How to be an ally - top tips for the mortgage industry from the IMLA Inclusivity & Diversity Group

As seen in the Financial Reporter

First and foremost, readers of this article may be thinking: what is an ally? Am I an ally – and, if so, to what?

An ally is anyone who actively promotes and aspires to advance a culture of inclusion through positive and conscious efforts that benefit people as a whole. It’s about being curious and asking questions, but also working to advocate for those in your workplace who may feel less represented. It’s about being open to positive change, and therefore helping to drive it.

A year on since the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) report into diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the mortgage industry found a significant need to address certain areas of D&I across the sector, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association Inclusivity and Diversity (IMLA I&D) group ran a ‘lunch’n’learn’ session on allyship to help our industry develop in this area.

A key question that arose was what truly makes an ‘ally’ and why is it important? Here are the group’s top tips to build this important aspect of inclusion into your workplace.

It’s not hard to start

Starting off as an ‘ally’ is something that many people will do without realising it, asking questions of colleagues whose experiences differ from our own, and understanding that we all have ways in which we’re used to thinking that might need some updating.

This is what we call unconscious bias. It’s often a product of older thinking from when we grew up, or from earlier in our careers. It is only by questioning why we think in a certain way that we might realise we’re unintentionally stereotyping or judging our colleagues – quite without meaning to.

To become an ally is to recognise that these ways of thinking aren’t helpful, and to start looking at how to learn more about the people we work with.

Our top tip: Don’t be afraid to ask questions, of yourself and of others, as long as you’re asking sensitively and listening to what you hear in response.

The allyship journey

But allyship extends beyond just questioning how we think and how we can support our colleagues, and the next step to becoming an active ally is to both ‘show up’ and ‘speak up’.

Showing up means attending events and talks aimed at helping our education into diversity and inclusion and stepping out of the normal routine to support colleagues at events that are important for their identity.

And one step further from ‘showing up’ is ‘speaking up’, meaning not only attending these events but using your voice to demonstrate your support for those who might feel less represented in the workplace.

Our top tip: Speak up if someone is being spoken over in a meeting (whether intentionally or not) and plan work events that can include the whole team. Colleagues may have dietary restrictions, religious beliefs, or are neuro-atypical - namely whose thought processes don’t match what is considered the societal norm, such as people with ADHD or dyslexia – and wouldn’t enjoy what the majority of the office would consider a usual event. Is it really a good social if a significant number of people don’t want to be there?

Take action now

The mortgage industry has been criticised previously for lagging behind when it comes to diversity and inclusion, so encouraging more professionals to become allies – either independently or with the support of groups such as the IMLA I&D group – is essential to bring about positive change.

Ultimately, whilst allyship is something that we can all develop individually, at its heart is the notion of listening and collaborating. There are a number of events, groups and initiatives out there in the mortgage industry, is it time to lend your support?

Our call to action: Let’s strengthen our efforts as individuals and as a sector to make sure that the mortgage industry is a sector that we are all proud to work in, so the next report into D&I shows how far we’ve come, not how far we have yet to go.

If you would like to learn more, you can find a wealth of D&I resources and educational material for the mortgage industry at the IMLA and AMI website: Working In Mortgages - Shaping the future.

Alison Painter
Business Development Manager
TSB Mortgage Intermediaries