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âDE&I is one of the biggest challenges for the industry. For a lot of our clients in the US, it's one of their biggest prioritiesâ, says Nick
"Before we engage with a client, we really want to make sure they're set up for diverse candidates. It's so important for us as an insurance executive search firm, that if we move someone who's very successful into a new environment, that they're going to be set up for success there.
And that internally, there are no barriers and people will have the same opportunity across the board.
For us as a search firm, it's key for our processes to be as transparent and inclusive as possible.
When weâre working on a mandate, rather than just going to a little book of contacts, that we actually do a thorough market mapping to identify every single person who could potentially do that role.
What that gives us is a more diverse talent pool. The shortlist of candidates we provide is more diverse. When you've got more people in that process, you can scrutinize those candidates more and end up with a better-quality hire.â
On the podcast this week, Nick shares his journey from corporate law to insurance broker to founding global insurance executive search consultancy, Insurance Search.
âI was working for an insurance company. We were looking to hire great quality people, but were really struggling to get the candidates.
I was working with some of the agencies, seeing some of the CV s that were coming in. It could be quite depressing and just thought, there's an opportunity here. I backed myself that I could do better.
I've always been a real people person, helping people in whatever way I can. It just seemed like a really natural fit, putting businesses together with great insurance talent.â
Nick highlights the challenges to launching an executive search consultancy and how heâs coped with adversity along the away.
âWe're still very fresh from it, the pandemic. We were doing very nicely as a firm, working with lots of good insurance companies who were expanding.
But then the pandemic came along and the world changed.
We went from all of our clients actively hiring multiple positions to pretty much zero overnight.
That was a real trauma. But it gave me the opportunity to really reflect and decide where I wanted to take the business.
Weâd been doing quite a lot of senior, international work at the time, but we are also still doing some quite junior insurance roles, which was an area we werenât enjoying as much.
And so, we pivoted and really focused at the senior end of things.â
Nick discusses the motivation behind launching the Insurance Coffee House Podcast as a way to highlight the breadth of opportunity across the insurance sector, and to learn from the experiences of C-level insurance leaders.
He emphasizes the executive search, human capital consultancy and market intelligence services Insurance Search provides, both to global insurance brands as well as smaller, mid-market businesses.
âOur core service is insurance executive search and finding senior leaders for insurance companies.
As part of that work, we have a human capital consultancy where we very much look to align ourselves with our clients. Where they are as a business now and work with them to achieve those strategic objectives and where they want to be in 18 months, two years, five years.
And we offer insurance market intelligence studies.
We've got a great team of researchers, who are looking externally for our clients at what their competitors are doing, how those competitors are being successful, looking at some of the aspirational businesses that they want to be like in 24 to 36 months.â
With Insurance Search seeking to make executive search more accessible, Nick highlights the types of roles the team works on.
âAs well as C-level positions, we also work on...
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âThe strength of our culture was something we used in the presentations to analysts and investorsâ, says Daniel.
âWe did some work around our employee value proposition and we asked our colleagues, âWhy do you work at Hamilton?â
The common theme was collaboration and that's how we came up with the phrase âIn good companyâ.
As part of the IPO, we used it as our overall company tagline to say, âYou're in good company with Hamilton, whether you're a client, broker, stakeholder or investor.ââ
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Daniel shares his career journey from the NatWest graduate programme, his varied roles at Munich Re to joining Hamilton Insurance Group six years ago.
He talks about the transition from a larger, more corporate environment to starting his current role at Hamilton, with 120 people and $500m in premium in 2018.
âJoining Hamilton, I was excited for the opportunity to be at a company, almost at its start and helping it build. It's very different to being at a large organisation. What excites people about joining Hamilton is that you feel you can move the needle.â
The business has subsequently grown to 550+ employees, with $2bn in premium and listed on the NYSE in November 2023.
Daniel gives an overview of the core functions of the business today and his role of overseeing the HR function, internal and external communications, as well as developing the strength of culture Hamilton has become known for.
âWe firmly believe that having a strong culture is critical and a component of our overall underwriting success.
Engaged employees are an essential part of Hamilton's success. They drive productivity and innovation, that will lead to the ultimate success of the company.â
Daniel explains how Hamiltonâs values of âBe smart, Be sensible, Be open, Be moreâ underpin activity around recruitment, performance management and talent management, as well as the key role communication plays.
Regular town halls at both group and local level, together with âHamilton on a pageâ lays out strategy and helps employees understand current performance and achieve our business imperatives of sustainable underwriting profit, strategic growth, technology enablement and being a magnet for talent.
Daniel highlights the importance of collaboration and how the outcomes of staff surveys help address any team concerns.
He shares his advice for leaders coming to interview at Hamilton and advises his insurance industry HR peers not to rush the hiring process if theyâre unsure of a candidate, but to move with haste if they are.
Daniel explains Hamiltonâs DEI statement, âOpen minds open doorsâ and how welcoming and respecting differences, helps attract and retain the best talent.
âWe embrace all forms of diversity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, but gender has been something weâre particularly proud of what we've been able to achieve.
Of our total employee base, 45% are female. 36% of our Underwriting leads and Claims leads are female. There's always room for growth, but we're extremely proud of that progress we've been able to make in that area.â
Daniel stresses the key leadership roles and influence of Pina Albo, Anita Kuchma, Megan Thomas and Gemma Carreiro at executive level.
âPina is the first female CEO of a Bermuda-based company to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell and Hamilton was the first woman-led insurance company to go public in 20 years.â
Daniel emphasizes what he looks for an in an insurance executive search partner, including trust and third-party perspectives and insights.
He concludes by adding the one lesson his career has taught him, he thinks everyone should know.
âThere are always other forms of information that come through to you as a professional, but having good, solid data to help you make decisions is such an important...
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âIn our experience, a reinsurance deal was being profiled in a physical binder full of paper. I thought, âHow good would it be if we could take risk or bundles of risk and make a profile for itâ", says Ben.
"Think of all the information that you could attach to that profile. That was a very early concept. For a long time we debated, how this would work in the reinsurance world where we've got all these different parties with vested interests, and deals they like doing in a very particular way, with a very particular workflow.
We just iterated and iterated on how you could create a system whereby these buyers, brokers, reinsurers could exchange profiles of the deals that they wanted to do.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, two of Supercedeâs co-founders, Ben Rose and Jerad Leigh, talk about their early career journeys and realisation of the breadth of opportunity within the insurance industry.
