Hastings Direct plans to hire more than 500 people over the next 12 months as the digital insurer approaches 5 million customers.
The roles cover customer service, claims, pricing, underwriting, commercial, data and technology. Hastings is recruiting experienced professionals, graduates and apprentices nationwide under its flexible working policy, with a focus on its main sites in Bexhill and Leicester and its offices in London and Gibraltar.
The company said the hiring would be combined with continued investment in technology, its mobile app and AI, to support customer growth while meeting efficiency and profit targets.
“These investments will support us to grow efficiently, with customer numbers increasing faster than headcount as we realise the benefits of digitalisation, automation and greater scale,” said Toby van der Meer, chief executive of Hastings Direct.
The announcement sits in sharp contrast with Admiral, which said in September it would cut around 500 UK jobs - about 5% of its UK insurance workforce - as part of a £100 million savings programme. Admiral said the cuts were not driven by AI, but by the need for the right structure and skills to make the business faster and more efficient.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said last month that Admiral was raising UK motor rates ahead of a competitive market. Because motor customers are highly price-sensitive, they expect it to lose policy volumes as a result - with customers likely to switch to growth-focused rivals such as Hastings. For brokers placing personal motor and home business, the pricing gap between the two is worth watching as it widens through 2027.
The motor market itself is shifting. Competitive quoted motor premiums ended the third quarter 2.7% higher than a year earlier, the first annual rise since 2023, according to Defaqto. But price movements varied widely, ranging from a 3.5% cut to a 9.6% rise across providers. In that environment, insurers’ different pricing strategies are likely to drive significant customer movement between them.
The 500 new roles in claims, pricing, underwriting and data will intensify competition for technical staff across the market - a pressure that extends to brokers. BIBA’s annual survey this year identified talent as brokers’ top recruitment priority, and Hastings recruiting at scale in those specialisms will add to the strain on an already tight pool.
Graduate and apprentice roles may help widen the pipeline over time, but the immediate effect for brokers looking to hire in pricing or claims is a larger and better-resourced competitor for the same candidates.
For brokers, Hastings does not distribute through intermediaries, so the new hires will not alter their panel directly. But the competitive dynamic matters. If Admiral continues raising rates while Hastings pursues volume, customers will move - and brokers placing personal motor and home business will need to track how the premium gap between the two develops through the year ahead.
