Many asset managers already have Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), inclusion programmes and culture initiatives. Culture Builders was created not to add another campaign, but to connect the people doing this work across firms and help them turn shared experience into practical progress.
The gap no firm can close alone
Asset managers do not lack employee networks, leadership programmes or statements of intent. What they often lack is a way for the people leading that work to compare experience across firms.
Early research conducted by Inclusion in Finance Europe (IiFE) with PwC identified inclusive culture as a priority for European asset management. In response, the Inclusive Culture Community developed two complementary initiatives. One focused on helping leaders create psychological safety within their teams. The second, Culture Builders, was created to help ERG leaders, members and culture champions connect across firms and become more effective in their work.
Lisanne Molina, Head of Learning, Culture, Diversity and Inclusion at Aegon Asset Management and Lead of the IiFE Inclusive Culture Community, explained why the two initiatives belong together:
“Culture doesn’t only happen bottom up or top down. It’s really a combination of the two.”
Lisanne Molina · Lead, IiFE Inclusive Culture Community
Culture Builders brings ERG leaders, members, inclusion champions, human resources professionals and allies together across IiFE member firms to exchange ideas and co-create practical resources. The aim is not to replicate firms’ existing programmes. It is to help the people behind them learn across company lines and become more effective inside their own organisations.
What the first session revealed
The first Culture Builders event was held on 23 April 2026 with a deliberately interactive format. Participants shared the challenges they wanted to solve, responded to live questions and then tested the ideas in facilitated breakout discussions. The aim was not to broadcast another set of inclusion messages. It was to make the room useful.
Aniela Unguresan, founder of EDGE Certified Foundation, used four live questions to challenge instinctive answers and connect inclusion with decisions that firms can examine.
Question 01
What most enables inclusion at work?
- Evidence presented
- Growth opportunities and transparent feedback.
- Why it matters
- People judge inclusion by where opportunity goes, not only by what a firm says.
Question 02
What practice is indispensable to gender balance?
- Evidence presented
- Proactive management of pay equity.
- Why it matters
- It turns a stated value into a measurable organisational decision.
Question 03
What unexplained pay-gap threshold was highlighted?
- Evidence presented
- 5% under the European Union Pay Transparency Directive.
- Why it matters
- It connected workplace fairness with measurement and compliance.
Question 04
What most accelerates diverse talent?
- Evidence presented
- Stretch assignments.
- Why it matters
- Careers advance when people are trusted with work that builds visibility and judgement.
Together, the answers point to one practical insight. Employees experience inclusion through access to feedback, fair reward and career-defining work. For asset managers, this is the business case: these choices influence whose judgement is developed, whose perspective enters the room and how effectively teams make decisions.
As Ric van Weelden, Chair of Inclusion in Finance Europe, put it:
“Better composed, better led teams make better decisions. And in our industry, decisions are ultimately the product.”
Ric van Weelden · Chair, Inclusion in Finance Europe
Source: evidence and live questions presented during the Culture Builders session, 23 April 2026.
From activity to influence
ERGs create belonging and mutual support. At their best, they can also reveal barriers that formal processes miss, widen access to development and bring employee insight into talent and business decisions.
The session described that progression in three stages: community builder, talent developer and strategic partner. The aim is not to make every ERG more corporate. It is to protect the trust that gives an ERG value, then help its insight reach the people able to act on it.
The breakout discussions showed why no single model will fit every firm. Some networks are mature and well supported. Others still depend on a few committed people working around their day jobs. Cross-company learning allows practitioners to borrow relevant ideas without pretending that their starting points are the same.
Recognition must become practice
Culture cannot rest on volunteer energy alone.
ERGs bring trust and employee insight. Business leaders bring authority and access. Human resources and talent teams turn insight into processes, resources and accountability. Culture Builders connects those perspectives, but firms must create the conditions for the work to succeed.
- Recognise ERG contribution in role and performance conversations.
- Give ERG leaders active sponsorship, shared ownership and time to do the work.
- Connect employee insight to talent and business decisions, with clear accountability for action.
That is where inclusion becomes credible to a sceptical audience. Not through more language, but through clearer purpose, practical support and evidence that opportunity is changing.