They discuss the inspiration for launching Supercede, the mountain of iteration and calibrating constantly around the different elements, features and parts of the work flows within reinsurance deals.
âWe have a very mission driven culture. There such an obvious problem we're trying to solve. We're not inventing something for the sake of inventing it. We're not pursuing something, because it sounded nice.
We've got a thing that everybody in reinsurance universally hates and wishes was better.â
5x growth over the past 12 months, has put Supercede on track to triple again this year, with new clients, investors and top talent joining the team.
Ben and Jerad explain the benefits and efficiencies Supercede offers to all stakeholders within reinsurance deals and their desire to create modern tools to free people up to do what theyâre good at.
âPeople want technology. Itâs really important to have modern tools to free up the talent at a broker or underwriter so they can do the jobs they're actually meant to be doing and not the sort of janitorial work insteadâ, says Ben
Attracting the right talent is critical for business growth and Jerad explains what they look for when hiring.
âTesting for culture is obviously really important. People who are familiar and comfortable working at a company of this size.
But I think it's really important to test for people who are principled thinkers. You have to have people who are willing and able to look at the variety of challenges that are being brought to the business and the factors that are involved and make decisions based on principles of what is best and most important and most thoughtful at that time.
Certainly, a don't hire assholes rule should apply, because when you're sub 50-100 people, bad individuals or people who don't really fit can bleed across the organisation.
You have to be very thoughtful in those first 25-50 hires, making sure you're retaining a quality of character.
You have to be intentional, to phrase and present questions that are trying to root out what you're looking to solve for.
Over the last half dozen years or so, there's a real belief that people can thrive in an environment that's a start-up.
Some people can, and some people canât. You have to identify what you're trying to test for and present questions and case studies through your hiring process that will allow you to distil down to the individuals that actually can thrive.â
Highlighting which other insurtech businesses inspire them, Jerad cites hyperexponential as a prime example.
âI think their team does a great job. I really rate how they hire and how they set roles for the things that they're trying to solve for.
Like us, they're taking a core problem that sits within the underwriting units of businesses and giving tools to help those underwriters do that work more effectively.
There's this concept or fallacy of, âIf you build it, they will comeâ. A lot of software companies...
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âWhen you hire for specific experience, then you're always going to have to hire for somebody within the industryâ, says Nicola.
âWhen you break it down to what are the specific jobs to be done, what are the skills that are required to do those jobs, often those skills are industry agnostic.
There are clearly some examples where that's not the case, but there are many examples where it is the case, and if we can start to do that, then that opens a whole world of new opportunities to new and different talent. But it takes intentional effort.â
On this episode of the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Nicola talks about her not planning her career journey and saying âyesâ to exciting opportunities.
Having significant industry experience in pharmaceuticals and private banking, including 17 years at ING, Nicola joined Hiscox in September 2022.
Headquartered in Bermuda and with 3,500 employees in 14 countries, Nicola explains that she was hired to transform the HR function, to make it scalable, to elevate it, to become a more strategic partner to the business.
âWe're guardians of the employment proposition, of the culture and therefore the experience that each of those 3,500 colleagues has while working here. It's a real privilege.
One of the first things I did when I joined was to change the title from HR to People. People are humans, they shouldn't simply be considered as resources. Language really matters.â
Nicola describes the companyâs growth ambitions in the US under the stewardship of recently appointed CEO, Mary Boyd.
She also highlights how her own career experiences have shaped her passion for people and inclusivity, as well as how leadership set the tone.
âEnsuring we've got the best talent in position, means being an inclusive company. One which values diversity and ensures people feel psychologically safe to fully contribute.
We know this type of environment is when people do their best work and there's real evidence linking it to business performance.
But my experience of living and working abroad has taught me that it's really nice to believe these things, but it takes intentional effort to make them a reality for people.â
Nicola shares how getting diverse talent is one thing, but setting them up for success is another.
She emphasizes the key role data plays in DEI strategies and how it can help identify specific issues in delivering it, as well as why sheâs a huge believer in transition planning and rapid support around diverse talent.
Nicola explains how Hiscox is investing in 6 employee network groups, why she believes they need to be inclusive and engage with allies, and how the business is building up its own diverse junior talent pipelines through apprenticeships and early careers initiatives.
Highlighting the need to build diversity into all of Hiscoxâs processes and tooling, Nicola says, âWe need to make it easy for people. The shortlists and the panels, our talent acquisition colleagues just need to make sure those processes are in place and hiring managers don't even need to think about it.â
Nicola gives her advice to insurance leaders coming to interview at Hiscox and encourages her insurance industry peers to cast the net wide when looking for the best insurance talent.
âStart before you need to so that you're not in that crisis, urgent rush situation and also be very specific about the jobs to be done in the role and matching the skills needed to those jobs.â
She concludes by sharing the importance of trust when working with an insurance executive search partner and the one lesson her career has taught her, she wants everyone to learn.
âYou cannot think your way in to new behaviours. You have to take action. There's a book called âAct fast and fix itâ, but that is such great advice. I would take progress over perfection every day.â
Connect with Nicola...
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âWe talk a lot at Howden around not just coming to work, but coming to build a business. It really allows people to kind of have that sense of ownership, that sense of purpose and really allows people to feel like they're part of what they're buildingâ, says Charlotte.
âThey understand it and can take a lot of pride. Itâs a really different mindset, that feeling of ownership, working as part of our team, collaborating for the good of our clients.
Incentives can drive those behaviours, so a big piece for us was making sure that our combined incentive scheme drives really good collaborative behaviours and decision-making.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Charlotte shares her insurance career journey from RSA intern, her stint at Guy Carpenter before joining Hyperion Insurance Group, now Howden.
She discusses the impact of moving from a larger, more corporate environment to a smaller, growing business.
âHowden at the time was a much, much smaller business and a much less established HR function, which is where the real excitement was and a huge opportunity.
You didn't have all of the things you were used to working with in very established centres of expertise. It was a really good shift to start looking at what does the business need, what does the business want?
From an HR perspective, you're building things and doing things that are really fit for purpose.â
Charlotte highlights Howden Reâs accelerated growth story and her expanding remit. The business has grown from 400 employees in 10 countries when she joined in January 2023 to 900 in 35 countries today.
She emphasizes how the reinsurance business is being purposefully different for its clients and people as well as leveraging the power of the Howden Group.
