Following our recent overview of our Sustainability highlights in 2022, what does sustainability mean for our company?
Of course, it’s not just about energy consumption or getting out of our cars. It’s about how you treat people – your attitudes, behaviours and the support you provide.
In this article, we’ll reflect on our progress in these areas.
Supporting our customers in times of need
The cost-of-living crisis continues to impact families and individuals up and down the country. We’ve been supporting our customers through these challenging times.
Our cost-of-living review has enabled us to look at how our customers have been affected and identify how we can help.
As a result, we’ve built on our vulnerable customer programme and focused on:
- upskilling our people with tailored training to better support people in vulnerable situations
- changing our processes for people who are behind with payments to make it easier for them to explain their predicament and for us to offer the most appropriate support
- reviewing how we manage excess payments from customers who have known financial challenges and are making a claim.
Giving customers greater choice
We know that the most critical time for us to be there for our customers is when they make a claim. So, we’ve been working hard to enhance and improve customer journeys because this saves customers time, money, and stress.
We’ve improved our digital journeys, with the ability to report many types of claims online and the introduction of new voice and chatbots.
And for those who prefer to speak with someone, we’re just a phone call away.
Speeding up the claims process
We are currently piloting video visits to our customers’ homes when dealing with escape-of-water claims. The aim is to reduce the number of physical visits, cut fuel consumption and speed up the process for customers.
Meanwhile, our Photo Assist app and SightCall (visual support technology) are helping us inspect the damage to our customers’ homes and cars more quickly and without the need to send people out to make assessments.
Helping customers adapt to climate change
Increasingly unpredictable weather is impacting our customers. In recent years, we’ve helped people in high flood-risk areas access insurance through Flood Re – a joint initiative between the Government and insurers. This helps keep insurance costs low for customers in high flood-risk areas through a levy, which we help fund.
In 2022, we became one of the first UK insurers to sign up for the new ‘Build Back Better’ scheme – helping those most at risk of flooding to have flood resistance and resilience measures installed if their home has been damaged.
Bringing innovation to insurance
We take great pride in breaking new ground with innovative insurance products.
Recent projects have included:
- collaborating with UK broker Marmalade to launch a pay-as-you-go insurance policy for drivers under 30 – who often have difficulty finding flexible insurance
- launching a self-service insurance policy through Yoga – enabling customers to access their documents, make changes, cancel or renew their cover wherever and whenever they like
- providing an increasing number of insurance policies for electric vehicles as we embrace green mobility.
Listening to our customers underpins everything we do. We run regular Voice of the Customer surveys to gather honest views from a wide range of customers and improve our services.
Our efforts in this area have been recognised externally – in 2022 we retained our ServiceMark accreditation from The Institute of Customer Service. We’ll continue to build on these successes – further improving our online customer journeys and harnessing new technologies to help customers manage their policies at a time and place that suits them.
Enabling our people to be their best
To deliver the best customer service, we need to nurture our people – developing their talents, supporting inclusivity and inspiring them to be their best selves at work.
Attracting more diverse applicants
All employees should have an equal chance to achieve their full potential – regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or age.
We’ve conducted a deep dive into the experiences of ethnic minority applicants and employees, leading to us focusing on recruitment as an area to improve. In 2022, we became members of iCAN,the insurance industry’s cultural awareness network, which is supporting us in attracting more diverse applicants.
We’re working hard to reduce our gender pay gap and increase female representation in senior management roles to more than 40% by the end of 2023. As part of this work, we’re introducing inclusion training for anyone involved in hiring employees, providing maternity support for new parents and collaborating on a university-led study looking at the causes of the gender pay gap and potential interventions.
A smarter way to work
All our vacancies are now offered on a part-time, full-time or job-share basis, giving employees flexibility around their individual circumstances.
Our people also have flexibility in where they work, enabling us to attract talent that would not otherwise be available. Hybrid working provides a better work-life balance, as well as reducing expenditure on car journeys and helping to lower carbon emissions.
Promoting good mental health
We promote a positive work environment that prioritises kindness, care and good health. Our Mental Health First Aid team continues to support employees by providing opportunities to discuss problems, and all team members also receive specialist training on mental health.
Feedback shows that our people feel that their wellbeing is supported in the workplace. We scored 8.2 out of 10 for mental wellbeing in a recent internal survey – placing us in the top 25% of the financial services sector.
Developing great talent
Attracting and developing great talent is key to ensure our continued success. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, from our apprenticeship scheme right through to ‘Women in Insurance’ and our Activate, Ascend and Accelerate schemes to develop future leaders.
Three external awards reflect our ongoing commitment to our people. Ageas UK was named a UK 2022 Top Employer (by the Top Employers Institute) and won the Insurance Times Diversity and Inclusion Excellence award, as well as the Insurance Times Excellence in Professional Development award.
Supporting our local communities
Alongside our support for our customers and employees, we also have a wider role in supporting the communities in which we operate.
In 2022, our employees voted to support Air Ambulances UK as our primary charity partner. Altogether, employees have raised more than £24,000 through sponsored activities, with Ageas teams completing the Great South Run and the Welsh Three Peaks challenge, and events such as Brew for the Crew.
Employees have continued to take time away from their daily work to support good causes in their communities – including beach cleaning and volunteering at Bournemouth’s Pride festival.
They’ve also donated much-needed provisions and medical supplies to those affected by the war in Ukraine through office collection points. As a business, we’ve provided insurance cover for volunteers transporting essential supplies to Ukraine and householders offering to open their doors to Ukrainian refugees. We’ve also donated to the British Red Cross Ukraine Appeal and match-funded donations from employees.
Every team member who has donated, completed a sponsored run or hike, or given their time for free has made a vital contribution.
Our people and customers are the beating heart of our business – and we’re committed to working together to create a more sustainable future.
