By Insurance Search
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The podcast currently has 201 episodes available.
“Many people you'll work with and meet in business will be happy to accept information and explanations in the way it's being presented to them.
Some people you work with will have a real appetite to go one level deeper because they'll want to know the drivers of the things they are seeing.
They'll want to have a proper understanding about how that part of the business or that part of the market or that customer behaviour really works”, says Steve.
“My push would be to go one level deeper than that. When you work with people that want to understand not just the drivers but the drivers of the drivers or the footnotes of the footnotes, often that is where you find the opportunities that others have missed.
One thing I am really passionate about is some of the best opportunities exist there. It's really worth going one level deeper to not just really understand your market, but to discover things that other people haven't and in a really competitive business, those are the things that can separate you.”
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Steve talks about how his early career working as an analyst on the equities trading floor in a Dutch investment bank, taught him about the importance of discipline and attention to detail.
“But when businesses came to see us to talk about how their business was performing, I had a real feeling of envy. I really wanted to be on the other side of the table. I wanted to be in businesses and solving the kind of problems they were solving.”
A move in to start-ups followed, providing the opportunity to work in high-performance, fast-moving environments.
“Anyone who's had a career in the early-stage part of a business, will know that you get some real successes and you get some failures along the way as well. We had both.
But I learned a huge amount, worked with some fantastic entrepreneurs and learned about thinking big.
The other thing I got to see firsthand, that value can be created out of thin air. Working in a successful start-up or scale up will really teach you to see that with your own eyes and to know it can be done is quite a powerful thing to experience. It gives you a lot of confidence for the future.”
Moving in to product leadership and general management roles at bigger, more mature businesses took Steve on a journey to joining insurance price comparison business Confused.com as COO in 2019, before becoming CEO in 2023.
Steve reflects on his leadership journey, saying:
“I used to look at my career path almost like a game of Trivial Pursuit, where you were trying to collect all the skills that you needed to be the ‘rounded leader’.
You’d go around the board, collect those wedges and when you had them all, you could move to the centre, and that's the game complete.
But unlike trivial pursuit, when you move to the middle, you don't win the game, you just discover there's a whole new game below, and you start again.
I realised that it’s going to be an infinite journey. Instead of just accepting it, it’s really learning to love the experience of learning new things.”
In this podcast episode, Steve talks to host Nick Hoadley about:
“Whatever your career goals are, be open to the fact that the moment you hit them, there'll be a whole new mountain to climb. Learn to love that. Get yourself into the frame of mind of enjoying the journey.”
Connect with Steve Dukes on LinkedIn or find out more about careers at Confused.com
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by 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.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, London and Bermuda.
Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
“DE&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 priorities”, 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 we’re 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.”
On the podcast this week, Nick shares his journey from corporate law to insurance broker to founding global insurance executive search consultancy, Insurance Search.
“I 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.”
Nick highlights the challenges to launching an executive search consultancy and how he’s coped with adversity along the away.
“We'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.
We’d 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 weren’t enjoying as much.
And so, we pivoted and really focused at the senior end of things.”
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.
“Our 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.”
With Insurance Search seeking to make executive search more accessible, Nick highlights the types of roles the team works on.
“As well as C-level positions, we also work on business-critical roles. They might be middle management or upper middle management positions which larger search firms may overlook. They’re roles that are critical to those businesses and they're often some of the hardest positions to fill.
We feel that our methodology and the way we work, is a real benefit to those insurance companies.”
Nick emphasizes why he’s driven not only to help insurance businesses succeed, but also the individuals within those businesses.
“We always say we have two clients. We've got the company itself. But number secondly, is very much around the people we're working with. The Chief HR Officer, the COO or the CEO, they want to be successful in their particular roles.
We align ourselves with them and really figure out what's the biggest problem they're facing and how can we provide a solution.”
Nick shares how the Insurance Search team are supporting candidates to develop in their insurance careers, by opening up introductions through to the firm’s insurance network and Leadership Advisory Service.
He emphasizes the values that underpin Insurance Search’s core offer – honesty, integrity, excellence and transparency – and why he’s looking for high-performing insurance leaders to join the team.
“We look to hire in people to our organisation, who are insurance industry experts. People who are actually working in the industry as an executive or a leader. Whether they're from underwriting or broking, we feel they can add a lot of value.
We've got a team of highly experienced executive search consultants in the UK and then we have our managing partners who are based in different parts of the world, in the US primarily and in Bermuda. People who are very credible, who've got great relationships and are culturally aligned with us as well.
It’s a real opportunity for them to leverage their network.”
As advice for insurance leaders seeking a new opportunity or when preparing for an interview, Nick says, “Be hungry and know the value you can bring.”
And as for people leaders and insurance talent acquisition professionals, Nick emphasizes that it’s all about the process.
“Make sure that your hiring process is inclusive and attracts the greatest number of candidates.
You're under pressure when you've only got one or two candidates in the mix to choose from. Open up that pool. Try to take anything out of the job specification that doesn't need to be there to encourage more diverse candidates to apply.”
Find out more about Insurance Search or connect with Nick Hoadley on LinkedIn or email [email protected]
The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by 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.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, UK and Bermuda.
Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
“The strength of our culture was something we used in the presentations to analysts and investors”, says Daniel.
“We did some work around our employee value proposition and we asked our colleagues, ‘Why do you work at Hamilton?’
The common theme was collaboration and that's how we came up with the phrase ‘In good company’.
As part of the IPO, we used it as our overall company tagline to say, ‘You're in good company with Hamilton, whether you're a client, broker, stakeholder or investor.’”
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.
“Joining 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.”
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.
“We 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.”
