There are countless factors that separate a good workplace from a great one. Today, it’s no longer simply a question of compensation, culture, and employee benefits. A great workplace is about much more than that, and it’s becoming increasingly common to see companies offering once unheard-of perks to trump their competition and attract and retain the best talent.
Insurance Business Canada recently published its inaugural Top Insurance Workplaces list. We asked thousands of insurance professionals to rank their employers’ performance in regard to compensation and benefits, diversity, employee development, culture and those illustrious ‘extras’, and after some significant number crunching, we whittled the list down to 26 top insurance workplaces in Canada.
One firm to stand out in this year’s report was The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group, an Ontario-based mutual that can trace its roots back to the 1800s. Commenting on the accolade, president and CEO Tim Shauf, said: “We’re really pleased and excited. We’ve been doing a lot of work over the past couple of years on sustainable engagement and transparency in communication. Being named a top insurance workplace affirms some of the work that we’ve done and the processes we’ve put in place.”
According to Shauf, a great workplace starts with a strong culture. When reflecting on the firm’s recent accolade, Shauf said it was important to look back and recognize that when building a great workplace and implementing positive programs, The Commonwell starts from a position of wealth in terms of culture, and not a position of poverty.
“You don’t create a good culture overnight,” he told Insurance Business. “We’re standing on the shoulders of those before us, who created a foundation that looked at business and looked at what we do in a certain way - and we’re the beneficiaries of that. So, we started with a great culture, and then we developed a methodology and an approach to business that’s about growing, but with care.
“One of our key focuses in the past year has been to create a lot more transparency and intentionality around our communication, particularly with respect to our strategy and goals. I think that contributed to us being named a top insurance workplace. We also have a very long-term commitment to how we do business, to our team, and to our development.”
Employees seek a strong and supportive workplace culture, and they truly appreciate transparency … but let’s not kid ourselves, they also like the perks and the benefits. In addition to offering a strong benefits package, a couple of programs that The Commonwell has had success with over the past year include its Work Remote and Dress for your Day policies. These have had more of a positive impact among staff than Shauf expected, and once again he pointed to The Commonwell’s culture in supporting these programs.
When asked whether The Commonwell’s mutual status gives the firm a leg-up in terms of employee satisfaction and engagement, Shauf commented: “I think mutual organizations sometimes think it matters a lot more than it does. I believe any entity, regardless of their ownership structure, can be a high-performing top workplace. Inherently, our focus on our members and the lack of divergent perspective with respect to a shareholder versus a client does allow us to create a bit more focus. We can take the time to be a little more long-term oriented, maybe introducing a bit less volatility to our work, our processes, our rating and our risk appetite in the marketplace.
“We hear repeatedly from our brokers that what they value about us is our stability. Some of that emanates from being mutual, but most of it emanates from how we choose to do business - and anyone else could do that as well. Yes, there’s a small mutual component to it, but I wouldn’t say it’s the majority of the driver.
“One thing to remember is that creating and sustaining a top workplace is always a work in progress. It’s a long road and there’s lots more to travel. This is only a snapshot in time. We will face challenges in the future, and we need to be able to respond to them dynamically. We’ve done it well historically for a century, and we’re working hard to maintain that moving forward.”
