Allianz: Diversity@Sea – Together towards Diversity
From May to October, 38 Allianz employees from various countries will participate in „Diversity@ Sea”, a global Diversity Initiative by the Allianz Group. The program will team them up for a week with disabled participants to sail tall ships off the coasts of Britain and France. Each week, they will share living quarters and learn how to sail and navigate under the guidance of ten permanent crew members. In cooperation with the UK-based Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST) one pilot of this project was already launched with employees from the UK Allianz Insurance group and proved to be quite successful in terms of building up mutual respect and understanding for each other. The JST is a charitable organization that promotes the social integration of physically disabled and able-bodied people. The objective is to bring them together to face the challenges of sailing a tall ship. „The experience is called ‚Voyage to Development‘ because that’s what it’s designed to do – challenge people physically, and emotionally by pushing them beyond their comfort zones,” says Paul Maidment, Trading Director at Allianz Commercial Insurance UK. “Able-bodied and disabled people alike have limitations to face and overcome. The JST voyages offer a unique environment for tackling them,” said Maidment, who is also in charge of the JST program at Allianz.