Charlotte talks through the TigerRisk merger, making the integration of the two businesses as seamless as possible and helping people in the business do what theyâre good at.
She shares how having start-up energy, yet being a global, established business is helping attract and retain the best insurance talent.
âOur rates of organic growth are outpacing the market. We're having massive amounts of talent joining us. But our retention of talent is really high, and we see people progressing quickly through the business as well.
This isn't a business that you have to wait for someone to leave a role or you have to wait for there to be space. It's a business that is growing and that creates space for people to grow with it.â
Charlotte gives her advice to insurance executives coming to interview, encouraging them to talk about what they want to do, not dwelling on what theyâve done in the past.
She encourages her insurance industry HR peers to, âMake it obvious you want people to join you and be available to them.â
Highlighting the importance of working with an insurance executive search partner who challenges the recruitment function in its thinking, not just when things donât go to plan, Charlotte says, âI'm a big believer in when things go really well, looking at what made them go really well, how do you embed that and scale it.â
Charlotte points out how the HR team is using tech to balance making the recruitment process as seamless but also as human as possible.
In conclusion Charlotte challenges us to think about where we want [our career] to sit in a changing insurance industry and encourages us to never stop learning.
Connect with Charlotte Hubble on LinkedIn or find out more about Howden Re
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by
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âIt's a fantastic opportunity to build something for yourself but within an established business. Itâs very much engaging with customers and driving dialogue around their search requirementsâ, says Martin
But itâs also supported by a world class centre of excellence for delivery, so they can really focus on driving those relationships, identifying opportunities and doing a comprehensive handover to the delivery team that we have here.
It frees them up to drive those relationships and customer interactions, knowing there will be a delivery team behind them.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Martin talks about:
Why the relationship-based recruitment industry resonated with him.
What drew him in to the insurance executive search arena and why making a difference to peopleâs lives and enabling them to be successful is important to him.
The Managing Partner Program at Insurance Search â what it is and who itâs for.
âThe program, it's really aimed at ambitious and high performing insurance executives or insurance recruitment consultants who are motivated to build their own business.
Itâs for insurance executives who may want to use the contacts and experience they've built up across their career to build something for themselves.
Weâll enable them to launch, build and scale a business with ongoing support.â
Martin highlights the support on offer to those who might be looking for more autonomy in their careers.
âSometimes when you're in a large corporate environment, you have to live with [other peopleâs] decisions. As a corporate citizen, you have to go with them. Here's your opportunity to do things differently.
Itâs either a current or former insurance executive that has a network that they could leverage and bring that gravitas to building out something for themselves, but in an environment where they're going to be provided both onboarding and ongoing support.â
Martin describes the key attributes he looks for in a first conversation with a prospective insurance executive or senior recruiter.
âCredibility is absolutely essential. Honesty, transparency and excellence, those shared values are really key as is the industry experience.
Having energy, an appetite to build something for themselves and someone that's comfortable selling solutions.â
Emphasizing the strategic locations where Insurance Search is looking to attract, Martin says:
âWe're very open to all locations across the US, but some places that jump out are New York, Boston, Atlanta. From a state perspective, Florida, Texas and California and weâre open to talking to people who are very active in the London market. All the key insurance hubs.â
In conclusion, Martin shares a key lesson his career has taught him.
âWhen Iâve found myself professionally in a situation where there's some level of adversity - delivering some bad news or a conversation Iâd rather not have - what I've found is some of the strongest relationships I've built, have come from that situation. Whether it's a candidate or a client, adversity can really bring people together."
To find out more about the Insurance Search Managing Partner Program, connect with Martin Blake on LinkedIn, email [email protected]
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search.
We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance...
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âWe wanted to make sure that there were slates, they were diverse and had all the groups represented. It isn't a case of trying to stop someone from getting something they deserve. What you're trying to do is make sure these other groups get the opportunities they deserve", says Don.
"I'm not a believer that we favor one group or another. I'm just a believer that everyone should have an opportunity.
Because we're just human beings and we follow patterns of behavior, we're not necessarily inclined to give everyone an opportunity.
Most of what we focused on was really just creating a more holistic opportunistic environment.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Don talks about:
his journey from CFO and Sales to CHRO and the 4 key factors that attracted him in to the insurance industry
creating an institutionally consistent employee experience with opportunities for all
driving DEI change based on the evidence of data to create hope and purpose
meeting, coaching and exposing underrepresented groups to development and promotion opportunities
balancing beautiful traditions with a need to be modernize and not being able to town hall your way to change
the importance of understanding and representing clientsâ cultures and communities
the scope of his role, covering HR, people and operations, as well as managing a team of 500-600
his advice for leaders at interview and why he believes weâre going to become a skills-based economy
âThe most important thing people need to do, whether it's my HR colleagues or people interviewing for roles, is to make sure you understand the relevant experiences and skill sets that are needed.
Roles and titles are going to become less important. Skills, capabilities and experience are going to be what rules the day.
We're going to become a skills-based economy, especially as things get to be more technology driven.â
Connect with Don Robertson on LinkedIn or find out more about Northwestern Mutual
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search.
We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.
Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights.
Copyright Insurance Search 2024 â All Rights Reserved.
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âGiven the potential of AI, we should all be focused on ensuring it's part of our strategic roadmap. It is an excellent tool that is going to allow us to rethink, reimagine how we deliver products, services and experiences to our client baseâ, says Prashant.
âIs it machine learning? Is it deep learning? Is it unstructured data? Is it predictive models? What is it that you really want to achieve?
While it's powerful, it requires other catalysts to function. You can't start building a roof and then look at the foundation.
Building the right data foundation, having a robust change management plan and then ensuring there are business use cases that are aligned with the outcome.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Prashant discusses:
starting his career for a business outsourcing processing company over 20 years ago in India transitioning in to managing processes and people mostly in P&C specialty lines and understanding the insurance lifecycle, from acquisition to claims being part of the mission to make MSIG USA a data-driven insurerchange management and its impact on people, infrastructure and day-to-day operationsAI requiring other catalysts to function properlyadding skills and embracing the AI implementation journey what he looks for in an insurance executive search partnerbeing entrepreneurial and keeping a smile on your faceand the one lesson his job has taught him, he wants everyone to learnâChange is hard. We use different terminologies in an organization to express our goals, objectives and why we are doing it. But it all boils down to one thing and that is change.
Think about what you're doing as change and keep that in mind, because if you lead with that, it helps you understand how to increase adoption and how to make change stick.â
Connect with Prashant Hinge on LinkedIn or find out more about MSIG USA
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search.
