Diary of an Insurer: Clear Group’s Neil Grimes

Monday

I hit the road early today and head to our Leicester office for a breakfast meeting with the claims manager of the Leicester team along with the technical claims manager for the group claims operation. 

Having multiple claims teams in the group, I feel it is important for me to be visible with all of them. 

I enjoy meeting and mixing with the teams, with everyone having a part to play looking after the clients. I am happy with the progress made today on improving the team morale and building a future structure. 

I continue working towards enhancing the visibility of the claims service on both our claim’s intranet and website, love a bit of technology and the benefits it provides. 

Having finished at Leicester, off to Leeds now for an overnight stay, taking the opportunity to see my other nephew ahead of meetings in Sheffield and Doncaster tomorrow. 

Tuesday

Starting with an early breakfast with my nephew, and now off to Sheffield to have my first face to face meeting with the claims team of a recent acquisition. 

I feel this is important to do and welcome them into the group. I listen to how they operate their claims team and shared with them what the existing operation can offer in terms of experience and support. 

Having a large team to be part of helps tremendously when we are hit with surge events. Meeting over and I am back in the car and off to Doncaster to meet with another acquisition who will be integrated soon into the group. They also have a very good claims team so plenty to finalise in advance of integration. 

Evening time and now off to Retford for an overnight with Allianz for the half yearly Claims Strategic Broker Forum. 

I enjoy being part of this, with plenty of discussions about our claims world, and it is lovely to catch up with colleagues in the industry and enjoy the night of dinner and socialising.

Wednesday

Post hotel breakfast, I am heading off to the Thatcham test track, which is based at Gamston Airfield, for a day of presentations from Allianz and the Thatcham’s research staff. 

I can now take what I have learnt on this back to the claims teams. It is now time to get out on the track to experience a demonstration of autonomous driving. I have to say that having been a passenger in three different vehicles, it was exhilarating and a bit scary at times not being in control of the car. 

I look forward to sharing all of this with my team and the wider group via our intranet and other media bits. I am now attending Clear’s all staff townhall event which we do each quarter. I am not nervous at all being one of the speakers and I am pleased that I got to share with everyone all the advances made for claims on the website, intranet and app which will enhance the claims service more for the clients and staff. 

All done and now I am heading to the train station to go to London for meetings all day tomorrow. 

Thursday

I managed to get into the London office nice and early to catch up with my team and host some internal meetings with departments that my team support followed by a meeting with an external supplier demonstrating subsidence tech. 

I am keen to explore what technology is out there that can assist our clients with an even more efficient claims service. I continue being a big advocate for our internal apprenticeship programme and like to help when I can. 

As part of this support, I arranged for them to join claims staff today as guests of the Insurance Fraud Bureau where we have all been exposed to how the IFB works. 

I found it an incredibly informative experience, adding even more extra knowledge to my team. The previous day another group from Clear claims had attended the IFB Milton Keynes office with Clear Group apprentices attending as well. 

I finish the day with some IT related meetings and a final integration meeting and then head back to the train to finally go home and look forward to a long weekend with a day off tomorrow. I know that I have had quite a busy, fun and varied week, which is why I love this job.