Tower Insurance pushes boundaries to win DE&I award

Danica Hape, Head of Business Partnering, Employee Relations and Inclusion at Tower Insurance believes in “pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive world for everyone.”

This approach enabled Tower Insurance to achieve recognition at the 2024 New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards for Excellence in Workplace Diversity,

Equity and Inclusion (DE&I).

Tower won the award amid close competition, reflecting the degree to which New Zealand insurers value workplace equity and diversity. Judges were impressed by the comprehensive initiatives and strategies that Tower has implemented to increase diversity, equity and inclusion with a range of marginalised population groups.

Hape’s inspiration to work in DE&I came when she was coaching netball.  Noticing that the wāhine “don’t have a strong sense of identity, and often lack self-confidence” ignited her passion to “help them realise their true potential.”

This motivated her to pursue roles creating more inclusive work environments in the corporate sphere.

For 20 years, Hape worked for a bank, where she was involved in DE&I leadership and internship programmes.

“When I first started out at the bank, there was very little female and cultural representation across the team. Thankfully, things are very different now with DE&I gains being made across the board all the time,” Hape says. 

Carrying diversity forward

In 2021, she took on a role at Tower Insurance, carrying forward the DE&I knowledge and experience she had gained at the bank.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have broad-reaching executive advocacy and support, which makes a huge difference,” Hape reflects. “I’m so fortunate to work for an organisation that truly values DE&I.”

Tower is committed to maintaining a flexible and inclusive work environment that values difference and enhances business outcomes. Diversity, equity and inclusivity are integral to all aspects of the company.

“At Tower, inclusivity means empowering our people to bring their whole, authentic selves to work,” Hape says.

A range of employee representative groups (ERGs) create an open and supportive environment, promoting a strong sense of inclusion among staff.

“Our ERGs are an integral part of our strategy,” Hape explains.

“They do incredible work championing the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our staff, working with the Tower business to enhance, celebrate and continuously improve DE&I in our organisation.” ERGs also undertake important advocacy projects and organise inclusive events.

Reflecting on the early days

When Hape joined Tower in 2021, there were two employee representative groups.

Today, there are seven ERGS at Tower: Women’s Network; Ahi Kā (Māori cultural group); We@Tower Group (celebrates cultural diversity); Rainbow Network; SPARK (supporting physical and neurodiversity, advocacy, respect and knowledge) Network; and in the Pacific, Vanua Fiji and Tower Bula Fiji.

An executive sponsor is responsible for each ERG, embedding leadership behaviours that support and value DE&I.

In 2021,10% of staff participated in ERGs. Today, 30% of Tower employees are members of one or more ERGs.

This massive increase in just four years has had significant impact on employee engagement, as well as advancing DE&I aims. “It’s great to see the tangible difference our DE&I initiatives are making. This really motivates me,” Hape beams.”

Hape describes herself as having “always been driven by a desire to increase Māori and Pacific peoples’ presence in corporate organisations. It's my passion,” she says.

Shortly after starting to work at Tower, she and her team developed the Emerging Talent program, which supports accelerated growth for talented Māori and Pacific employees commencing their careers. It focuses on middle tier roles and has 70% female and 50% non-European participation.

“The program builds a pipeline of cultural leaders, providing an aspirational experience and demonstrating career opportunities within Tower to assist retention,” Hape explains. It currently has 71% female participation and 57% non-European participation, supporting frontline roles and future leadership.

Daily participation  

Another initiative to ensure that a strong Māori lens is incorporated throughout the business, is the Ahi Ka Group (previously Māori roopu).

This group is involved in many day-to-day decisions at Tower, from choosing significant, meaningful, culturally appropriate meeting room names to having input into the organisation’s learning modules, coaching and leadership frameworks.

In February 2025, Tower will be launching a Te Ao Māori e-learning platform, which will focus on educating staff on basic Māori principles, including Te Ao Māori, Tikanga and the basics of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Honouring cultural diversity is an intrinsic aspect of the workplace culture at Tower. Hape says “All the Tower celebrations of cultural events, marked with food, dance and community, really bring everyone together in such a wonderful way."

"They [the events] highlight just how diverse yet connected we are. It was amazing to see employees from diverse cultures and ethnicities in our Diwali Group performing a waiata earlier this year, proving their growing confidence with Te Ao Māori,” she adds. “This kind of thing really feeds my soul.”  

Taking the steps

Tower has made impressive strides in gender equity. In 2022, Tower was one of the first fifty companies to join Aotearoa New Zealand’s Mind the Gap register, where specific pay gap reporting is carried out.

Within a year, Tower reduced its gender pay gap by 5.7%, down from 25.9% in the 2022 financial year to 20.2% in the 2023 financial year. Furthermore, a comparison of like-for-like roles saw some women paid slightly more than men.

