Amid the growth of its digital platform, Aviva has decided to shake-up its underwriting network with 85 jobs set to go and one headquarters to close.
In a statement released today, Aviva outlined that it is looking to evolve its business with the goal of “delivering leading customer and broker service”. With the rapid growth of its digital Fast Trade platform it has therefore decided to make a host of changes to its commercial underwriting teams in Leicester, Cambridge, Perth, London and Croydon from January 01, 2017.
Of particular note is that a combined 85 roles in London and Leicester will be lost; while the Cambridge team will become ‘mobile underwriters’, either home-based or working within brokers’ offices, with the Cambridge office to close at the end of the year.
It will be creating a commercial digital hub in Perth which will bring its online and national trading broker teams together. As such, it will be moving work from Leicester into its digital hub in Perth or one of its local underwriting teams. Only a smaller underwriting team will be maintained in Leicester, with 82 roles to go. Meanwhile, it will introduce a mobile team in London City working from its St Helen’s office for those SME and CSR brokers who have a presence in the Square Mile. They will focus on driving growth in Aviva’s digital and mid-market business.
Speaking about the changes, Gareth Hemming, director of SME commercial at Aviva, said: “Over half of our commercial policies are now transacted online and this number is only going to rise in the future. Creating a new commercial digital hub in Perth demonstrates how Aviva is changing to meet the increasing demand for digital solutions. Combining this centre with a traditional trading model gives our brokers and their customers a combination of leading digital and local solutions, backed up by the quick service they value and access to underwriters.
“As we look to create a commercial digital hub to centralise this activity we will also move to provide a local service to more brokers. Unfortunately these changes will have an impact on some of our people. We appreciate this is a difficult message for our staff and will be working closely with those affected to provide as much support as possible.”
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