Diary of an Insurer: Admiral’s Scott McCammon

Monday

My week starts at 7am driving from my home in Leeds to Manchester to visit our first co-branded repair centre site in partnership with the Vella Group. 

I really enjoy visiting the team at Vella and hearing stories about how we’ve helped customers get back on the road as quickly and safely as possible.

We spend time analysing our operational statistics and discussing how we can serve our customers even better. We also talk about the latest trends we’re seeing in the electric vehicle market and the common repairs we’re making to electric vehicles. As a leading EV insurer this type of data is crucial.

I hop in the car and start driving to my next hotel for the week in High Wycombe. I pull over at a service station to grab a coffee and take a quick call with my colleague Craig in Canada, who manages our motor engineering team, which is a team of qualified professional engineers who make sure we are providing safe and efficient repairs for our customers.

I get to my hotel and grab a quick dinner before hitting the hay as I know I have a busy day tomorrow.

Tuesday

I wake up early and check emails before grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel. 

I go over the plan for the day as we have some of our leadership team visiting one of our strategic suppliers, Steer Automotive Group, so they can get a better understanding of the journey that customers’ cars go through to ensure they are made road-safe following an incident.

Both Admiral and Steer are conscious about our sustainable footprint, so we aim to repair instead of replacing parts whenever possible to help reduce our impact on the environment. 

The highly trained technicians at Steer show our leadership team how they repair a split in a customer’s bumper whilst ensuring a safe and high-quality repair.

I get back to the hotel before having a swim and some dinner, ahead of an early start tomorrow heading over to our head office in Cardiff.

Wednesday

I get up early and head straight to the office as I have a day of back-to-back calls before I need to drive home to Leeds.

The first meeting I join is our monthly department call. There are more than ninety people in the Admiral motor repair department and we use this regular call to discuss priorities for the month and update each other about key projects.

We’re currently working with Autoraise, a charity dedicated to bridging the skills gap in the vehicle repair industry, by supporting their bursary program to fund apprentices. 

I join a call with them to check in on this initiative and see if there is anything else we can do to support them. It’s vital that we help our supply chain attract great apprentices so that we can continue to look after our customers in the future.

We are also conscious that the automotive industry is quite male dominated so are always looking for ways to help make it more diverse. We recently launched an internal engineering apprentice scheme and currently have two amazing female colleagues training to become motor engineers.

I bump into a colleague who I haven’t seen for a while, so we catch up over a quick coffee. While I like being on the road and visiting suppliers, I always enjoy being in the office as you often bump into colleagues that you don’t speak to daily.

I manage to wrap up the day earlier than expected and make it home in time to read my son a bedtime book. After he’s asleep, I head downstairs to enjoy a nice home-cooked meal – something I miss when I’m on the road – and watch TV with my partner.

Thursday

I am away from home a lot during the week visiting suppliers or seeing colleagues face to face in our Cardiff office. 

However, Admiral is supportive of employees having a good work life balance, so I always try to make sure I’m home at least two days a week to take my six-year-old to school. 

This morning, it wasn’t raining so we walked to school and talked about dinosaurs and his favourite programme Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.

After the school run, I head home via my local coffee shop before joining a weekly catch-up call with my management team to talk about our week. We use this regular meeting to talk about our highlights of the week, as well as ask each for advice on different projects.

I like to use the days I work from home to clear my inbox, so I spend time checking my emails before making myself something to eat.

I finish my day by having a well-needed family dinner where we discuss what we are going to do at the weekend.

Friday

I find it hard to exercise when I’m travelling, so I always force myself to get up early and head to the gym when I’m home. 

I quickly check my emails to make sure nothing urgent has come in overnight before I head for my work out. 

After the gym, I rush home, shower and grab a smoothie to enjoy on the school run. We don’t spend the walk talking about dinosaurs today, as we’re too busy talking about seeing family at the weekend. 

I head straight home after dropping my little boy off at school and make a cup of coffee before logging on to respond to emails.

I spend the rest of the day in and out of meetings and catching up with my team. I have a productive quarterly call with one of our strategic partners talking about operational performance and upcoming projects.

I end my week having an early family movie night watching Jurassic World. After my son is in bed, me and my partner order a takeaway and talk about our week.

We work with some incredible businesses who share similar values, so it often feels like they are an extension to our team. It’s the reason why even though it’s been a long and tiring week I always love getting out and seeing people face to face.