We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.
Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights.
Copyright Insurance Search 2024 â All Rights Reserved.
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âFlexibility has been key. We've worked really hard to figure out, how do we meet the commitments to our customers, but also empower our employees to have the work experiences that they're looking for and that are a good fit for their familiesâ, says Angie, as she discusses how Safety National are breaking down the barriers to inclusivity.
âWe offer four weeks of paid caregiver leave to our employees. Weâve also enhanced our benefit offerings for adoption and now have some financial reimbursement that apply to the costs associated with adoption and we also added financial benefits for fertility.
However employees might be trying to start their families, our goal is to help support them on that journey.â
On the podcast this week, Angie shares her career journey from law into insurance.
Her role overseeing all HR operations and leading a team of 26 HR professionals at Safety National.
Founded in 1942, Safety National has 700+ employees in 27 States and is part of the Tokio Marine family.
Angie discusses the impact of flexible working patterns on talent retention and reducing staff turnover.
She highlights how the business is supporting employees in the key life moments of adoption, fertility, menopause and care-giving.
Angie emphasizes the importance of being your authentic self when coming in for interview, her advice to her industry HR peers and why relationships matter.
When selecting an insurance executive search partner, Angie says:
âIt's understanding our business and our customers, what we're trying to accomplish and then also making sure that they are bringing diverse candidates to us. Diverse in all aspects, their experiences, background and education.â
Angie talks about the companyâs two-year strategic technology transformation to support recruitment and launching an intern program to attract early career insurance talent.
And concludes by sharing one lesson her career has taught her, she wants everyone to learn.
âEmpathy. We're all just human. Most of us have to work to support our families and there isn't anything that can't be figured out if we all treat each other with respect and professionalism.â
Connect with Angie Schaefer on LinkedIn or find out more about Safety National
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search.
We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.
Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights.
Copyright Insurance Search 2024 â All Rights Reserved.
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âThe blend between work and life is really blurred. It's important for employees to step back and have a good sense of purpose, belonging and balanceâ, says Jennifer.
âWe're sharing our expertise and our innovation. It's our employees who are doing that. No matter what position somebody is in, every day they're making something possible, whether itâs external or internal clients they're supporting.
Every single one of our employees has their own life. They're working hard and smart for Arch, but they have to find that balance.â
On the podcast this week, Arch Capital Groupâs Chief Human Resources Officer talks about:
joining Arch 5 years ago, following leadership roles Accenture, The Hartford and Voya Financial leading Archâs Global HR function with 6,500 employees, spread across Bermuda, US, UK, Europe, Australia and the Philippines enabling possibility and managing the blend of work and personalpost-pandemic wellness, managing stress and burnoutchanging priorities in the career lifecycle her advice for leaders coming to interview what she looks for in an insurance executive search partnerthe tech and talent attraction tools Arch uses to create a talent communityhelping people adapt to change and succeedand one lesson her career has taught her, she wants everyone to knowâYou cannot make everyone happy. Youâre often not going to be the most popular person in the room if youâre driving change.
But if you lead with your own leadership values and the companyâs values, youâre going to be fine.â
Connect with Jennifer Centrone on LinkedIn or find out more about Arch Capital Group
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search.
We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.
Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights.
Copyright Insurance Search 2024 â All Rights Reserved.
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âThere is this misconception that the only way to grow or advance is to move into leadership. Some people just don't want that or arenât sureâ, says Andrea.
âWe want to give people an experience who aren't sure if they want to. We'll find opportunities to allow them to try their hand in things like the mentorship program, where they have an unofficial way of helping to grow talent.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Andrea shares her career journey in HR.
âIt all started with a knack for numbers and data. I was drawn into the world of compensation because it beautifully combined my analytical side with that human aspect.
In compensation, you have to know the business inside and out, you have to know how your sales people are motivated, how the company earns money.
I always found myself really closely connected to our leaders in the business and working on programs to incentivize and drive performance in the organization.â
Andrea discusses what she learned from being part of staffing business, TrueBlue, where she rose from Director of Compensation & Benefits to Chief People Officer over 12.5 years.
She joined AssuredPartners as Chief Human Resources Officer in June 2023 and highlights the transition from staffing to insurance.
âOne of the things that I was drawn to at AssuredPartners was their unwavering dedication to people.
There's such a strong connection to fostering a culture of learning and development and that's something that really resonated with me.
Believe it or not, thereâs a lot of similarities. Whether it's on the staffing side or on the insurance side, you really need to know your customer, what impacts them.
In insurance, the thing that is really compelling is there's such an incredible tie to protecting people's livelihoods. Whether it's their business, their health, their employees.
There's something really heartwarming about helping people protect the things that are most important to them.â
Based in the US, UK and Ireland, with just over 10,000 employees, Andrea shares her passion for nurturing and advancing talent at AssuredPartners.
âI am incredibly passionate about ensuring there's a clear path and trajectory for their growth and the importance of our employees feeling valued, recognized and knowing their company envisions a future alongside them.
Discussing the initiatives to foster growth and development, Andrea says,
âOur mentorship programs are game changers. There's something truly magical about pairing up employees with seasoned pros.
And we're cooking up something extra special this year, which like a Master's degree in AssuredPartners leadership. It's almost like a VIP experience, tailored just for them and their success.
We also recognize there's another piece of the puzzle, which is heavily focused on building content and experiences for our individual contributors. It makes our employees fiercely loyal.â
Andrea highlights that developing in your career doesnât always equate to going in to a leadership role.
âWhen it comes to fostering growth and development, there's more to it than just your typical learning programs. First off, there's the structural piece around job or role architecture.
These give employees that framework for career paths and for development. A road map that helps show them exactly what they need to do to move up that ladder.
For those who really do want to help us grow to the next level, itâs really helping them to learn how to be a leader.â
Andrea showcases the outcomes the business has seen as a result of learning and development initiatives.
âIn 2023 we promoted over 550 people in our organization with 77% of those being women.
Our employees are highly engaged and we have very low voluntary turnover...
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âA lot of businesses talk about it, but do they really analyse what they need to do to build it? We've spent a lot of time thinking about what high performance looks and feels like within the context of a turnaroundâ, says Karen.
âWhen I joined the business, I prioritized improving the culture, establishing values that really mean something, as well as working with Scott Egan (CEO) to ensure we've got the right leaders at every level that exude those values.
