Diversity & Inclusion at Securian Financial

Words + actions = values

At Securian Financial, our values define who we are and how we do business every day.

Trust, strength, integrity, quality, respect and community. They’re more than just words — these values drive our actions. They help us lead with our heads up and our hearts open, so we can take care of the people who count on us.

We listen to diverse voices and are committed to being part of the solution to dismantle social injustice.

Why diversity and inclusion are important

First, let’s define what diversity and inclusion mean to us.

Diversity

is the range of human differences including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability or attributes, religious or ethical values system, national origin and political beliefs.

Inclusion

is about bringing our differences together and harnessing them in a constructive and meaningful way.

We’re building a diverse and inclusive culture from the inside out. This means creating a welcoming environment where every voice is valued and heard, and our employees feel confident bringing their full selves to work.

We’re proactively creating an effective diversity and inclusion (D&I) program that is sustainable, transparent and moves us toward engraining D&I into the DNA of our organization.

It means prioritizing D&I to be a better company — by bringing people together, having tough conversations and learning from each other’s diverse perspectives.

And it means assessing our hiring practices and vendor sourcing to make these processes more equitable.

Here’s how this is playing out at Securian Financial

Organizational support

Our Diversity and Inclusion Council leads our efforts to understand, encourage and support our work to attract and retain talent, foster an inclusive culture, meet our customers’ needs and increase community impact.

The Council is led by co-chairs CEO Chris Hilger and Chief Diversity Officer Dexter Davis. It’s a cross-functional group and includes members who represent diverse communities within the company.

I count on the Diversity and Inclusion Council to challenge us to constantly do better. Our members have been invaluable as we established our D&I programs, and they’ve been trusted advisors as we set our course to create an inclusive environment where all employees feel confident to bring their authentic selves to work.

Dexter Davis

Chief Diversity Officer

A diverse workplace enables meaningful collaboration, insightful decisions and personal growth for employees. Securian Financial will continue building a culture where all employees feel welcomed and empowered to make a difference for our customers, communities and each other.

Chris Hilger

Chairman, President and CEO

Education + conversation

We invest resources to educate our employees on a range of topics, uplift diverse perspectives and create outlets to discuss important issues. Our employee education has a five-point focus on awareness, equity, inclusion, allyship and cultural competence.

Since 2017, when Chris Hilger joined CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, we’ve been educating employees on unconscious bias to form a foundation of understanding. This ongoing training series helps employees recognize biases that commonly affect — and can be harmful to — daily decisions. We’ve been building on our foundation with several initiatives:

Courageous conversations: Managers receive support and encouragement to have conversations with their teams about race, gender and social injustice.
Listening sessions: After George Floyd's death, these listening sessions offered a chance for employees to grieve, talk, listen and share ideas together to move forward. More than 600 participated. And the resounding request was to create more ways to learn together.
D&I learning series: As a result of the listening sessions, we developed articles on a broad range of race-related topics and published them on our intranet. They represent the discussions that need to happen to create sustainable, systemic change.
Book discussion circles: Built on So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, the circles build comfort and perspective in talking about race.

Workforce development

A more diverse workforce will help us build D&I into our company’s DNA. We're focusing on recruitment, development and retention programs — and measuring our progress — to help us get there.

Recruiting and hiring

Our ongoing key actions include:

Expanding college recruiting efforts within underrepresented populations by deepening our engagement with multicultural student groups.
Participating in professional organizations, conferences, events and career fairs targeted to people of color, veterans and women in technology.
Leveraging relationships and events for mid-career professionals to build a pipeline for management-level roles.

We’ve also implemented tools to reduce bias in the hiring process, including:

Competency-based interview guides that help our talent management team and hiring managers focus on job candidates’ skills and behaviors.
Unconscious bias micro-learnings that hiring managers review prior to the interview process to help mitigate bias.

Scorecards and metrics will help us track our progress. Our 2021 goals for three important metrics are below. The above practices will help us continue striving to achieve them.

Success metric	2021 target
Percentage of senior management roles held by women	40 percent
Percentage of people of color in exempt (salaried) positions	15 percent
Percentage of people of color in management ranks	10 percent

Development

Extensive resources and learning and development programs help our employees build skills and enhance their lives — at work and outside of it. This includes a new mentorship program focused on helping people of color and women advance in their careers.

Retention

Retaining our employees is just as important as getting them in the door. Our five Employee Resource Groups play a pivotal role in helping employees feel connected and supported through tailored programming. Each has executive sponsors, dedicated talent management recruiters, and direct support of the D&I office and the Securian Financial Diversity and Inclusion Council.

Learn more about our Employee Resource Groups

Supplier diversity

We actively seek diverse businesses through our supplier diversity program. Having our work reflect the communities where we do business is one of the most tangible ways we can uplift underrepresented populations.

In 2019, we increased our spend with diverse suppliers — defined as businesses with majority ownership by women, minorities, LGBTQ+ or veterans — by about 50 percent over 2018, totaling nearly $13 million. This represents 5 percent of our total supplier spend, and our goal for 2020 is 6 percent.

By working with these businesses, we help them fulfill their purposes and empower their own employees while meeting our business needs.

Community

History has proven the disadvantaged nearly always suffer the most during crises. That’s why we continue giving millions of dollars to lift up the community we’ve called home since 1880.

Our hometown saw mostly peaceful protests after George Floyd’s death, but some escalated into violence that interrupted many residents’ and entrepreneurs’ lives. We made immediate donations for relief. Alongside our employees, we directed more than $400,000 in donations to diverse area nonprofits.

In addition to meeting the critical short-term needs of our neighborhoods, we refined our giving programs in ways that most directly address systemic racism.

Focusing on equity in education, we’re giving special attention to closing the achievement gap that holds back disadvantaged populations in our communities.
We are building on investments to put computer devices, broadband and other educational support tools in the hands of our students who are most in need.
A major financial commitment will fund community-based learning initiatives in neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul that need them the most.

From basic needs and school readiness through higher education, we know that closing gaps in our educational system is critical to building an equitable playing field for the future.

Visit our community commitment page to learn about our comprehensive philanthropic program.

Securian Financial Group, Inc. does not discriminate based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital or familial status, pregnancy, disability, genetic information, political affiliation, veteran status, status in regard to public assistance, status in a local human rights commission, or any other status or condition protected by local, state or federal law. If you are a job seeker with a disability and require an accommodation to apply for one of our jobs, please contact us by telephone 651-655-5522 (voice), 711 (Relay/TTY), or by email at EmployeeRelations@securian.com.

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