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Danny Wood  00:00:00 Hello. I'm Danny Wood, News Editor of Insurance Business Australia, and welcome to Insurance Business TV, where we're taking a look at what makes a top insurance industry employer accumulate premium funding. Is the third consecutive year a leader in our top insurance employers survey. This survey looks at firms in the Australian and New Zealand insurance industry and ranks them based on metrics including employee benefits and development culture and commitment to diversity and inclusion. Tricia Kopka is IQ's Head of Operations. She's based in Melbourne. Congratulations, Tricia. 

Tricia Kopka  00:00:40 Thanks, Danny. and we're really thrilled to achieve this award for the three years running. It's it's quite thrilling 

Danny Wood  00:00:48 To start with. Can you share with us some of the strategies that you think have led to your firm being awarded for the third consecutive year this Top Insurance Employer Award? 

Tricia Kopka  00:00:59 Yes, yes, certainly. I think when I talk about strategy, I'm going to say, I think that's what is the clincher for us. We have a very clear strategy. We know what we're aiming to achieve. The team are all very clear about what that is, and they're also their part in it. And I think that's very important, and we make sure that we're continually finding opportunities to communicate that effectively in terms of how we're tracking. But when I talk about strategy, it's not just about, you know, money, it's about people, and so always looking for, how do we enhance the people's experience in our workforce on a day to day basis? And that just might mean strengthening, enriching people's skills, making sure that they're developing while they're for here on the day to day role, but also for future aspirations, but also celebrating the wins. And we do that on a regular basis. And I'll give you an example, because we've won this award for 30 running, everyone gets an additional day off, which is called an IQ, Love Your Work award, award day, and that goes down very well. Danny, 

Danny Wood  00:02:11 Can you give us a specific example of how you think your firm stands out in terms of how it treats its employees? 

Tricia Kopka  00:02:18 Yeah, I really do think I'll give you an example. One of our long standing, standing staff members actually came to us, and they wanted us to support them in terms of fundraising and raising the awareness of a foundation that was very close to their hearts, were in to be and so we actually got behind that, and we have as a team we've got behind it, raised some funds for them, raised awareness, and now they can actually put a program in place for 2024 with the funding that's been provided. So I think that's a nice example of looking at the holistic team and how we can support and care. 

Danny Wood  00:02:55 You said that your firm celebrates wins and also focuses on and I quote here not being afraid to talk about the failings. Can you talk about some of the failings and how you fix those? 

Tricia Kopka  00:03:07 Yeah, sure. So thanks for allowing me to provide some context, because it was really around strategy and communication. So I'll give you an example. We might have a strategic imperative that didn't quite the plan. I mean, things change, circumstances change. The business and the insurance world in particular is moving fast, and we're not afraid to actually call out that we didn't hit the objectives that we were looking for. And we always look to, you know, some people just hide that under the carpet and hope notices, but we talk about what we've learned from it, we realign, and that, think has built a more resilient business in turn and a resilient team.  

Danny Wood  00:03:47 The insurance business employer survey found that vacation leave, flexible work options and sick leave were all seen as important. How does IQ approach those areas?  

Tricia Kopka  00:03:58 Yeah, sure. I mean in terms of in terms of vacation, leave, you know, the same standard, four weeks a year, but we do something that I haven't seen before in an organization, if you take your four weeks in that year prior, you get additional five days, which was called a take five. So staff love that, because it gives the incentive, you know, to get an extra five days a year on top of what they would normally be allocated. So I think that's a really lovely selling point for our organization, flexible work options. We have a really nice hybrid, like two days in the office, three days at home, which seems to be the right balance. Post covid staff really like it, because they can spend time with their families, but are they also, when they're in the office, they're connecting. We're doing a lot of training. So I think that that hybrid model really works well for us. We were always really good at being flexible, even even um, before covid. I think having the mindset of, how do we make it work? Work, rather than it won't work, I think is really important in terms of providing that flexibility. And in terms of sick leave, to be honest, we don't have a great deal of it. It's always nice. But when the time does come where someone does fall ill, or someone their family that they love falls ill, we really try and support them as much as you possibly can, so we can remove the anxiety around the fact that they've got this going on in their personal life, and I can go and do what focus what focus on what matters for them. And I think that supports really important in terms of sick leave. 

Danny Wood  00:05:37 Your business culture focuses on continuous improvement. What does that mean in practice?  

Tricia Kopka  00:05:44 Yeah, so our mantra is, do it better, which means that we continually started to be better for ourselves, but also for the business. I think a lot of that centers around trying to be better and growth for individuals. So that's about the training that we put in place, we have focused development plans. Our leaders are really skilled at having those discussions, so I think that skilled leadership is really important and creating opportunities for people so that they can only, not only learn for the role that they've got today, but also for their future career aspirations, and building those opportunities in their day to day activities, but we're also very focused on mapping out our processes. So we had something like 300 plus processes, Daniel, that we've mapped out in a great deal of detail. And we're at the point now where we're looking at those processes and basically trying to say, like, what do we stop doing? And how do, if we have to keep doing it, how do we do that better? Do we either refine it or we, do we automate it, or both, and again, with a view of really streamlining or making a more positive staff experience and removing some of that manual stuff that we do on a day to day basis? 

Danny Wood  00:06:59 Do you have any final words of advice for industry colleagues who are struggling to keep their employees happy. 

Tricia Kopka  00:07:06 Yeah, look, I don't I always think it's pretty simple, and I love the quote from Sir Richard Branson where he says the company's employees are its greatest assets, right? I've always believed that in my 30 year career, so I just think, focus on creating a positive staff experience every day. Don't be afraid to talk to your people, find out what that means for them, like what's real for them, and then just put a plan in place. What do you keep? What do you stop? What do you start? And then continually talk about it, and I'm going to say rinse and repeat, because it's, I think it's an ever moving target, but if you focus on that on every day in terms of your strategy, I think that will always mean that you're going to thrive long term.  

Danny Wood  00:07:55 Tricia, thanks a lot for your time. 

Tricia Kopka  00:07:56 Thank you. Thanks, Daniel  

Danny Wood  00:07:59 And Tricia Kopka is head of operations for accumulate premium funding for the third consecutive year, they're a leader in our Top Insurance Employers survey. Thanks for watching Insurance Business TV. Bye for now.