Why choose a career at Hiscox?

Let’s start with a common perception of insurance: that it’s dull; a career for men with university degrees, grey suits and the lifelong ambition to sell insurance policies; that you’ll go to lots of meetings and if you aren’t in one of those, you’ll be glued to a desk nine-to-five, all day. Every. Single. Day.

While we admit there can be a fair bit of desk time for many of us, that’s where the accuracy of this insurance stereotype ends. If we do have a type, it’s one that’s based on attitude: Hiscox people genuinely care for customers, for the business and for each other. To thrive here, you have to do the right thing no matter how hard it might feel at the time, and have the courage to challenge each other and the status quo. We work hard and are proudly high-achieving, and we care about what Hiscox stands for. While we all work in insurance now, we have arrived from many different walks of life and brought with us ideas and influences from far beyond the industry.

That distinctive Hiscox attitude stems directly from our long-held and practised values: courage, integrity, ownership, connected and human. In our most recent employee survey, 90% of employees said that they believe in our values. That first one – courage – is at the heart of our corporate culture: a restless urge to challenge convention and push for continuous improvement, however high the hurdles.

We expect our people to question things rather than just passively conform, and we believe it’s this spirit that keeps employees interested, motivated and engaged. A high proportion of our people are here for the long term, and even when others have left for pastures new, a good number have found their way back to us.

Hiscox people are treated as exactly that: people. We asked new recruits (people who had worked with us for less than two years) what surprised them most about working here and they told us it was our approachable senior leaders and the intelligent, friendly, caring nature of our teams.

If you think working in insurance is about being dictated to by large spreadsheets and complex calculations, the way we do business here might surprise you – the numbers are important, of course, but human thoughts, feelings and intuition rule supreme.

As a business, Hiscox is flatter and leaner than many of its competitors – and that brings with it significant challenges. But there are two sides to every coin: our people are able to make their job their own; they are empowered to run with ideas and spot opportunities. And while they'll be given plenty of support if they need it, no one is going to hold their hand while they’re getting on with the job. We want to grow our own leaders, so we actively encourage our people to apply for new roles in Hiscox offices around the world to help broaden their experiences and develop their leadership skills.

Our business model is one that looks beyond just hitting the numbers on a quarterly basis. We invest for the long term too, and that means taking big bets when it feels right. We find that this approach works as well for people as it does for business. We invest in people who have the courage to take bets on themselves.

We’re a growing company, and our employees need to grow with us. The onus is on them to drive their own learning and development, but we make sure they’re well-supported, with two formal opportunities each year to discuss their development needs and potential – whether that’s in their current role, taking the next step up or moving across the organisation to try something new. There’s a lot of learning ‘on the job’, but we also offer people the chance to gain professional qualifications such as CII, CIPD and CIMA. We also provide in-house courses with specialist external facilitators on topics such as people management, personal impact and presentation skills.

Our early careers programmes includes opportunities for graduates and undergraduates. Our global graduate scheme offers immediate hands-on experience and includes rotations in different teams designed to give you a broad understanding of our business and to equip you with a wide range of skills and knowledge. In the UK, our summer internship programme offers students in their penultimate year of study a chance to experience challenging work and gain an insight into a future career with us, and our IT Year In Industry programme provides students with key skills training, job shadowing opportunities and hands on technical experience.

We understand that people have lives outside of work. They might be parents or carers; they may want time for hobbies or improving their well-being; they may want to attend the school play or sports day; they might have a long commute from which they sometimes need a break. We're all grown-ups here, so we manage our own time – if we need to visit the dentist or watch our children perform in a play, we're trusted to make it work around work. Hiscox also has a flexible working policy, which we want people to use – nearly all of our flexible working requests have been approved in full.

We have a number of employee networks across Hiscox, each of them open to all employees who wish to join, as well as guidelines that encourage employees to start their own networks within Hiscox. We believe this is one way we can encourage the growth of a truly inclusive workplace culture.

A giant rocket in York. A café and meeting area overlooking a spacious atrium in Lisbon. The iconic Lloyd's of London building. With 34 offices across 14 countries (plus the box at Lloyd's), our workspaces are inviting and designed to spark discussion.

Each location provides a home to part of our extensive art collection, which includes unusual contemporary works by renowned international artists such as David Hockney, Candida Hofer and Vik Muniz. Every piece demands you take a second look. Rather than being shut away, they are on display in the areas where we meet and work, providing visual stimulation and breaking the conventions of a typical office space in the same way that we're expected to challenge those of the insurance industry. As well as all the art, there are places to break out and think, or to catch up with colleagues and guests. Each office has its own distinct personality and features: our London art café, the bees we keep on the roof in York, on-site massage therapy in Bermuda, weekly pilates classes in Colchester or working treadmills in offices throughout the USA.

We offer a competitive salary and benefits such as: profit-related and personal performance-based bonus. We're not a business that feels the need to say thank you for every little thing, but when people excel at their jobs, their efforts are rewarded.

A major aim of our benefits package is to enable employees to plan for the future, which is why it includes generous retirement benefits and life and health insurances. We also offer a 'save as you earn' scheme, so that employees can save for the things that are important to them – we've heard stories of deposits for first homes, major home renovations, holidays and weddings. Many of our employees also keep fit with our subsidised gym memberships, and enjoy some downtime in December with our festive gift (in the UK, we particularly love our food and wine hampers!). The specifics vary from country to country, based on local labour laws and customs, but we try to ensure our packages are equal wherever you work.

We offer sports club memberships as part of our benefits packages. And in some of our offices – such as London and York – there are also subsidised therapies on offer, including sports massage, acupuncture and osteopathy. For those who wish to cycle or run to work or exercise during their lunch break, there are showers and lockers for their things. There's fruit on offer in lots of our offices (or biscuits in some if you'd rather!). Others have toast and local jams. We also have a confidential employee assistance phone line that can offer support with personal and professional issues.

Whether working closely with our teams on challenging projects, celebrating good work or fundraising for the things we care about, we aim to enjoy each other's company. There's usually a lot going on in our offices around the world – from social committees organising still life art classes, wine tastings and pop-up nail bars, to low-key team outings and celebrations and, of course, the annual office Christmas party. Lots of people around the Hiscox Group take part in fundraising initiatives to support Group or local projects and charities, too. On top of their day jobs, we've got sky-divers, dragon boat racers, bakers and decorators and more beyond, all raising money for important causes.