Diary of an Insurer: Zurich's Caroline Dunn

Monday

Ahead of Christmas 2022, on Monday I attended a risk workshop in our Mark Lane office with the UK Executive team. We talked about the external factors that could affect us in 2023, such as geopolitics, recession, inflation, as well as potential regulatory changes that could be in the pipeline.

As part of a large global company we are well placed to manage through these headwinds and it was really useful to chat through the risks and discuss how we can work together with our customers to manage these next year.

During the afternoon we had a presentation form our LGBTQ+ employee group, Zurich Pride UK, which was really humbling. Two women shared their story about coming out as gay, and gave their view on inclusion in the workplace. It was incredibly powerful for the leadership team to hear their stories.

Tuesday

Tuesday began with a breakfast meeting with a young person in the industry that I have been coaching recently. He is considering moving roles within the insurance industry, so we talked about the options available to him, and I explained a bit more about the current market climate.

I made a few connections for him with other people in the industry, so hopefully this will be a good platform for him to build from and help to support his future journey, whichever career path he chooses.

I have a real passion for developing people. I mentor a number of people inside and outside of Zurich and would encourage anyone with the means to do this as well, to give it a go. It’s a really great way to help someone move forward with their career, and as a mentor you always learn new things too.

After my morning meeting, I headed over to one of our large broker partners to discuss how we can best work together in the new year. I then attended the House of Lords for a lunch with the London Market Group to discuss the Financial Services and Market Bill that is about to go to the Lords.

We shared the industry’s perspective to help them prepare to scrutinise the Bill once it comes to them, emphasising our view of a need for more consistency, greater responsiveness and proportionality from the UK regulatory environment.

I also attended an evening networking event, Elevate City Insurance Leaders network to discuss environmental, social, and governance issues in the sector. I’m really proud to work for Zurich for many reasons, and the biggest one for me is that we always strive to do the right thing by our customers in a fair and balanced way.

This is what drives our business and is one of the things that attracted me to my current role. ESG is a big part of that, so it was great to discuss it with other people in the industry.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I worked from home. The highlight of my day was a discussion with the group leadership team and Mario Greco, our group CEO, about how we’re finishing up 2022 and our strategic priorities going into the next strategic cycle.

Another thing that I really merit in Zurich, is that we have continued effort and focus on making sure employees have a positive work life balance. We have a new puppy at home, a nine-month-old cockapoo called Hugo, who has been popping up on my video calls when I work from home, so I got to spend some extra time with him on Wednesday.

Thursday

On Thursday morning I completed two “close the loop” calls with customers to do some listening. Both of these people had filled in our customer feedback surveys and given us a poor score so I was keen to hear about what went wrong and how we could do better.

These calls are really important and are a critical part of our customer commitment and help us to make sure that we’re always improving. It was so useful to hear about their experience of buying a policy and making a claim with us and use the insight to make tangible changes to how we work with our customers.

Friday

I was in Mark Lane in London again on Friday and spent time with the team looking at our preparations for the new operating model following Brexit. The team in the UK, Switzerland and Ireland have done a huge amount of work to allow us to continue to meet our customers’ needs. Roll on 1 January 2023 when we will become a branch of our Swiss parent.

After lunch I went over to the West End for a renewal meeting with the underwriters and one of our large mid-market motor customers. It’s really valuable for us to actually hear from our customers first-hand, what their challenges are and how we can help them, so it was a nice way to finish the week.