We've created a really strong accountability culture. I think the key to making sure culture change sticks is integrity."
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Karen shares her 30-year HR career journey.
Starting in insurance, she has moved through some of the most recognizable brands in insurance, financial services, hospitality and media, before returning to insurance with roles at Saga Plc and RSA. She joined SiriusPoint in November 2022.
Karen discusses working across a wide variety of sectors, and how she has found transitioning back in to insurance.
âWhen I started my career, for many insurers, there wasn't a big focus on culture and values. People talked about it, but I don't think they did it as well as we did it in hospitality and retail.
I think in the past, in in financial services, technical skills have tended to be rewarded with bigger and bigger roles, and I felt that the leadership aspects were secondary.
What I found in retail, hospitality and also media, is because the customer is just so central and critical, there's just much more focus on leadership of the people, the values and the culture within the business.
It's just such a heartbeat of the business at every level in those industries. I'm a massive believer in values and culture, and I love being part of businesses where these are really central.
I think that's become true, probably now more so in the insurance industry than it was when I started. That's certainly true for SiriusPoint.â
Karen explains how some of her best experiences have come through the tough times and the importance of HRâs relationship with the CEO.
âThe relationship I have with Scott and other bosses I've worked really well with, are where you've got mutual respect but sometimes differences of opinion.
Thatâs where the real spark comes. Sometimes we come at things with different opinions and we'll explain them to each other.
But we'll end up in a different place, and it's a better place than either of us had thought of.
That ability to challenge with mutual respect and actually stand your ground is so important.â
Headquartered in Bermuda, with offices in New York, Liege, London, Stockholm and Zurich, Karen gives insight in to SiriusPoint and the ambition to be a best-in-class insurance business.
âWe're a global underwriter of insurance and reinsurance. With over $3billion capital, our business lines include accident and health, aviation, space, casualty, credit, energy, marine, property and life insurance.
Our global headcount is around 1000. In terms of growth, we really want to become a top performing reinsurance and insurance company in the coming years. Our aim is really to be among the names who consistently outperform the market year on year.â
Karen emphasizes how creating a high-performance culture is more than an HR task, as well as the role integrity plays.
âFrom day one, our CEO has made building a high-performance culture, one of our executive leader leadership teamâs top priorities.
We've created real integrity around what we say we're going to do and what we're actually doing. If there's any mismatch there, people see through the cracks and they just lose trust very, very quickly.
My strong belief is that culture can be built. But culture can also be damaged in a nanosecond. If you don't have integrity, you can just lose trust so...
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âWe learned a lot early on and we continue to learn as we scale the organization remotely. Some of the key things are over communicating. Sometimes you're having a few more meetings to feel that personal connectionâ, says Vikki.
âWe've set up mentor programs, our summit leadership where you're partnered with another leader in the organization.
If you're interested in growing your career, whether that's within your team or learning more about other teams, they have one-on-one mentoring sessions and group mentoring sessions.
We formed, ERG groups and really started making sure that we're celebrating the diversity of our employees. All of those things help people feel really connected.â
On the podcast this week, Vikki shares her 25-year HR career journey.
âI began in the recruiting space, before I expanded my responsibilities to include employee relations, compensation and benefits, succession planning and employee engagement. I eventually made the shift from the staffing industry into the start up space.
Someone recommended I connect with Kyle, our CEO. I did not think I was going to be jumping up and down about insurance. Shortly after I met him, I, I came home and I said, âWow, I'm actually really excited about insurance.ââ
Vikki joined Clearcover as VP of People in 2019. At that stage the business had 45 employees. She became Chief People Officer in 2022.
As an insurance company, Clearcover has scaled to over 500 and is using technology to transform customer experience.
âThe tech start-ups I've been part of, the technology was the actual product. Insurance, that is ultimately what our product is, but the technology behind it is really what's driving us to be different.â
Vikki explains whatâs enabled the business to scale so successfully.
âWe launched in California, then in Illinois. Once we got through those first two, we really started launching all over the US, trying to scale the organization as far as, âHow do we get into more states? How do we offer Clearcover to more customers in as many places as we can?â
In the beginning, we outsourced our claims and our customer service teams and since then, we've brought those in house, which has accounted for a lot of our growth.â
As for future plans, Vikki says,
âThe goal hasnât changed. Our mission is to be a generational insurance company, powered by leading technology and innovation, really leveraging AI to do that as well.
Offering an experience to the customer that is seamless and hopefully less stressful for them if they have a situation where they are in an accident.â
With Clearcoverâs headcount having grown tenfold, Vikki discusses building an HR function to handle the business scale.
Vikki highlights how Clearcover have embraced a remote-working model without compromising the cultural values.
She discusses how the remote model has impacted hiring and impacted diversity.
âTruly, it's really opened up a world of opportunity for us by being able to hire remotely. It's helped us diversify our workforce. We continue to strive to improve at all levels of the organization, but we've made tremendous strides because weâre able to recruit people from all over the United States. We arenât limited to a small talent pool in one geographical area.â
Discussing how team members are encouraged to switch off in a remote world where the boundaries between work and down time are sometimes blurred.
âWhen employees start, they get a stipend to set up their workspace, to make sure they're set up for success and they have a space available to them.
We understand that people have kids, dogs, spouses that are working in their home too. It's helping people find that right balance. Maybe having a headset is super important to them or being able to work from a coffee shop during a crazy period of the day. Those are things we can be...
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The opportunities are vast. Hundreds and hundreds of companies with a physical presence here and the jobs to go with it.
It's important that all Bermudians remember that we're not just competing within Bermuda and our small country, we're competing on a global scaleâ, says Kirsten.
âWe are an exceptionally well-educated island. It's critical there are opportunities for Bermudians.
And that Bermudians can see themselves in the industry and see the example of other Bermudians. This is global level competition.â
On the podcast this week, Kirsten tells how sheâs spent her entire 25-year career in Bermuda.
With experience in broking and underwriting, Kirsten shares details of her double-headed role for Willis Towers Watson in Bermuda.
âWe have three teams in Bermuda, a Broking team, our Actuarial Consulting team and our Captives team.
My geography leadership, I view it as accountability to them to make sure that we have the operations and the facilities, they need to run their businesses.
The other hat I have, is leadership of our broking unit, the nuts and bolts on the insurance side.â
Kirsten discusses the insurance ecosystem in Bermuda and states the only thing micro about the island is the geography.
