Best Insurance Employer: HSB

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Matthew Johnson, head of HR at HSB UK & Ireland, explains how everyone at the insurer is proud to talk about their role and positive contribution to the organisation.

Why do you think your employees recommend working for your company?

We regularly canvas our employees’ opinions and act on employee feedback. In our most recent employee survey, we achieved a 94% engagement score, which we are very proud of.

The key areas of positive feedback focused on having a flexible and collaborative atmosphere, where employees feel empowered, having a sense of belonging, and believing the leadership team genuinely cares for the welfare of its people within the organisation.

As one employee commented: “I enjoy my job, and I am bought into the vision for HSB. We have a fantastic senior leadership team, who are approachable and always visible to the teams.”

In addition, the clear vision, strategy and drive for success is a consistent theme that our employees feel gives them purpose. This is coupled with a strong sense of feeling valued, recognised and respected.

As one employee summarised: “Good people, good collaboration, sense of belonging, good benefits [and] flexibility.”

How do you ensure that staff feel valued?

It is very important to us that our employees feel valued, as it is our people that make our business, which is why benefits, rewards and recognition are essential.

We operate a recognition scheme that provides various ways for employees to be appreciated for their contributions. This is from simple thank you e-cards, small rewards (such as flowers), time off in lieu to organised team events and our spot financial bonus scheme.

We also operate the HSB Brand Heroes initiative, which is a way for employees to regularly nominate, acknowledge and celebrate their colleagues who have made a positive contribution to one or more of our six brand values.

How does employee feedback affect environmental, social and governance decision-making at your company?

We canvas regular feedback from employees, especially around social impacts such as wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, as well as charity and community projects, to influence and support initiatives in these areas.

What impact is your diversity and inclusion work having on the make up and culture of the company?

Along with other Munich Re businesses in the UK and Ireland, we launched our diversity, equity and inclusion strategy in January 2023, which incorporates feedback from hundreds of employees, internal and external data insights, and market comparisons.

Our 2023 to 2025 mission is to start embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion principles in the HSB UK & Ireland employee experience, and set DEI as a personal priority for all people leaders.

Data, active employee engagement, multi-dimensionality and intersectionality, and consistent communications all underpin our strategy to enable successful DEI outcomes.

A key initiative we will shortly be launching is to ask employees to self-identify on eight diversity dimensions on our HR system.

This workforce demographic data will be anonymised and used to monitor and track progress of our DEI strategy.

Taking a data-driven approach enables us to confirm that we are focusing our efforts in the right areas and making impact that creates sustainable progress.

What are your company values?

HSB’s brand values are: forward-thinking, inventive, agile, analytical, technology driven and customer-centric.

How would you describe working at the company to a friend or family?

HSB has a unique working environment with a friendly, collaborative and transparent culture, which has the feel of a family supported by the benefits of a larger group.

Access to people at all levels is extremely important and everyone within the team is approachable. To bring this to life, all offices are open-plan, our CEO regularly catches up with employees across the company, and our customer-centric ethos means we encourage employees to support one another.

What really resonated most with me when I first joined HSB was everyone’s pride for – and belief in – the company. It didn’t matter who I spoke to; everyone was proud to tell me about their role and their positive contribution to the organisation.

I was overwhelmed by the positivity of employees and this open and inclusive mindset encapsulates HSB. Positivity, pride, focus, approachability, collaboration and respect for everyone – that’s the HSB way.

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