S4 | Ep 12 | Practical Tips on Building an Award Winning Diverse & Inclusive Team with Alex Sidgreaves, Chief Data Officer at Zurich Insurance

In Episode 12, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Alexandra Sidgreaves, Chief Data Officer at Zurich Insurance, where they discuss the practicality of building an award-winning diverse and inclusive, Data & Analytics team, which includes;Being in an organisation for 19 years Transforming from a traditional MI function to an end-to-end Data & Analytics function Moving everything back in-house Spending a lot of time externally to learn from others Having the job description of “deliver value through data”Why they’ve launched their 3rd data strategy Having internally focused and externally focused strategies 25% tech, 25% value and 50% people Putting a pound amount value to what they deliver Why the business doesn’t want to talk about risk or technology, they want to talk about value The link between D&A success and diversity Building an award-winning D&A team Why you need to destroy groupthink and promote positive challenge Doing 175 interviews and realising they were getting a lot of the same type of applicants What they changed to attract more diverse individuals and getting 170% more applicants Why this isn’t about ticking boxes How a diverse team is simply a by-product of doing the right things Why organisations mistake Representation and Diversity The power of apprenticeships and the two ways they’ve used them The benefits of growing your own talent Tackling skills shortagesChallenging yourself when identifying the essential versus desirable skills The misconception that technical data people aren’t able to communicate Why you don’t need a data translator The link between diversity and inclusion, and Data and AI ethics The AI ethics framework and ethical committee they’ve implemented The key trends predicted from being a governing body member for DataIQ and EvantaThanks to our sponsor, Cambridge Spark;Cambridge Spark is an education technology company that educates the workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.They offer a range of flexible learning solutions to meet business needs, from fast deployment of new skills with bespoke programmes through to longer-term investment in the workforce with apprenticeships.Their unique patented online learning platform EDUKATE.AI simulates real-world industry scenarios, providing learners with instantaneous feedback on their code. This hands-on, practical approach ensures that students are learning how to apply new skills to real datasets, which accelerates the business impact they can make.Get in touch to learn more - Cambridge Spark