form.We've also been working with our socio-economic employee resource group to make sure that we give plenty of people, a chance to succeed who may not be traditional in their background. How we then train them, give them the right skills and then we promote them, thereby making the organizational more healthy and sustainable.” Christina emphasizes how the 8 employee resource groups are working to reduce barriers to entry and expand the prospective talent pool.  “About a third of our roles do not require a degree now. That's a big change. In most companies, you've got the requirement for a degree, specialty certifications, Master's degrees. You can see why unfortunately, we're not getting underrepresented talent. We've worked very...