In 2019, president of Armour Insurance Brokers Ltd (Armour), Rupinder Hayer was awarded Insurance Brokers of the Year at the Insurance Business Canada Awards (IBCAs). During this year’s ceremony, which will be held from virtually on November 17 and 18, Hayer will be presenting The Armour Insurance Award for MGA of the Year.
“The success of MGAs is based on the ease of dealing with them,” Hayer explained. “Quicker turn around, online accessibility, and communication with underwriters all makes a world of difference.”
“MGAs know when they’re backing out of markets in advance and must communicate about if a product will not be available upon renewal, so brokers have more time to shop around,” he added. “It’s a time where everyone is feeling the pressure of time and brokers are looking for speed and efficiency.”
Armour has stayed innovative on the commercial lines side in the midst of a trying year, enhancing technological capabilities over the last year to make communication and workflow easier.
“We’ve added a platform for small quoting tools to our websites for smaller policies as people needed more liability insurance during the pandemic,” he explained. “The tools allow customers to get a quote, see a premium and buy a policy through our website.”
Now Armour’s smaller commercial clients have accessibility without waiting around for brokers and underwriters.
“We launched our mobile app for Android and Apple a few years back but have made upgrades over the last year as well,” Hayer noted. “Staff are no longer in the office but now every customer can request changes and see policy documents on the app enabling us to reduce redundancies, enhance accessibility, and allow for more customizability.”
Hayer added that it had been a huge year for business interruption, life insurance and cyber policies and with a significant uptick in interest in these spaces. Armour had to be agile in implementing the right tools and technology for employees to facilitate business.
“We’ve gone through telecommunication improvements, so working from home is exactly like working in the office,” he said. “Everything has been provided to the team no matter where they are. Armour also understood the need to increase efficiency levels, so we have data management employees that we hired overseas to provide customers with 24/7 back-end service.”
When it came to enabling team interaction and support, Armour provided opportunities for employees to come to the office throughout the pandemic and meet with senior management if it was necessary.
“We started with an open-door policy, no appointment was needed,” said Hayer. “Employees were able to walk into our office and discuss any issues on their mind.”
“Additionally, we started a WhatsApp group for the whole team where we posted updates about public safety, vaccinations, mental health. We bought online lectures about mental health, occupational therapy, and how to keep communication channels open during lockdown periods,” he said.
“We had a meeting through Teams to make sure leaders are connecting with employees,” Hayer added. “Senior management strived to build confidence by being accessible, engaged and transparent. My role at Armour is strategy building and operations management. Team building comes very naturally to me.”
Philanthropy with frontline workers was also top of mind for the company during the pandemic. Armour donated a dollar-to-dollar match for up to $500,000 with Trillium hospital foundation, which runs three hospitals in Ontario.
“We also started a scholarship for post-secondary students in Ontario, sponsoring full tuition fees for one year. The present winner is studying Law at Western University and the draw is done every Christmas,” Hayer added.
Hear from Hayer about what it takes to be an industry leader during the pandemic at the IBCAs virtual ceremony - registration closes on November 16 at 5pm ET.