“By taking these steps, Tower demonstrates that we are true advocates of diversity. We don’t just say we support diversity; we proudly act with integrity on our promises,” Hape says.

Tower was also one of the first businesses to join Aotearoa New Zealand’s parental leave register.

The company has implemented impressive parental leave policies, increasing parental leave entitlements from 12 to 16 weeks paid leave for primary carers, and from two to four paid weeks leave for partners, well beyond legal requirements in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Paid parental leave entitlements have also been increased across Tower’s Pacific operations, where parental leave legislation varies greatly and, in some instances, even unpaid leave for partners isn’t required by law.

Flexible working arrangements, including wellbeing leave for proactively managing personal or family wellness, the ability to purchase extra annual leave, a paid day off for your birthday and an annual volunteer leave day, is available to all employees.

Gender affirmation leave is another cutting-edge initiative at the company, with Tower team members entitled to six weeks of paid leave and 12 months unpaid leave for any component of the gender affirmation process.

Initially raised with Tower's executive leadership team by the company's Rainbow Network, Hape says the policy is a "fantastic example of Tower's ERGs in action, and the incredible advocacy and representation they provide".

"The Rainbow Network then played an integral role in shaping the policy and its terms,” she says.

“As each person’s gender affirmation process is unique, the policy provides for an individualised plan to be developed to support staff through their transition, and ensure that the required support is available."

Disability and neurodiversity advocacy

In 2023 Tower launched its SPARK (supporting physical and neurodiversity advocacy, respect and knowledge) ERG.

“SPARK’s purpose is to embrace neuro and physical diversity, improve accessibility and support for all our neuro and physically diverse people and customers,” Hape explains.

A key initiative of SPARK has been organising for Brain Badge to run staff education and training on how to effectively support neurodiverse team members.

Tower has signed up to become an accessibility member, with the goal of obtaining the accessibility tick in 2025. Hape emphasises that this has wide-ranging benefits, flowing through to policy updates to better support and educate staff, including making the website more accessible.

Another strategy at Tower for catering to the diverse needs of staff is collecting information on gender, ethnicity and nationality of staff members.

In the past year, Tower increased the range of options that staff could select, to better reflect diverse identities. This resulted in a rate of 96% gender and ethnicity disclosure in the 2023 financial year, an impressive achievement, and a significant increase in the rate of 85% in the 2022 financial year.

Hape says collecting this data enables Tower to ensure that the decisions that the organisation makes better reflect its workforce.

“We know that a lack of diversity impacts mental health, wellbeing, a sense of fulfilment and belonging at work," she says.

"It’s also detrimental to our success as a business. Without a diverse workforce, we risk overlooking diverse perspectives, limiting business capacity for innovation and growth, and reducing our attractiveness as an employer.

"That’s why we have policies and procedures in place to ensure equal opportunities for roles at Tower.” 

The recruitment process

Tower has developed recruitment processes to encourage and support diversity. The organisation ensures ethnic and gender diversity across interview panels and takes cultural considerations into account during interviews.

Te Ao Māori perspectives are incorporated into the interview process, including the option to bring a whanau support member to interviews.

Hape is proud that in the past year, “gender diversity was achieved for candidate shortlists in 100% of roles and hiring panels for senior leadership. In addition, 75% of succession plans included gender diverse candidates”.

Tower undertakes regular monitoring of attrition of diverse talent in relation to overall gender and ethnic representation.

“In the 2023 financial year, attrition of diverse talent was less than total attrition. This signals to us that Tower is meeting the needs of diverse populations,” Hape says.

The organisation recognises the key role of education and training. In the past year, Tower delivered fifteen “managing stress” sessions and eight financial well-being seminars to over 200 staff.

Twelve employees undertook domestic violence responder training, bringing the number of responders across Tower to twenty. 239 staff completed unconscious bias training.

Tower is a proud NZ Living Wage Employer, DV Free Tick, and Rainbow Tick Certified. The company has also received Insurance Business New Zealand 5-Star Diversity Equity & Inclusion Awards in 2023 and 2024.

Diversity is crucial

As Hape asserts, diversity is crucial for business. “At Tower, we know that diversity is essential for a business to thrive, innovate and succeed in a competitive market," she says.

"The impact on employee engagement, satisfaction, productivity, innovation and retention speaks volumes on how valuable DE&I initiatives are.

"If your staff are happy, your customers are much more likely to be happy too. By fostering an environment of diversity and inclusivity, your people can show up in the best way possible for your customers."

Hape urges industry people to continue advocating for diversity in their own spheres of influence, whether it’s through mentorship, supporting diverse hiring practices or simply listening to one another.

"Every action counts,” she says.