Daniel explains how Hamilton’s values of ‘Be smart, Be sensible, Be open, Be more’ 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 ‘Hamilton on a page’ 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 they’re unsure of a candidate, but to move with haste if they are.
Daniel explains Hamilton’s DEI statement, ‘Open minds open doors’ and how welcoming and respecting differences, helps attract and retain the best talent.
“We embrace all forms of diversity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, but gender has been something we’re 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.”
Daniel stresses the key leadership roles and influence of Pina Albo, Anita Kuchma, Megan Thomas and Gemma Carreiro at executive level.
“Pina 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.”
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.
“There 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 component.
The second aspect is the people. It all comes down to having a good culture and good people around you, with the right attitude and the right approach. We spend a lot of time at work, we want to work in good company.”
Connect with Daniel Fisher on LinkedIn or find out more about Hamilton Insurance 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 – All Rights Reserved.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, UK and Bermuda.
“In our experience, a reinsurance deal was being profiled in a physical binder full of paper. I thought, ‘How good would it be if we could take risk or bundles of risk and make a profile for it’", 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.”
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, two of Supercede’s 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.
“We 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.”
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 they’re good at.
“People want technology. It’s 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 instead”, says Ben
Attracting the right talent is critical for business growth and Jerad explains what they look for when hiring.
“Testing 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 can’t. 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.”
Highlighting which other insurtech businesses inspire them, Jerad cites hyperexponential as a prime example.
“I 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, ‘If you build it, they will come’. A lot of software companies can get overly focused on building something that's cool rather than something that's impactful”
One lesson Jerad’s career has taught him is that people often overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in five.
“When you start a business, you're obviously incredibly ambitious, and you're going to accomplish every goal you could ever conceive of in the first six months.
You have to take a longer term, patient approach, knowing you're on the right path, so when you get to the four or five year time horizon, you're actually really impressed by how far you've come.”
As for the future of Supercede, Ben says,
“We've got a really healthy number of large customers, depending on us. We want to do a brilliant job for them.
But of course, we'd like to expand to more customers in the process as well. Every new customer we bring on brings new ideas for the product, helps us improve it for everybody.
We're at a stage where we can double down on what we've got and make it truly the best offering for reinsurance people from a technology standpoint.”
Connect with Ben Rose and Jerad Leigh on LinkedIn or find out more about Supercede
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 – All Rights Reserved.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in UK, USA and Bermuda.
“When you hire for specific experience, then you're always going to have to hire for somebody within the industry”, says Nicola.
“When 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.”
On this episode of the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Nicola talks about her not planning her career journey and saying ‘yes’ 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.
“We'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.”
Nicola describes the company’s 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.
“Ensuring 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.”
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 she’s 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 Hiscox’s processes and tooling, Nicola says, “We 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.”
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.
“Start 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.”
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.
“You cannot think your way in to new behaviours. You have to take action. There's a book called ‘Act fast and fix it’, but that is such great advice. I would take progress over perfection every day.”
Connect with Nicola Grant on LinkedIn or find out more about Hiscox
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 – All Rights Reserved.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in UK, USA and Bermuda.
“We 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 building”, says Charlotte.
“They understand it and can take a lot of pride. It’s 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.”
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.
“Howden 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.”
Charlotte highlights Howden Re’s 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 they’re good at.
She shares how having start-up energy, yet being a global, established business is helping attract and retain the best insurance talent.
“Our 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.”
Charlotte gives her advice to insurance executives coming to interview, encouraging them to talk about what they want to do, not dwelling on what they’ve done in the past.
She encourages her insurance industry HR peers to, “Make it obvious you want people to join you and be available to them.”
Highlighting the importance of working with an insurance executive search partner who challenges the recruitment function in its thinking, not just when things don’t go to plan, Charlotte says, “I'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.”
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 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 – All Rights Reserved.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in UK, USA and Bermuda.
“It's a fantastic opportunity to build something for yourself but within an established business. It’s very much engaging with customers and driving dialogue around their search requirements”, says Martin
But it’s 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.”
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 people’s lives and enabling them to be successful is important to him.
The Managing Partner Program at Insurance Search – what it is and who it’s for.
“The program, it's really aimed at ambitious and high performing insurance executives or insurance recruitment consultants who are motivated to build their own business.
It’s for insurance executives who may want to use the contacts and experience they've built up across their career to build something for themselves.
We’ll enable them to launch, build and scale a business with ongoing support.”
Martin highlights the support on offer to those who might be looking for more autonomy in their careers.
“Sometimes when you're in a large corporate environment, you have to live with [other people’s] decisions. As a corporate citizen, you have to go with them. Here's your opportunity to do things differently.
It’s 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.”
Martin describes the key attributes he looks for in a first conversation with a prospective insurance executive or senior recruiter.
“Credibility 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.”
Emphasizing the strategic locations where Insurance Search is looking to attract, Martin says:
“We'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 we’re open to talking to people who are very active in the London market. All the key insurance hubs.”
In conclusion, Martin shares a key lesson his career has taught him.
“When I’ve found myself professionally in a situation where there's some level of adversity - delivering some bad news or a conversation I’d 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 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 – All Rights Reserved.
Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram
Insurance Executive Search Consultants in UK, USA and Bermuda.
“We 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.”
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 clients’ 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 we’re going to become a skills-based economy
“The 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.”
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 – All Rights Reserved.
“Given 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 base”, says Prashant.
“Is 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.”
On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Prashant discusses:
“Change 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.”
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 – All Rights Reserved.
“Flexibility 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 families”, says Angie, as she discusses how Safety National are breaking down the barriers to inclusivity.
“We offer four weeks of paid caregiver leave to our employees. We’ve 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.”
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:
“It'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.”
Angie talks about the company’s 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.
“Empathy. 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.”
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.
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The podcast currently has 201 episodes available.