âThere's a robust ecosystem that goes beyond just the underwriting roles or the broking roles. There are opportunities in actuarial captives, but there's also lawyers, accountants, marketing services that support this entire ecosystem and the Bermuda economy. Insurance and reinsurance and the supporting services are at the heart of it.â
Kirsten shares WTWâs future plans and working in the local Bermudian market, with its importance in the global marketplace.
âWe're in growth mode. We have new dynamic leadership in North America that's gotten us focused on growth and accountability. We're looking to reorganize ourselves along the industry focus that is core to how our clients manage and view their own risk. That really is at the core of our strategy.
I find myself often having to translate Big Willis to Bermuda and translate Willis Bermuda to Big Willis as I call it. Our employment law isn't the same as in the US or UK. Our regulatory structures might not be exactly mirrored so that translation work can be time consuming.
I really love that I've been given the platform to be able to do it. Having the seat at the table when youâre little old Bermuda is exceptionally important because we are pretty core to being able to deliver on our promise and commitment to our clients.â
Kirsten discusses her area of passion, something she battled with early on in her career.
âIt was hosting an underwriting meeting as a young underwriter. I was nervous. I had moments where I couldn't speak.
For a confident, outspoken person not be able to use my voice because of the nervousness of being the center of attention in a speaking setting was a shock.
âMe and a group of women got together. It started with a survey because, how many other women feel like this? And how do they grapple with it?
We put out a survey to the market. Roughly 80% of women are nervous speakers. 80% of them avoid speaking as a result. Think of all that subject matter expertise that is lost because of nerves.â
To combat this issue, Kirsten was involved in setting up âWe Speakâ to help women and teens in Bermuda to learn the value of public speaking and project their voices.
âWe are not insurance or reinsurance specific; we help develop their voice in whatever sphere is necessary for them. It could be giving a TED talk for one person, but for another, maybe someone more like me, it's just being able to host an underwriting meeting and ask your questions without going red in the face. Itâs meeting people where they are. We have a coaching approach, where we have one coach for every five women. It's an exceptionally
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âWeâve got to deliver financial results and profitability, but youâve got to be thinking about the way you can do that most efficiently tooâ, says Lisa, describing what a high performance culture means to her.
âHigh performance is people being clear on what's expected of them, delivering that and then some, because they want to. Itâs constantly improving and trying to do better.
We make mistakes sometimes too and thatâs ok. Letâs learn from it. It's about a learning mindset.â
On the podcast this week, Lisa talks about transitioning from a 17-year career at Morgan Stanley to joining AXIS Capital 8 years ago as Head of Rewards.
Now Chief People Officer, Lisa highlights the changes in the business over the past year.
âWe're excited about where AXIS is headed. We're certainly transforming as a company. We've got a new CEO in the past year. He's brought in some new leaders and we're really trying to refocus what HR is focused on to drive business results.â
Lisa discusses the type of talent AXIS is looking to attract.
âWe want to attract people that are excited to help shift the company's evolution. People who bring their expertise and skills, new insights and ways of working.
Our world is changing every minute. Things are evolving and changing. AI is on the horizon; digital focus is on the horizon.
We certainly still need specialty insurance expertise. That never really goes away. But how we work and the systems that we have access to, that's all shifting. You need people that can see a future vision.â
Lisa emphasizes some of the initiatives at AXIS to support the growth of high-performance culture.
âClarity around goals and what's expected. Our goal setting process for 2024, we spent a lot of time really reinforcing what âgoodâ looks like, the role managers play in setting clear goals with their employees so that we're all marching towards the same outcome.
And weâre going to do a body of work around culture and renovating our culture.
Weâve got new leaders around the table. Bringing that group together to redefine what AXIS wants to be known for. What are our values as we move forward? What do those leadership behaviors look like?
What do we want to reinforce within our organization, model for the rest of the organization and hold people accountable for.
Thereâs an energy around the organization, you can just feel it. People are excited about what we can deliver on.
We've got great talent here. It's unlocking the best in what people can do and bringing that to life.â
Lisa clarifies what she looks for in insurance leaders coming for interview at AXIS.
âBe your authentic self. Ask a lot of questions. Be curious, be open minded. Don't make assumptions. Understand the organization and what got us to where we are.â
Looking to her insurance industry peers, Lisa believes the best way to hire top insurance talent is to look at skills sets and experiences, mindset and the ability to learn.
âThings are always changing. If you're too fixed on what's gotten you to be successful, it may prevent you from thinking about what it looks like as you move forward.
Skills are really critical. When you are looking for skills, you do tap into broader talent markets.
When working with an external insurance executive search partner, Lisa highlights the importance of how they represent AXIS and the level of diversity in their candidate slates.
âI also want to look at the percentage of searches theyâve filled for areas of where we're trying to build expertise. What's their experience like in those areas?â
Lisa discusses some of the tech tools AXIS are using to support insurance talent attraction.
Revealing the one lesson her career has taught her she wants everyone to know, Lisa encourages us to listen more and talk less.
She concludes by encouraging us to...
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âThroughput is really exciting when you connect those three areas, so what does that ecosystem look like?
We make sure we are branching out and seeking underrepresented talent and also talent who have amazing experience. We do that in our acquisition processâ, says Christina Parr as she discusses her role of combining talent acquisition, learning & development and organizational development.
âAs folks flow into the organization, we're developing them to grow within the organization regardless of where they happen to come in at from a skill perspective.
And then as we look at the organization and how it's developing, we have a lot of touch points, that we ask employees from a pulse perspective.â
On the podcast this week, Argo Groupâs Head of Global Talent Acquisition, L&D and OD talks about her career journey from high-tech and oil & gas in to insurance.
âWith quite a bit of reluctance I came to insurance. And until I really understood what was happening in the future of insurance, Insurtech, fintech, wasn't all that excited. I love it, itâs addictive.â
Christina talks about the balance between attracting under-represented talent and through referrals.
âI understand now why we tend to talk to a lot of folks who have vast experience in the market. But we also have to keep ourselves in check with that bias because if we get too heavy on referrals, we don't dig deep for underrepresented talent. It's easy to fall into just kind of staying with the folks that you've known for so long.â
She shares how Argo Group are breaking down inter-departmental siloes, traditions and using data to transform employee engagement.
âWe want to try things in different ways. By doing that, I think it makes us far more effective. We partner with a third party who brings us about 10 million data points from around the globe. And we use those benchmarks to compare our employee engagement results.
