Make no mistake, the sudden news that performance management director Jon Hancock is leaving Lloyd’s will send ripples across the London market.

He’s the man who stopped the rot and set the wheels in motion for a more profitable Lloyd’s. At a time when the future for 1 Lime Street looked bleak, he demonstrated that a firm hand and a risk-based approach to regulation could start to rectify the mistakes of the past, albeit slowly.

Lloyd’s had suffered from a crisis of confidence – even John Neal acknowledged when he arrived as CEO that the marketplace had lost its mojo. Restoring positivity in the market has been a big win for the Corporation in recent times, and Hancock’s role across performance and transformation was an important driver of that renewed confidence.

It goes without saying that his exit is a major blow for Lloyd’s, at a time when momentum around performance and strategy was just starting to gain pace.

Lloyd’s is keen to publicly show that there are no hard feelings. The transition will be flexible to suit both parties, they have said. There will be no cliff edge.

Both Neal and Hancock have stressed that this separation is nothing to do with differences of professional opinion – nevertheless market tongues will still wag on whether this departure is really to do with the fact that Hancock’s more measured view of how to implement change was at odds with Neal’s ambition to spark a big bang moment for Lloyd’s.

Departing before he has done four years in the role – and in a critical year for the Lloyd’s transformation work – certainly suggests there is more behind the move than just itchy feet.

When we spoke to him, Hancock stressed a desire to return to the commercial side of insurance, to be challenged in a way that only P&L business accountability can do.

This only works to emphasise a wider challenge that Lloyd’s faces in retaining and keeping the best talent. The best staff are reluctant to work at regulators long term.

Talent retention and turnover of staff has historically been a big issue within the Corporation, even if recently improved sentiment around Lloyd’s puts it in a much better position to recruit a highly credible successor.

The next question for the Corporation is who wants to take on arguably one of the toughest jobs in the global (re)insurance market.

Few individuals impact the performance of such a wide swathe of the market. The performance management director has a remarkable level of influence on both market profitability and pricing dynamics.

For the Corporation, performance is a key pillar of the strategy and it cannot afford to falter now that gains are starting to be made – and particularly with another calendar-year underwriting loss most likely in the pipeline.

Neal has stressed that the tone of performance management will continue with the new recruit, and the standards that Hancock has set will “100 percent” continue.

For the good of the market, this statement must prove to be more than just lip service.

But at the same time, there will not be complete continuity between the new regime and the old. The new performance management director will surely want to make his or her own mark in the role and will not want to live in Hancock’s shadow.

It will be a fine line to tread, while carrying a huge weight of responsibility.

As we have said before, the talent element is crucial to Lloyd’s ability to carry out the transformational change it is targeting.

With much more still to be done, the next performance management director will be one of the most important hires, if not the most important, Lloyd’s has made in recent times.

Lloyd’s has estimated that male employees across the Corporation are paid 27.7 percent more on average than female staff.

The Corporation published its gender pay gap figures today, as all UK companies with more than 250 staff are required to do by 4 April.

On a median basis, Lloyd’s gender pay gap is 32.1 percent.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the gross hourly earnings for all men and the gross hourly earnings for all women.

There is a higher proportion of men than women in senior roles across the Corporation, Lloyd’s said in commentary on the figures.

Although Lloyd’s has a 50:50 gender balance on the executive committee, there is almost double the number of men than women in the highest-paid quartile of the Corporation, at 66.2 percent compared to 33.8 percent.

In the lowest-paid quartile this is reversed, with over twice the number of women than men, at 66.2 percent compared to 33.8 percent.

There is also a higher proportion of part-time female employees, which can result in slower career progression and impact remuneration, Lloyd’s said. About 11 percent of Lloyd’s employees are part-time. Of these, 92 percent are women.

Lloyd’s CEO Inga Beale said: “We know that access to senior roles has historically been limited by the culture of the insurance sector that was much less inclusive and welcoming than it is now.

“While there has been good progress, particularly over the past 30 years, progress is simply not happening fast enough. We must turn this situation around, not just to benefit women, but to benefit the whole sector.”

For bonuses, men working at the Corporation are paid 36.7 percent more than women on a mean basis, and 40.7 percent on a median basis.

However, the percentage of female employees receiving a bonus is slightly higher than for men, at 87.3 percent compared to 84.7 percent.

“Our mean bonus gap of 36.7 percent is based on actual bonuses paid, and is impacted by the fact that the calculation does not take into account pro-rated bonuses which reflect the reduced hours worked,” Lloyd’s said.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay, which is men and women being paid the same for the same work or work of equal value and is a legal requirement.

Lloyd’s said it did not believe it had an equal pay issue. However, it said this was reviewed annually.

“Lloyd’s is committed to closing the gender pay gap by working to increase the number of women taking up senior roles across the Corporation, and improve the gender and broader diversity balance across all levels,” it said.

The Corporation said redressing the gender imbalance would require a long-term approach, and said it had set a diversity target of having at least 40 percent women in the top 25 percent-ranking employees in the next five years.

It outlined four 2018 objectives to reduce the gender pay gap over time. These included mandating a 50:50 gender split for all external recruitment long lists, reviewing current succession plans and the execution of a bespoke female development programme.

Lloyd’s will also conduct a full review of family care policies and continue to improve flexible working for all employees.

The Corporation also said it had a number of ongoing initiatives to improve gender equality, including inclusive hiring and unconscious bias training, enhanced progression opportunities for all employees and a gender equality employee network.

In comments published today in the Financial Times, Beale called for a rethink of the reporting requirements for partnerships, such as law firms. Since partners are not deemed to be employees, they do not feature in gender pay data. Beale suggested the omission masked the extent of the gender pay gap at certain firms.