Source: theHRDirector
Date: March 2006
Author: Jackie Miles, People Services Manager, Admiral (www.admiral.com)

When the admiral brand launched in January 1993 as a direct response car insurer, it had no customers and just 57 staff. Today it has six brands, over one million customers and 1,700 members of staff based at its two sites in Cardiff and Swansea. Jackie miles, admiral’s people services manager, explains the company’s employee philosophy.

We strongly believe that a happy staff is a motivated staff. However, we know that it takes more than a good salary or job related perks to ensure this; it’s more to do with making work a great place to be. Our latest staff survey in December 2005 showed that 97% of our employees at Admiral are happy to be here.

Having a strategy is one thing; translating that strategy into reality requires commitment and understanding from every level, and that it’s communicated effectively throughout the company.

In order to do this, we have a communications department which ensures that everyone is kept well informed of the company’s vision, direction and values in multi-directional, timely and measured ways, using methods that are constantly evolving. One of the most recent innovations is the introduction of a live ‘online chat’ in which members of the senior management group are available to every member of staff. This has proved very popular and is a great example of the open and non-hierarchical culture that we have created at Admiral.

"Our culture isn’t just about fun though. It’s about equality of opportunity and reward, about empowerment and trust and encouraging a healthy work-life balance"

An important part of our approach is to involve staff in as many decisions as possible. For instance, in the early days we asked staff their opinions on a dress code. They voted in favour of a dress-down policy and now they decide what is most appropriate, depending on what they are doing and who they are seeing during their working day.

We have a truly open door policy – most of our managers don’t have offices let alone doors, but sit with employees in open plan floors. We have a staff led ‘Ministry of Fun’ (MOF) that organises competitions, events, theme days and parties. Each month a different department takes over control of the MOF, ensuring the ideas remain fresh and giving everyone the chance to have an input. The huge variety of events that take place prove its popularity, and our staff survey shows that 96% of our employees believe the MOF makes Admiral a better place to work.

Our culture isn’t just about fun though. It’s about equality of opportunity and reward, about empowerment and trust and encouraging a healthy work-life balance. Our CEO meets with every new member of staff during their induction training and hands each one a single piece of jigsaw puzzle. These pieces represent the fact that the Admiral picture isn’t complete without each piece of the puzzle and that no one piece is more important than another. You can see these pieces of puzzle glued to monitors or on desks around the building. I’ve been here since before the first day of trading and I can see mine on my desk everyday.

We firmly believe in growing our own talent. This starts with the recruitment process for front line staff where the people we hire do not need any experience. Following an intensive four week training programme in all areas of insurance, phone and computer systems, they spend a further week taking live calls
with extra support to give them confidence.

"We firmly believe that people who enjoy what they do, do it better"

We advertise both promotions and transfers internally when possible. We encourage people to apply for promotion but also for transfers to help them develop and share their experience. We also encourage people to take responsibility for their own learning and development – we even have an ‘Open Learning
Centre’ that has a range of topics from improving customer service skills to learning Japanese!

As I’ve already mentioned, reward is not just about the salary people are paid. It’s about recognising star performers every day and finding ways to ensure that individuals are appreciated. Over the years, through listening to our people, we have developed a range of recognition schemes which include length of service
awards at five and ten years, ‘Star Lunches’ with the CEO, and department and brand based ‘Staff Member of the Year’ and ‘Staff Member of the Month’ presentations. As an organisation we feel it is as important to recognise people from day-to-day as well as the more usual methods, such as annual performance reviews and incentive schemes.

Our success is driven by people for people. We firmly believe that people who enjoy what they do, do it better, and that is what makes Admiral a great place to work.