For the last five surveys, weâve been going up and up and up, which is quite remarkable as weâve been going through strategic alternatives.â
Christina highlights the impact of the Brookfield Asset Management acquisition.
âMost people in the organization were eagerly anticipating this transformation.
Once the buy was completed, our executive team not only presented the direction, but more importantly, listened to people.
âWhat's going well, what's not going well, what do we need to change?â
I very much appreciated that perspective. Values are being revisited to make sure everyone understands that integrity is first.
We are transitioning the business to three towers. Casualty, Financial Lines and Surety, and Specialty Lines. They are in many different business areas and we get to be the arm of Specialty that they otherwise did not have.â
In terms of the impact on the day-to-day, Christina says:
âWe have a focus on the right people in the right spots with the right skills. Youâve got to get the big people on the bus before you start going anywhere.
We've had some shifts in how our is talent positioned. One out of 10 are getting a promotion in some way, shape or form.
We've also been working with our socio-economic employee resource group to make sure that we give plenty of people, a chance to succeed who may not be traditional in their background.
How we then train them, give them the right skills and then we promote them, thereby making the organizational more healthy and sustainable.â
Christina emphasizes how the 8 employee resource groups are working to reduce barriers to entry and expand the prospective talent pool.
âAbout a third of our roles do not require a degree now. That's a big change.
In most companies, you've got the requirement for a degree, specialty certifications, Master's degrees. You can see why unfortunately, we're not getting underrepresented talent. We've worked very...
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âWe look at our people as our number one asset, they are really providing our product. You need the people in order to bring that (insurance) promise to life. When we bring in an entry level person, weâre looking at their development path. We want to know, âwhat do you want to do?â, says Roxanne Nelson as she explains how Falvey create a clear career path for those entering the insurance industry.
On the podcast this week, Falveyâs Chief People Officer shares her journey from underwriting to people operations.
SVP of Marketing, Megan Bell gives insight in to her marketing career in a start-up to natural foods, before joining the Falvey Insurance team in 2017.
âI was one of the first hires into the marketing team. I've worked really closely with Roxanne on the employer branding side. What it's like to work here and why people should work here is a big part of what I do.â
Megan describes what itâs like to work in insurance as a marketeer.
âI feel like it takes too long for someone to realize that this is such an amazing place to be. You don't know until you're in it and you don't know before because no one ever tells you go and work in insurance.
It's so full of passion. Everyone I meet, whether youâre an underwriter or you're in claims, just really cares about what they do. They really care about providing good service and coming up with new innovation. It's just a super inspiring place to be. I feel like there's also no end to insurance.â
Megan explains how the business has transformed from Falvey Cargo Underwriting to Falvey Insurance Group, offering a suite of MGA programs which includes marine cargo, all risk shippers, interest insurance, inland marine vessel pollution, as well as transportation and logistics. The business has also recently launched a wholesale brokerage division.
Roxanne highlights the growth in headcount over the past few years and the role collaboration and support staff have played in delivering first-rate customer service.
âAs we've built out our underwriting units, we've also built out our support staff. We are a very technology focused company. That is a big different differentiator to us besides our people.
Along with growing our MGAs, we've had to grow our support staff. We have a fully operational IT department, building our systems in house. We have a business intelligence and innovation department that is really focused on working with our internal departments to find out what they need to be more efficient. Thereâs lot of collaboration.â
Roxanne discusses how Falvey are moving from more rigid people committees to launching fluid, less formal employee resource groups.
âThese groups are set up to give our employees a chance to get together and have discussions about what's going on in their careers, what are the opportunities, what can we do to recruit more people?
They are ultimately helping us drive the business forward and be more ingrained with our employees.â
Megan emphasizes the value of close collaboration between marketing and people operations, when it comes to employer branding.
âEvery year we send an underwriter to the Lloyd's Academy in London. That's like gold. It's not promotional content, it's something people want to read. It's great to tell people that this is something we're investing in.
When we redid our website there was a big focus for me on our careers page specifically. There isn't a stock photo there. It's all of our employees.â
Roxanne advises people coming to interview at Falvey to embrace the culture.
âIt is so important to us and the employees. It's not just about the number of accounts you're writing or the production level you have, it's about being part of our team and our culture.
If you're an executive and you've been in a very strict corporate type of structure, you're not necessarily going to find that here. We're more...
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âWe always have a common goal every year for the entire organization. Itâs in every single employeeâs goal plan, from CEO all the way to somebody in an administrative position. The same goal we're all working towardsâ, says Aimee.
âYou can't expect people to rally around a goal unless you help them understand what that goal is. You have to help connect every person's role or every team's role back to that goal.â
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Aimee talks through her insurance career journey.
âMy entire career in insurance has been spent in the banking space. Coming out of college, I went to a bankâs management training program.
Through all the different rotations and nothing was really resonating. That bank had actually purchased an insurance agency and were still very early on in their journey of that agency into the fold. The manager of the program said, âwhy don't you go over there for a couple months and do a special project?â I went and never left that space.â
She shares how being inquisitive and working for a CEO who encouraged her to take risks and fail has been key to her insurance career development.
âIâd ask a ton of questions. He would share things with me that I probably had no business asking. He was very transparent with me and helped me really to understand the business of insurance.
I spent a lot of time focusing on early career programs, bringing talent to the industry. And then he gave me a couple of departments to run and gave me a lot of freedom to do that.â
Aimee shares the road to becoming COO at Cadence Insurance, whoâs inspired her along the way and how insurance has helped her find her true passions. She highlights how the business has recently transferred in to the ownership of Gallagher.
âThe organization I sit in today goes all the way back to the late 1880s. The next journey in our evolution was us joining the Gallagher organization. We have come out of that bank ownership structure and now joined one of the largest brokers in the world. Itâs being positioned for growth and what our organization needed to move forward.â
Aimee emphasizes the impact on the team and clients as well as Cadenceâs aspirations under its new ownership.
âWhen the announcement came out, the bank had been our home for 24 years. There were very strong professional and personal relationships developed there.
But the time was right for both them and us. This really was the thing that we needed for our future. Being owned by an insurance broker and having a parent company that speaks our language and lives and breathes insurance every day has been a lot of fun.
Short-term, it's about helping to connect our teams to the Gallagher teams. Helping to connect both our clients to the huge suite of resources that we now have access to and our teammates in terms of their career development, opportunities, that weren't in our legacy world. Then, it's going to be about how we best harness and leverage the power of Gallagher that we have behind us.â
Being a key player in the merger, Aimee gives insight in to her role as COO and managing the transition.
