Insurance 2020: RSA looks to the year ahead

Last week marked the start of a new year and a new decade but many of the issues the insurance industry faces remain the same. Here are five things likely to be on the to do lists of all major insurers this year.

Doing more to put customers first

Customers are the lifeblood of every business and keeping pace with their demands is key to delivering a good service. With disruptors in other sectors like Amazon and Uber offering instant and on demand services, consumers now expect this as a given.

We use artificial intelligence to help car insurance customers speed up their claims, especially if their vehicle is likely to be a write off. The award winning system allows drivers to upload a picture of the vehicle where the damage is assessed by AI and, if it is a total loss, automatically provides a valuation using Glass’s Guide.

Playing a prominent role in safeguarding the environment

The past decade has seen an increase in large-scale weather related events and insurer’s efforts to help customers prepare will be scrutinised in 2020.

Our Confident Futures Strategy, launched last year, outlines how we help our customers manage their risks and ensures we keep tabs on our impact on the environment.  In 2019, we helped reduce our emissions by implementing new business travel policies and encouraging flexible working.

Improving diversity and inclusion (D&I)

According to McKinsey’s Delivering through Diversity report, companies with gender diverse executive teams were 21% more likely to experience above-average profits.

Customers, and prospective employees, increasingly consider D&I when they decide who to buy from and work for. We have been working hard to improve our own approach, with employee groups in place advocating for the LGBT community and women in business. Last year, we won two awards for our work on staff mental health and wellbeing and are proud signatories of the Women In Finance Charter, where he have committed to ensuring women make up 33% of our management group by the end of this year.

Recruiting the best young employees

With banking perceived to be a more attractive alternative, the insurance industry has, at times, played second fiddle in the battle for talent. One of the issues facing the industry for 2020 and beyond will be finding young employees to lead the industry into future. This year, we are ramping up our Apprenticeship Programme by bringing more talent, from more diverse backgrounds, into the company than ever before. We are also proud members of the 5% Club, and aim to have 5% of our employees in earn and learn positions within five years of joining.

The insurance industry has, at times, played second fiddle to banking in the battle for the best young talent

Innovation and embracing technology

Over the past five years, many insurers have partnered with insurtechs to help bring innovative new offerings to the market. As part of our work to keep our customer’s pets healthy, we launched our partnership with PitPat in 2019. PitPat offers wearable fitness trackers to dog owners, allowing them to monitor their pet’s exercise. More Than customers who use PitPat can get up to £100 cashback  by keeping their dog healthy.

Authored by RSA