Pen Underwriting awarded a 4 star rating in the Insurance Post 'Best Insurance Employer' survey

Published On : 11 Jul 2022

We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded a 4 star rating by our employees in this year’s Insurance Post 'Best Insurance Employers 2022' survey.

This is the first year that Pen has been nominated to be part of the survey, and we are thrilled that our Pen People are so proud to have us as their employer.

Post surveyed 2800 insurance employees, and they were asked to rate their employer out of 10 in a variety of categories, including pay and benefits, diversity and inclusion, work/life balance and commitment to ESG.

Our HR Director, Caroline Spalding, did a short interview about the results of the survey:

Q: EMPLOYEES RATED PEN’S SENIOR MANAGEMENT VERY HIGHLY. WHAT HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS?

A: Everything we do at Pen Underwriting from a leadership perspective is based on trust, transparency and two-way communication. Together with our fantastic teams around the UK, we have worked hard to build a culture of openness, of approachability and of delivering on our promises. We want everyone to know the role they play in our success, the value they bring to the business, the difference they deliver.

Making sure we create an environment where everyone feels confident to be themselves, can contribute, embrace difference, share ideas, and help and support each other has also been a major focus, especially over the last few years after we successfully integrated many different businesses to create a One Pen culture and organisation.

So it’s fantastic to see that, through independent surveys like this one, our people feel and experience that difference enough in their daily lives to prompt them to rate senior management in this way.

Leadership at Pen means many things. But right up there would be demonstrating through personal action how collaboration always reaps the best result for clients and colleagues alike; never asking someone to do something you wouldn’t be prepared to do yourself; and always being ready to listen and learn, as invariably there’s more that can be done to create a better outcome for all.

Q: PEN’S LOWEST SCORE WAS IN PAY AND BENEFITS. HOW DO YOU AIM TO IMPROVE THIS FOR NEXT YEAR?

A: We are never complacent at Pen and so we constantly look at the issue of pay and benefits across the business, proactively monitor it and benchmark role remuneration externally to ensure we are not out of step with the market when it comes to colleague compensation.

We do also encourage employees to view total compensation rather than basic salaries. When you take into account salary, the potential for annual bonuses, combined with an extensive range of both standard benefits and optional, flexible ones, we know we offer a really good and competitive package. But we won’t ever take that for granted and will continue to monitor, benchmark and assess the data to be sure.

We also place huge emphasis on career pathways within Pen – on training, development and leadership opportunities; on internal promotion wherever possible; on succession plans; on mentoring, coaching and other forms of support – to ensure every colleague has the opportunity to progress through the organisation should they want to.

Q: THIS YEAR, WE ASKED EMPLOYEES ACROSS THE SECTOR TO RATE THEIR EMPLOYER'S COMMITMENT TO ESG. HOW DOES EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK AFFECT ESG DECISION-MAKING AT PEN?

A: As I mentioned before, two-way communication is part of Pen’s DNA – and feedback is the food of change. So we actively encourage our colleagues to engage with the wider UK business on ESG related matters to ensure we influence and shape the future direction of our business when it comes to the group’s approach to ESG.

As part of the UK Gallagher group business, Pen has direct representation on the ESG Committee, which comprises colleagues from right across the business and therefore our employees’ views and feedback are shared and discussed at the highest level.

The committee – led by our chief risk and compliance officer – is responsible for driving our collective ESG efforts, creating and implementing action plans and tracking progress against each of the work streams. It reports into the UK executive committee on a regular basis and advises them on the direction of travel for ESG topics.