âEven the most positive change can still come with a feeling apprehension, anxiety. For us it's helping our teams understand the changes. Helping them understand âthe whyâ behind it. Itâs also helping them to see the other side. Sometimes you have to go through a little bit of a pain period to get to the better part.
We try to do our very best to be very clear about what's coming, what to expect and what we're going to gain on the other side. Itâs been very much a collaborative conversation with our teammates, with the Gallagher teams that we're working with.â
Aimee describes how transparent leadership is key to managing a culture of change.
âYou have to be intentional around your communication strategy. We are a very...
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âI changed the department from HR to People and culture. The term HR is a construct of an economist in the 1800s, talking about people as commodities, just like paper and pens. That's not what this is about anymoreâ, says Denise.
âThe world has changed. In order to unlock true potential of a company and its performance, you have to focus on the people, unlocking their true potential as whole individuals.â
On the podcast this week, Denise shares her journey from investment banking through Silicon Valley in to insurance.
âThe consistent theme across my career journey is I'm a risk taker, which is interesting, given I'm in the risk business now. I always looked for additional challenge, something different, something that I could fix, launch or do differently.
I left investment banking in the dotcom era and moved to Silicon Valley area and worked for 2 different start-ups. I had the experience of taking them up, expanding and then dismantling.
Then through my network, I got a call from Marsh Mclennan and I took the leap. I was sucked into the insurance world. Once you're in, you're really never going to get out.â
Following a Head of HR role with Voya and launching her own executive coaching business, Denise was approached by an executive search firm to meet with Fortitude Re. The business operates in the Life and Annuity and Property & Casualty business in the US, Bermuda and in Japan. She joined the team in 2022.
Denise gives insight in to her role as Chief People Officer as well as overseeing marketing, communications, branding and CSR.
She emphasizes the desire to create a human-centric culture and the benefits of being a smaller reinsurance company.
âHuman-centricity and putting people as our priority and at the center of what we do, really helps us make decisions as a business in a way that enables our people to not only bring their whole selves to work.
But to focus on developing themselves across the spectrum of things that make them people. That unlocks such tremendous potential and their ability to perform at a level that you couldn't really expect otherwise.
Human-centric leadership is not something that comes naturally to people who have grown up professionally over the last 20 years.
But if you think about authenticity and communications and transparency, you think about empathy and understanding where people are, being adaptive and being able to flex things, it starts to make sense in terms of why that works.
Because weâre a smaller company, we get to focus more on development. We get to experiment.â
Denise highlights the importance of finding opportunities for the team to unplug from the complexities of large reinsurance deals.
âIf you think about investment banking as an industry, itâs very much a burn and churn type of reality. That's not a sustainable model.
Weâre really focused on trying to create balance for our people. The work is hard but we make sure we find opportunities for people to unplug from work.â
Denise talks about closing the whole business for a week in August and Fortitude Reâs Ignite annual learning allowance program.
âThey can use it to develop themselves in any way, personally or professionally. We have people using it to go skydiving, learn a language or to get certifications that will help them professionally. Itâs about developing the whole person.â
Highlighting the advice, sheâd give to insurance leaders coming for interview, Denise says,
âBe confident yet be humble. Our CEO calls it a sneaker culture. We run really fast, we're super aggressive but we like to be normal people. Being very confident in your capabilities and being able to convey your subject matter but being a humble human who can work in that flat hierarchical structure is important.â
As advice to her fellow insurance industry people leaders, Denise says the âhowâ is more...
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âFlexibility has become increasingly important. Not just working from home, but being able to work remotely and work the hours that suit youâ, says Jason.
âNo one's expected to work late into the night or weekends unless they want to. Unless that's a rhythm that suits them.â
On the podcast this week, Jason discusses his background in tech and digital recruitment, before moving to an in-house talent acquisition role.
He gives insight in to the fast-paced growth of Italian auto insurtech, Prima, as well as the impact of Goldman Sachs and Blackstone investment in 2018.
âWe offer primarily digital motor insurance products. In Italy, we now have home and family insurance products as well, diversifying that product range.
In Italy, we now have over 2.5 million customers. The plan is to consolidate that market leadership whilst also establishing ourselves as a brand in the UK and Spanish markets.â
As part of driving its presence in the UK and Spain, Jason outlines the business objectives, distribution models and future plans.
âWe're going to first and foremost continue to establish our brand here, but in a very sustainable and controlled way. Especially with recent economic conditions, making UK and Spain profitable businesses in their own right is the most important thing. We'll also be looking to perhaps diversify the product range over the next 3-4 years.
Jason highlights the importance of Primaâs global EVP and being culturally sensitive to wide range of nationalities in the business.
âTo add consistency to all of our employees in multiple countries, it's a hybrid / remote working environment here. We wanted to define that in detail and make sure people were aware of the flexibility. We have a working from abroad policy. 30 days per year in which you can work from other countries. With 33 nationalities at Prima, that's quite a popular policy.
We want to make sure that people are aware they can travel too. Whether it's to Milan our headquarters or London or Madrid. Making sure they get that face time with their colleagues.â
Jason discusses the outcomes of the EVP on attracting the best insurance talent.
âObviously, weâve got to get the salary right but Prima has a real focus on work life balance, a respectful culture. But that's been a positive conversation to have with candidates in how much flexibility there is here.
You're in the driving seat over your own career progression and the direction you want to take. You have the support of the company and managers.â
Jason shares his interview advice for high-performing insurance talent coming for interview.
âBeing tech driven and data driven in your mindset is key. Our leaders here really voice the importance of using data to make key decisions. Interviewing for senior level roles means that you're going to be asked about decisions you've made based on data. How you made those decisions. The technologies you've used and the engineering or technical teams that you've worked closely with.â
As well as sharing some of the tech tools, Prima use to support hiring, Jason encourages his fellow insurance talent acquisition leaders to have a competency and values-based interview process.
âItâs allowed us to take a lot of the ambiguity out of interviewing, to make sure we get the right fit of candidates and they align with the values of Prima.
Trying to take the biases out, making sure that interview panels know the content they're covering at each stage and what they should be interviewing about, that's really helped us identify and hire really top talent across a multitude of domains.â
Connect with Jason Marsh on LinkedIn or find out more about Prima...
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