Sponsored content: Steve Collinson, chief HR and sustainability officer at Zurich UK, discusses the positive impacts of flexible working arrangements
Throughout my career at Zurich, I’ve seen first hand how demand for talent in the insurance industry has evolved.
Today, we face a well-documented set of challenges across different career stages – attracting early career talent remains important and challenging, especially as the impending retirement cliff means large cohorts are nearing retirement, making succession planning tougher than ever.
Add to that a generation of professionals seeking more than a traditional nine to five, prompting the need to rethink how we work to stay competitive, innovative and, most importantly, able to serve our customers.
That’s why at Zurich flexibility isn’t just a buzzword – it’s central to our people strategy and something we’ve championed for more than a decade.
I want to share the thinking behind our flexible working approach, how it’s helping us attract and retain the very best people and why I believe it’s a game-changer for insurance professionals everywhere.
The power of part-time
In 2019 we made a bold move – we became the first company to advertise every job vacancy with part-time working, job share and flexible options as standard.
This was not just about following trends, it was a strategic response to what we learned from our employees and the market. Our research had revealed that by limiting flexibility – often simply by not pointing out that it was available – we were inadvertently closing the door to valuable talent, working parents that were experienced professionals seeking better balance and individuals with portfolio careers or caring responsibilities, to name a few.
The results speak for themselves. After launching this initiative, the proportion of women hired into senior roles leapt by 33%. We found that advertising roles as flexible led to more than double the number of applications for every vacancy, while applications from women increased by 16% and nearly 20% for management roles.
As a direct impact of this, we are now seeing more diverse candidates and an expanded talent pool, which brings new perspectives and energy to Zurich.
Flexibility matters
Something I’m keen to stress is that flexibility isn’t just for carers or parents, although it is invaluable to these groups. Having control over how you work matters throughout someone’s career, for example:
- Early career: Flexibility helps us to attract bright graduates and school leavers who value work-life balance and want to design their own careers, perhaps while studying at the same time.
- Mid-career: For those with caring responsibilities, health needs, or those choosing further education to pivot their career, flexibility means these employees can stay and grow with us rather than having to step out of the workforce.
- Later career: Experienced colleagues who are facing the transition to retirement can scale back gradually. This is vital for us as it helps execute effective knowledge transfers and succession planning.
Zurich’s research from 2023 found that one in five UK adults over 50 avoid new job opportunities due to lack of flexible working, but that a third would remain part of the workforce if flexibility was available.
Our approach helps us hold on to key talent which would otherwise be at risk of leaving, were we to enforce traditional rigid work structures.
Better outcomes
We initially introduced flexible working approaches because the world of work was changing and we needed to keep pace – and the pandemic only deepened this.
We know now that flexible working fosters diversity and drives better business outcomes. It also supports inclusion, enhances wellbeing and has a measurable impact on engagement and retention.
As insurance professionals, we are all grappling with the same challenges around talent and succession. At Zurich we would argue that flexibility is not a perk, but a must-have that’s key to unlocking the full potential of a team now and in the future.
