Diversity, equity and inclusion at the OIC

The insurance coverage market in our state consists of many various merchandise designed to serve a variety of wants for Washingtonians. If insurance coverage is simply too pricey, unfair or discriminatory, it impacts practically each individual residing within the state. To make sure all Washington insurance coverage shoppers get the protection they want at a good worth, we’re dedicated to hiring a various group of regulators that mirrors the inhabitants they serve. 

We serve and make use of all, fostering an inclusive surroundings that helps:

• Gender id or expression
• Race
• Intercourse 
• Faith
• Age
• Marital standing
• Nationwide origin
• Veteran standing: disabled, Vietnam-era, just lately seperated or different protected veteran standing
• Incapacity: bodily, speech, visible, auditory, cognitive or neurological

On the Washington state Workplace of the Insurance coverage Commissioner (OIC), we try to create an surroundings of mutual respect, inclusion and equal alternative.

Selling range, fairness and inclusion on the OIC

A state company that actively promotes range, fairness and inclusion (DEI) amongst its workforce is each extra reflective of the inhabitants it serves and higher outfitted to satisfy its wants. On the Workplace of the Insurance coverage Commissioner, we’ve adopted these as reinforcing rules of our group. Listed below are among the OIC’s previous DEI successes and some of the methods we construct higher range, fairness and inclusion daily. 

Our staff constructed an inside DEI council

On the OIC, we acknowledged that hiring a various workforce and serving a various inhabitants merely aren’t sufficient. There’s extra to it than that, so we created an inside DEI council to find out higher methods to steer our company’s efforts. Our DEI council meets commonly to debate the right way to flip variations into strengths, make sure the insurance policies we promote are equitable and study higher methods to honor all of the totally different walks of life our staff, and people we serve, come from. 

Our employees is well-represented within the state’s enterprise useful resource teams

Many essential DEI conversations occur within the state authorities’s enterprise useful resource teams. Enterprise useful resource teams (ofm.wa.gov) are state staff who meet to community, share their concepts and focus on frequent pursuits. Our employees enthusiastically lend their voices, views and experiences to teams corresponding to:

• ANHPI (Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander)
• RAIN (Rainbow Alliance Inclusion Community for LGBTQ+)
• VERG (Veterans Worker Useful resource Group)
• DIN (Incapacity Inclusion Community)
• BUILD (Blacks United in Management and Variety)
• ICSEW (Interagency Committee of State Employed Girls)
• LLN (Latino Management Community)
• WIN (Washington Immigrant Community)

The OIC is an award-winning DEI chief amongst state businesses

A various, equitable and inclusive workforce is fostered by the surroundings an company’s management creates. In 2020, Commissioner Kreidler accepted one in every of three “Excellent Company” awards from the enterprise useful resource group Rainbow Alliance Inclusion Community (RAIN). The OIC was acknowledged for “making a protected, various, and inclusive office for LGBTQ+ staff, allies, and prospects in Washington state.”

We’re at all times studying extra about DEI 

Whether or not it’s coaching our employees the right way to higher serve folks with disabilities, updating our authorized orders to be gender impartial, or excited about how some communities could also be disproportionately affected by insurance coverage legal guidelines, we’re strengthening our company’s range, fairness and inclusion daily. Nevertheless, regardless of the strides we’ve made, we additionally know the significance of listening and at all times making an attempt to study extra. 

The OIC’s dedication to range, fairness and inclusion is ongoing, and it’s how we regularly assist form Washington’s insurance coverage market to be extra accessible and honest to all.