Remuneration
Salaries are reviewed annually and checked with a benchmarking company to ensure they are appropriate in the market and recognise the contribution made by the employee. Staff have access to a Short-Term Incentive programme which provides an annual bonus for staff who perform. Unlike most STI plans ours is heavily weighted towards company performance (85%) and this is to ensure that staff interests are aligned as a team and to our company culture. Staff who have been identified as key talent also have access to a Long-Term Incentive programme which rewards them for demonstrating long term commitment to Delta. In a survey of Delta NZ staff we made the statement “I am satisfied with my overall compensation” and 94.4% of staff said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with the statement. This compares to 54.3% which is the benchmark in Finance industries (Survey Monkey benchmark).
Training and professional development
Delta have developed a formal graduate programme to attract students into the industry via a university internship. We then implemented a structured inhouse training programme to support the professional development of junior staff. This year we introduced a partnership with Ice (https://www.theicebase.com/) to create a strategic talent development plan for high performing junior staff. This is a 12-month programme designed to place a greater emphasis on transferable personable skills that are essential to the foundation of an emerging candidate’s career development. Delta has also provided one-on-one coaching sessions provided by Hello Monday (https://hellomonday.co.nz/) for key senior management to help them develop leadership competencies. This is focussed on areas such as interpersonal skills, building trust, effective leadership and providing effective feedback. We encourage all of our team to attend relevant industry professional development events hosted by associations such as ANZIIF, IBANZ, Institute of Directors, FinTechNZ, Young Insurance Professionals and the like and in fact many of our staff are engaged in being presenters at these events. We regularly have in-house guests come into the office to provide technical training (eg. Insurance law trends) and all staff are required to resit their Lloyd’s of London compliance training every year. In a survey of Delta NZ staff we made the statement “I am satisfied with the opportunities for professional growth provided by my employer” and 94.45% of staff said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with the statement. This compares to 69.04% which is the benchmark in Finance industries (Survey Monkey benchmark).
Career progression
All team members are encouraged to develop their career, including pursuing any particular interests they have. Memberships of any relevant professional bodies (e.g. Anziif, Institute of Directors) are paid by the company and a number of staff have completed industry related training through these institutions. Staff are provided with talent development training via ICE and senior staff have access to coaching through Hello Monday. One of our intermediate staff will shortly be undertaking a 6-month secondment in our Delta Singapore office with a focus on regional business development in the Asia markets. This is a unique opportunity which many other NZ-based insurance entities would not be able to offer. In a survey of Delta NZ staff we made the statement “I am pleased with the career advancement opportunities available to me” and 77.8% of staff said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with the statement. This compares to 63.2% which is the benchmark in Finance industries (Survey Monkey benchmark).
Diversity and inclusion
We pride ourselves on the diversity of our team, which has not been developed through any formal policy but by simply seeking the best people for the job. Our team of 24 in New Zealand comprises 12 men and 12 women. Women make up 2 of 5 managerial roles and 4 of 7 senior team members. Our team’s backgrounds include NZ (both Maori and pakeha), Australian, Indonesian, Chinese, Indian, Mauritian, Croatian, French, Scottish and English. The team’s ages range from around 20 to over 60. We are proud to support a number of diversity initiatives, including sponsorship of the GirlBoss awards (encouraging young women into STEM and entrepreneurial careers), the Women in Insurance summit, the Maori Women’s League and The Insurance Network (supporting women in the industry). In a survey of Delta staff we made the statement “My organisation is dedicated to diversity and inclusiveness” and 94.4% said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with this statement. This compares to a Finance industry average of 77.3%.
Access to technology and resources
When we set up Delta Insurance, we made a positive decision to embrace working within the Cloud. We are a paperless office, and all systems used by the team are cloud-based, accessed via a laptop and/or mobile phone, thus enabling staff to work anywhere. This flexibility is widely used; we have 4 team members who are primarily home-based, but many of the team choose to work from home or elsewhere as needed. In addition to the use of cloud technology generally, we made the decision to develop our own bespoke underwriting and claims management system. This is an incredibly powerful tool that all staff use to conduct their job every day, whether that be underwriting, claims, administration or management. This has provided huge efficiency and has enabled our staff to provide exceptional service. Because it is cloud-based, this system can be accessed any time, anywhere on any device. In addition to technology we have invested considerable money in developing research white papers to assist both our team but also our broker partners and customers better understand risk. We have published six white papers to date on topics as diverse as cyber risk to pollution risk. We are about to publish our seventh paper focussed on the manufacturing sector. In a survey of Delta staff we made the statement “I am empowered to make decisions and have the necessary tools that I need to do my job well” and 100% said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with this statement.
Communication
As a relatively small team working in an open-plan office, there is a great deal of communication between all members of the team. The key formal means of communication is a fortnightly team meeting attended by all staff which all staff attend, and remote staff dial into. This is a free-form meeting where everyone has (and uses) the opportunity to update the team on anything important. The functional teams in turn meet every other week to discuss any operational matters relevant to them. Other forms of regular communication include bi-weekly calls with our Singapore team to share business updates, knowledge and ideas. We also develop quarterly newsletters which go out to our staff and partners and talk about trends, events and news items. These newsletters will often profile staff members. Once a year we have an off-site two day planning session that all staff attend and this is invaluable as it enables all staff to contribute to our strategic planning process as well as obtain a clear understanding of the strategic direction and priorities of the company. In a survey of Delta staff we made the statement “Communication between senior leaders and employees is good in my organisation” and 94.4% said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with this statement. This compares to a Finance industry average of 62.1%.
Work-life balance
Work-life balance has always been a priority for Delta, and is led from the top by our CEO and Group MD. Key points are
Health and wellbeing
Delta is extremely committed to health and wellbeing. The below are some of the initiatives that we have in place:
Reward and recognition
We operate both a short and long term incentive scheme, one being an annual bonus scheme and the other being dependent on long service. The annual bonus is based upon a combination of individual and group targets. Individual achievements are frequently celebrated in the team meeting (eg good account wins, claims settlements), more significant achievements will often be celebrated with a team lunch or morning tea. In a survey of Delta staff we made the statement “I am satisfied with my overall compensation” and 94.4% said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with this statement. This compares to a Finance industry average of 54.3%. We also made the statement “Management within my organisation recognises strong job performance” and 88.9% said that they either “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” with this statement. This compares to a Finance industry average of 68.3%.
Further information
We are very proud of the fact that in the 5 years we have been trading, not a single staff member has left. The average tenure figure above therefore doesn’t reflect the true position. We are also very proud of the awards we have won – ANZIIF Underwriting Agency of the Year x2, ANZIIF Young Professionals Employer of the Year, Insurance Advisernet Insurer of the Year x2, and all of these awards have been celebrated by the team as a whole. We regularly get feedback in the industry that ‘Delta is the place people want to work’.
