One of the most significant constraints we’ve always had has been recruiting enough underwriters. Pre-Covid, we were restricted by having underwriters an hour’s commute from the office. Competitors faced the same limitations so hiring enough has always been challenging when competition was fierce.

Since lockdown began, however, several possibilities have opened. Through technology such as Teams, we can now recruit from anywhere across the UK.

Our underwriting team has grown by around 50 per cent over the past five to six months, and all hires have been remote. We have plans to recruit even more underwriters over the next six months.

Hiring remotely has ultimately taken the lid off our constraints of reaching enough volume. Not only can we hire more people but we can hire better people, no matter where they are based. Our underwriters now live across the UK.

Another benefit is that we understand our customers’ needs even more in these areas because we have people on the ground in local markets, and that expertise is vital. In short, we have more scale and better quality, and are closer to the customer.

Across the business we’ve recruited more than 40 team members whom we’ve never met in person. So we’ve invested far more in inductions than we have previously done and have gone above and beyond to make sure those staff felt settled in and comfortable.

Learning by osmosis

Offices are an excellent place for new joiners to ‘learn by osmosis’ and unfortunately it’s impossible to have that same learning benefit when working remotely.

Another challenge with remote working is that interactions can become task focused and lack knowledge of company culture, especially if one is new. We’ve purposefully ensured that our remote working does not fall into this trap and have set up regular informal meetings with our new joiners to get to know them. Whether that’s social events, ‘watercooler’ chats or Friday afternoon drinks, it’s about making sure you set aside extra time for this to make them feel welcome and valued.

Remote recruiting is here to stay. It’s now part of our growth plan to make sure we recruit the best talent. Over the past year we’ve made considerable changes, updating our IT systems and expanding the broker and BDU teams.

We have more support than ever for brokers, over the phone, by video, face to face (socially distanced, of course) or through our newly launched live-chat feature. That’s something we are proud of despite the odds, and we look forward to growing our teams even further over the next few years.