CNO Financial Group, Inc.

OUR PLEDGE TO THE COMMUNITY

At CNO, our purpose is to secure the future of middle-income America. We embrace diversity, actively pursue equity, and foster an inclusive environment. CNO pledges to use our voice to condemn injustice and violence, and use our platform to stand against systemic racism, bias and discrimination. Diversity, equity and inclusion is one of our corporate values. We remain committed to standing up for these principles to positively impact our company and the communities where we live and work.

PLEDGE 1

Education and Awareness

Focus Area: Workplace

We pledge to continuously engage our workforce with education to raise awareness on the social, racial, and systemic challenges that impact our associates and communities of color. Through a commitment to education and awareness, we aim to create a diverse, welcoming and inclusive culture for all associates, partners and agents.

2022 PROGRESS

As part of our ongoing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) efforts, one of our Business Resource Groups (BRGs) hosts a signature event each month. Often, we bring in external speakers to lead a conversation on topics that include antiracism, gender bias, LGBTQ+ community challenges, healthcare disparities and caregiving support. In 2022, CNO has hosted more than 40 virtual events, logging more than 13,000 hours of associate participation with a goal of having 75% of all associates attend at least four hours of DE&I programming. We added unique benefits such as the Inclusive Care Program for LGBTQ+ associates and expanded our medical coverage to include travel expense coverage for health services. We also adjust our programming to address current events that may be top of mind for our associates. For example, we facilitate "Safe Place” talk sessions to allow associates to openly share their feelings, perspectives and experiences. In 2022, we launched a new LatinX BRG (L.U.N.A.). Our commitment from our leaders starts at the top of our organization where seventy percent of our executive leadership team are current DE&I or BRG executive sponsors. CNO has been awarded the Great Place To Work designation, recognized as Forbes Best Place for Diversity and received a perfect score on the HRC CEI earning the best place to work for LGBTQ+ Equality.

2021 PROGRESS

2020 PROGRESS

CNO’s DE&I program included four associate-led BRGs: S.O.U.L., Women’s, Veteran’s and PRISM, that provided additional leadership and assistance with educational speaker sessions and Safe Place dialogues on important topics, including systemic racism, white privilege, Juneteenth, the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, LGBTQ 101, National Coming Out Day, and Veterans support services.

July - CNO expanded its Paid Time Off (PTO) program for all associates to include additional DE&I education hours (associates received an additional 16 hours of PTO to attend DE&I education events).

July - CNO expanded our support program for LGBTQ associates with policies to support associates during gender transitions and offered partner benefits coverage.

Beginning in 2018 - All associates receive unconscious bias and anti-harassment education.

PLEDGE 2

Associate Development

Focus Area: Workplace

We commit to expand our leadership development and mentorship programs for all CNO associates, focusing on people of color and women associates. Diversity, equity and inclusion makes us a stronger, better company, and diverse teams of people power top performing cultures. By investing in development and leadership, we will build a more connected, cohesive workforce and expand our internal talent pipeline.

2022 PROGRESS

In September 2022, CNO launched a mentorship program with access to a network of mentors in support of our associates expanding their professional and personal development.

In October of 2022, CNO celebrated “Learning Week”, a week dedicated to investing in our associates by offering development opportunities to become more informed about CNO products, the customers we serve and the culture we are creating.

Invested in our BRG leadership teams by offering enrollment to complete the requirements for the Certified Diversity Professional (CDP) designation in an effort to be strategic, intentional and proactive to the needs of our associates.

Hosted a number of professional and career development workshops.

2021 PROGRESS

This year, CNO expanded its associate development offerings in three ways to continue to enhance our approach to associate development.

In June 2021, we launched our DE&I OnDemand learning program, a catalog of more than 300 curriculum that provides associates the opportunity to explore, learn and apply the CNO Value of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and put the corresponding behaviors into practice in our day-to-day interactions.
In the summer of 2021, we launched L.E.A.P. (Lead, Engage and Perform), a leadership development curriculum designed for associates to explore and learn more about being a leader at CNO.
At our summer Leadership Summit for our Senior Leadership group, we hosted David Casey, David Casey Diversity, who shared his perspectives on "Why This Work Matters".
This fall, we launched Management Essentials, a program for new and existing managers, which focuses on building stronger teams, fostering diversity, equity, & inclusion, managing performance and motivating associates.

2020 PROGRESS

In 2020, our BRGs held career development workshops focused on career planning, career ownership and a resume creation/building in order to assist associates to better position themselves for growth and new opportunities in their careers.

The African American/Black BRG and Women’s BRGs launched mentoring programs and matched more than 100 mentor and mentee relationships in order to provide career guidance, coaching and networking opportunities within CNO.

PLEDGE 3

Recruitment and Selection

Focus Areas: Workplace

CNO commits to improving diverse representation at all levels of our organization by broadening our candidate pool selection processes. We will expand partnerships with targeted colleges and universities, minority-focused professional organizations, and other professional networks. Diverse teams draw on a broader set of ideas and experiences that represent the customers and communities we serve. Diversity improves all parts of our business.

2022 PROGRESS

We continue to broaden our recruitment strategies to attract and provide a more diverse candidate pool at the time of selection by expanding the tools and platforms we currently use in recruitment. CNO is partnering with national programs like the Hiring our Heroes, National Black MBA Association, Indy PRIDE, and InternXL to help us source diverse talent.

We require diverse candidate slates for Director and above positions and monitor and evaluate our workforce for changes in representation at all levels of our organization.

2021 PROGRESS

We continue to broaden our recruitment strategies to attract and provide a more diverse candidate pool at the time of selection by expanding the tools and platforms we currently use in recruitment. CNO is partnering with national programs like the NAACP, YWCA, Hiring our Heroes, and the National Urban League to help us source diverse talent.

2020 PROGRESS

Leveraged a new recruitment process in order to source and help attract the qualified and diverse talent.

July - CNO’s Actuarial department expanded recruitment efforts for potential actuarial intern candidates by partnering with diverse organizations and non-traditional schools in support of CNO’s and industry efforts to increasing diversity in the actuarial profession.

September - CNO’s continued to expand its recruiting efforts company-wide for the 2021 intern class by increasing social media presence and attending career fairs at non-traditional universities. As a result, the most diverse class of interns were recruited since the program was introduced.

Join us in the important work of creating racial equity in Central Indiana.

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