When Jane Warren (pictured) first began her career in insurance, she was the only woman in the underwriting office. And while it may sound daunting, she took it all in her stride.
“It was very traditional then,” Warren told Insurance Business. “Every time I got up from my desk, the whole office would stand up - which was a bit disorientating. It was their way of being respectful, but it was also a tad intimidating.”
Now, as the active underwriter for Liberty Specialty Markets, Warren’s seen the sector evolve alongside her. What was originally meant to be a temporary starter role, morphed into a lifelong career. Having moved into the City, Warren began working for some of the biggest names in the business – including Marsh, ACE Group and AXIS, before eventually landing at Liberty’s doors. However, as she told IB, she hadn’t fully appreciated the sheer size of the organisation.
“At the time there were around 50,000 Liberty employees – 1,200 of which were based in London,” she told IB. “For 20 years before coming here, I’d always worked for US companies which had a really different approach to business and culture. For most of them, the focus is around the 90-day reporting cycle – with the expectation that you deliver (preferably good) news to the street every 90 days. With Liberty, structured as a mutual, we don’t have that 90-day cycle imperative which allows us to think about the longer term.”
Warren was immediately taken with the culture at Liberty – especially with regard to people’s drive – something that was evident even in the interview stages.
“Even after my first interview, I [knew] I wanted to work here. I really related to the people who interviewed me, I admired their passion for the industry, and I respected their integrity,” she said. “And I thought, this is a company I want to work for.. You could tell it was a really caring organisation, and still performance driven.”
But the culture is only one aspect of Liberty’s overall attraction. Liberty is in the top quartile of firms for women in leadership, boasting 33% women on the board, 67% women on the executive committees and 60% women at direct report level.
“It really comes down to how supportive they are of women in the sector,” Warren told IB. “The statistics speak for themselves – we have 53% of women in senior roles now. So, you could almost say there has been a rebalancing now, rather than the tables have turned.”
Liberty also boasts a number of internal courses for women, as well as gender parity in hiring. In fact, 48% of the firm’s new hires are women.
“We try very hard not just to attract women, but also to retain them. And a lot of the policies that are put together are as a result of our employee-led ‘inclusion matters’ networks,” added Warren.
Liberty’s policies include initiatives specifically aimed at championing women, helping them through career breaks and recognising differences in culture and interests – all of which operate under a hybrid environment
“Our family friendly policies are market leading for what works for retaining women,” said Warren. “We encourage people, if they’re going to take career breaks, to think about when they’re coming back. I took a three and a half year career break, and, back then, you really had to convince someone that it was worthwhile to bring you back into the market. We’ve softened that now - we recognise people’s professionalism when they want to come back to the market, and we do everything we can to support them in that.”
So how do Liberty’s efforts compare to the sector at large? According to a recent survey from Oliver Wyman, female executives in the financial sector are 20-30% more likely to leave their roles than their male counterparts, with overall female participation in management positions in the UK insurance sector having stagnated at 35% since 2019.
“A lot of the senior women in the market are very keen to make it easier for the next generation that comes after them,” added Warren. “We will do everything we can to support the women that succeed us, having known how difficult it was historically for us to either get back into work or to get the foothold we needed – even sometimes to be taken seriously when you have a family. At Liberty, we work to support women coming back into the market as much as hiring in the first instance – I think we’ve done extraordinarily well in that respect.”
Having navigated the ever-changing market, Warren has also learned some personal leadership lessons along the way.
“You really have to be your own brand of leader,” she told IB. “Take on those traits which are authentic to you. Some of the old, outdated leaders that I saw operating in the market in the past were very dictatorial - slamming hands on desks and such. It’s [just] showcasing and there’s no place to go from there. I think women are much more measured in their leadership approaches, you can start at a much more collaborative and open space.
“A good leader is someone who is collaborative to a point, but also doesn’t take on the mantle for everybody else. You must delegate as much as you possibly can. You shouldn’t be thinking for everybody. You shouldn’t micromanage your teams. There can’t be anything worse than having someone second-guess you all the way through your professional life.”
Another important aspect of successful leaders, according to Warren, is giving autonomy to your new hires. And while mistakes might be made, they’ll certainly be learned from.
“We bring in people to take on very significant roles in our organisations,” she said. “We should be treating them like professional, capable adults, empowering them to make decisions. Why would you try and pull the rug out from younger people trying to come through? I think experience is what counts - we all make mistakes, no-one’s perfect. But you learn from those mistakes, and you don’t make them a second time.”
Looking at the sector’s future as a whole, Warren foresees a lot of exciting opportunities and market change for organisations and, more specifically, the role of underwriters. The rise of AI in the industry has reshaped how individuals undertake their day-to-day jobs, automating time consuming elements and allowing professionals to focus on the more demanding areas of their role.
“AI will have an impact on the way that we do business,” added Warren. “When I was learning my craft as an underwriter, I sat next to an underwriter and learned by observing, paying attention to their conversations and decision making, listening to their discussions and interactions with the brokers.
“Going forward, we’re going to be looking for a different skillset from our underwriters. We can’t keep fishing in the same pool, that will not drive us forward – and that’s why it’s encouraging to see how we’re changing our focus as to how we recruit and attract newcomers to our industry.”
