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Ep.36 - Insurance claims, change and innovation, Helen Mann, Aviva
The Key Learning Points:
1. The support that some companies offer to women who are trying to balance work and motherhood
2. That stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing a career change should not always be frowned upon
3. The extent to which COVID-19 has changed the future of insurance and the types of claims people make
Today on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we’re joined by Helen Mann, innovation and change lead within the claims department at Aviva. Helen has spent an amazing 28 years at Aviva and is here today to tell us more about her impressive career in the general insurance claims space.
Helen left school at 16 years old and started exploring her career options. She explains that money talked at the time, and she was attracted to an insurance claims role which paid over £6,000 a year, which at the time was a “gamechanger salary”. 28 years later, and Helen is still at Aviva! She’s held a number of claims roles, working her way up through the ranks, and explains that most of her career has been spent as a people leader. “People leadership roles are incredibly rewarding but also challenging. You learn so much about yourself and others.” In more recent years Helen moved into planning and innovation type roles, motivated by a desire to affect change on a larger scale. She adds, “this is what gets me up in the morning!”
When asked about her transition away from technical claims positions into more generalist roles, Helen says: “At the time it did feel quite scary to move from an area that you have deep knowledge in, to move to something else where you have an understanding but you lack that depth of knowledge that you’ve really relied on in previous roles.” But explains that if there’s even some similarity between different roles it should be a relatively easy move and wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying something different. Helen’s career moves haven’t always been by design, some have been out of necessity. Helen explains that when she had her first son there was no such thing as flexible working. So, in order to balance her career with childcare, she had to apply for a new part-time job within Aviva, which moved her into a different area of the business. She adds that things are very different today: “We’re able to accommodate different working patterns to suit childcare. Things have changed so much for the better.”
We move on to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the insurance industry, in particular, general insurance claims. Helen adds that Aviva has seen an increase in fire claims as more people are enjoying better weather and BBQs. In addition, refuse collection sites have been closed, so people have been choosing to burn materials at home. “Fire claims aren’t common, but they can be quite catastrophic when they do happen.” Aviva has been working with the fire brigade to get messages out around this and helping people to reduce fire risk. “We’ve also seen a bit of a spike in the theft of bicycle claims.” Helen explains that demand for cycling has gone up, and it’s been harder to find a bike, so people are finding other ways of fulfilling that demand.
We also speak about how the pandemic will change, if at all, the way that people think about insurance. Helen’s view is that “where people can afford to pay for products that give them certainty, they will.” However, talk of mass redundancies and pay cuts mean that this is not going to be easy for many people. “The gap between the haves and the have nots is getting wider and there’s a responsibility on all of us to look out for that and make sure that we’re all doing our best to reduce that gap.”
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By Katie and RajThe Key Learning Points:
1. The support that some companies offer to women who are trying to balance work and motherhood
2. That stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing a career change should not always be frowned upon
3. The extent to which COVID-19 has changed the future of insurance and the types of claims people make
Today on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we’re joined by Helen Mann, innovation and change lead within the claims department at Aviva. Helen has spent an amazing 28 years at Aviva and is here today to tell us more about her impressive career in the general insurance claims space.
Helen left school at 16 years old and started exploring her career options. She explains that money talked at the time, and she was attracted to an insurance claims role which paid over £6,000 a year, which at the time was a “gamechanger salary”. 28 years later, and Helen is still at Aviva! She’s held a number of claims roles, working her way up through the ranks, and explains that most of her career has been spent as a people leader. “People leadership roles are incredibly rewarding but also challenging. You learn so much about yourself and others.” In more recent years Helen moved into planning and innovation type roles, motivated by a desire to affect change on a larger scale. She adds, “this is what gets me up in the morning!”
When asked about her transition away from technical claims positions into more generalist roles, Helen says: “At the time it did feel quite scary to move from an area that you have deep knowledge in, to move to something else where you have an understanding but you lack that depth of knowledge that you’ve really relied on in previous roles.” But explains that if there’s even some similarity between different roles it should be a relatively easy move and wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying something different. Helen’s career moves haven’t always been by design, some have been out of necessity. Helen explains that when she had her first son there was no such thing as flexible working. So, in order to balance her career with childcare, she had to apply for a new part-time job within Aviva, which moved her into a different area of the business. She adds that things are very different today: “We’re able to accommodate different working patterns to suit childcare. Things have changed so much for the better.”
We move on to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the insurance industry, in particular, general insurance claims. Helen adds that Aviva has seen an increase in fire claims as more people are enjoying better weather and BBQs. In addition, refuse collection sites have been closed, so people have been choosing to burn materials at home. “Fire claims aren’t common, but they can be quite catastrophic when they do happen.” Aviva has been working with the fire brigade to get messages out around this and helping people to reduce fire risk. “We’ve also seen a bit of a spike in the theft of bicycle claims.” Helen explains that demand for cycling has gone up, and it’s been harder to find a bike, so people are finding other ways of fulfilling that demand.
We also speak about how the pandemic will change, if at all, the way that people think about insurance. Helen’s view is that “where people can afford to pay for products that give them certainty, they will.” However, talk of mass redundancies and pay cuts mean that this is not going to be easy for many people. “The gap between the haves and the have nots is getting wider and there’s a responsibility on all of us to look out for that and make sure that we’re all doing our best to reduce that gap.”