Inspirational Workplaces Help Hiscox Stand Out From The Crowd

Hiscox is a specialist insurer that puts a lot of emphasis on its reputation, as well as being a "human" company that treats its staff and customers well. On learning this, it is perhaps no surprise that the company has just been named #8 Best Place to Work in the UK for 2018. Indeed, Hiscox is one of only two insurers on the list and the highest rated finance company of any sort. We interviewed Vanessa Newbury, Head of Recruitment at Hiscox to find out how a cultured employer that has its own art collection in its offices keeps employees happy. Your employees love working here as we see the strong rating on Glassdoor - How do you make this a great place to work day in and day out? I remember when I first walked into Hiscox for an interview back in Spring 2016: I had all these ideas in my head of what an insurance company might be like. Not quite ‘men in bowler hats’, although not far off. But that first initial meeting sowed a seed in me that there was much more going on. And Hiscox has totally surprised me. I think what makes it a great place to work, and at the risk of sounding a bit cheesy, is the people and their attitude. Everyone genuinely cares about customers, the business and each other, does the right thing however hard it feels at the time and has the courage to challenge each other and the status quo. It’s a hard working culture and it’s quite lean, but that comes with great opportunities to take on projects and try different job roles. People can keep on learning. I think you can see clues as to what it’s like at Hiscox all over Glassdoor. Employees talk about “interesting and challenging work”, “autonomy and responsibility”, being “rewarded and listened to” and working with “friendly approachable people”. So that’s the people and the work. But we also try to make our working environment inspirational too. Our offices across the world host our contemporary art collection: these pieces aren’t your average ‘flowers in a vase’ oil paintings. It’s a really unusual collection and the works can often make you stop in your tracks and think for a moment.  Across the different offices there are also great cafés, gyms, therapies and social events – recent examples in London include a still life art class and wine tasting. What is the best part about working for Hiscox? The people; and being trusted to get on with your job. You are empowered to run with ideas, spot opportunities and speak up when things aren’t working. There’s always a better way of doing things, and it’s up to everyone at Hiscox to make a difference. This really permeates through the business. Of course the everyday little things count too - whether it’s the local working environment, fundraising events or socials with your team for example. Hiscox describes its spirit as "challenging convention" - do you think that mission attracts a certain type of person to work for you? Challenging convention sits at the heart of our values and we look to employ people who think about how things could be done differently or better. We are looking for diverse and exciting people; people who are comfortable getting on with the job without their hand being held and are brave enough to challenge and risk doing something differently. We know this might not be the right environment for everyone and we are very honest about it hoping that it will help some candidates deselect themselves from our application process if they don’t feel it’s for them. What do you do to foster employee trust and engagement? There’s no one solution, it’s a combination of things. Fundamentally we trust our employees: it’s a really adult environment here and people can get on with the job without being micro-managed. We encourage people to take bets – in their jobs and with their own careers here. We invest in people who take such bets and it’s great when it pays off. But we don’t punish people for making mistakes either – how else would we keep improving? When it comes to work and life balance, that trust comes back into play again. We are all grownups here and people manage their own time – if you need to go to the dentist or catch the school play, we make it work around work. We have a flexible working policy too. How do you help build a great company culture? Company culture comes from our employees and their actions are ultimately driven by how our business leaders behave. Our senior people live by and regularly refer to our long held values and as a result they are well-practised. In our recent employee engagement survey 94% of employees said they believe in the values of Hiscox, yet you won’t see them plastered on notice boards, used as screen savers or displayed on the back of toilet doors. Just have a look at how frequently they are referred to in our employee reviews on Glassdoor to understand how embedded they are in our culture. What do you look for in informed candidates? Informed candidates are those people who have taken the time to research Hiscox - not just the company data basics (size, turnover, location etc.), but also sought clues in other places such as our social media sites or Glassdoor for what it might actually be like to work here. They are then able to explain why they think Hiscox is the right organisation for them and how they would fit into our culture. What is your biggest challenge in recruitment? Attracting applicants from non-insurance backgrounds. We recently asked new recruits what they thought working in insurance would be like. And they told us they thought it would be dull, corporate, hierarchical and staid. But some of the words we heard after they had settled into their jobs at Hiscox were intelligent, friendly, fun, innovative and caring. That initial perception isn’t something we can fix overnight but if we encourage our employees to review us on Glassdoor and share stories of what it is like to work here it will all go a little way to dispel any insurance company myths. How do you recruit talent - what are some of your best practices? We have just built an in-sourced recruitment team at Hiscox so hiring applicants directly is our main KPI. In order to attract direct applicants we are working hard to talk more through our social channels about what it is like to work here. Although not everything at Hiscox is perfect, we know we have a great employer brand - we just need to talk externally about this more. How do you retain talent - what are some of your best practices? I think all of the above helps us to retain talent. What are some of the coolest or most unique perks and benefits you offer? It depends on where you are in the UK but they include free fruit in the office, subsidised personal training, Pilates and therapies such as massage, shoe cleaning, Christmas and summer parties, social committees and a BBQ garden (to be opened in 2018). Whenever I tend to ask people what their favourite benefit might be though, the one that usually comes up is the annual Christmas food and drink hamper.