Featured Apprentice Story

Jordan has been an outstanding apprentice and displays all the right attitudes and behaviours. I have no doubt she will go on to have a successful career and be a future leader for Zurich.

For the 2021 Scottish National Apprenticeship week I gathered and collated feedback from my apprentice cohort about their apprenticeship experiences, compiled the information onto a slide, and posted this on workplace to highlight the benefit and successes of our apprenticeship schemes. I also recorded a video to highlight my positive experience on the apprenticeship.

• I contributed in the research, creation, and presenting of the 'Road to Digital' presentation project set for my apprentice cohort by the extended leadership team. This project was presented to key stakeholders at Zurich.

• I successfully completed my apprenticeship (SCQF Level 6 Providing Financial Services) within 12 months which was the first out of all Zurich apprentices across the UK. I received great feedback from my skills coach assessor on my assignment work, some of which I have pasted below:

• "I have assessed the above unit and there is no rework required. Really well done, you worked really well on this assignment, and I can see the effort you put in which is fantastic. I really like the way in which you brought the evidence into your reflective account and how you annotated the evidence to show what it was relating too. Please continue to do this throughout your assignments as it was a pleasure to assess."

• "This was another outstanding piece of work, well done."

• "Well done again on a great quality submission. This was a pleasure to read, you have achieved such a lot and I encourage you to continue to seek out the opportunities at Zurich."

• Obtained my CII certificate in insurance achieving 95% (95/100) on the IF1 exam.

• I was Involved in Zurich's Apprentice Recruitment Social Campaign led by Keith Lewis to support the Talent Acquisition team. For the campaign I filmed a video highlighting what I love about Zurich and the apprentice programme. The content was used across a variety of social platforms including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and was a major success, resulting in more than double the applications from the year before.

• I am an active member of the NEXT UK network which gives the next generation in insurance a voice in decision making. As part of my involvement, I attend lunch & learn discussions. I also applied to take part in the NEXTchange programme where participants are paired up with a leader from another part of the business in a different country to build a mentoring relationship and learn from each other. I am paired up with a strategic credit analyst in Switzerland and the key things I have gained from the experience is: a greater understanding of another part of the business (Investments); widening my network and improving my networking skills; greater confidence as this was one of my goals going into the mentorship and something we have work on over the last year; and finally, improved long term vision and strategic thinking in terms of my career.

• I was part of the Customer Transparency Leaflet Project which looked at discovering areas of claims where our customers lack understanding and creating leaflets to increase customer knowledge and transparency. As a result, myself and one other, created 6 Motor customer transparency leaflets which will be distributed to customers to enhance their understanding and knowledge of specific parts of a claim.

• The School Engagement Committee works with schools to help young people with their skills and raises awareness of insurance as a career. As part of this committee , I volunteered to present to a class of 30 5th and 6th year students at Springburn academy in February covering ‘what is insurance?’ and how to get started with a career in Insurance. I attended with Motor Expert Team manager Stacey Gibb and received positive feedback from Stacey: “Jordan attended Springburn Academy with me last week to present to a class of 4th and 5th year students on 'What is Insurance'. It can be very daunting presenting to an audience never mind a class of teenagers! Jordan practised the material and came prepared with her notes. She came across confident and knowledgeable when delivering the presentation. Well done Jordan!”

• I have been Involved in a total of three Zurich Community Trust (ZCT) charity challenges: one with my team, one with two of my apprentice colleagues, and one challenge I have taken on myself and led . For the challenge I led, I liaised with representatives at the Beason Cancer Charity and used the £500 budget provided by ZCT to purchase a podiatry unit for the patients at the centre.

• I applied and was chosen to be part of the Digital appetite project - a research project looking at our customers digital appetite across the different generations and how Zurich can tailor their plans to meet varied customer needs. For the initial research stages of the project our group of 10 were split into two smaller groups and I led my group; convening meetings, allocating tasks, and ensuring deadlines were met. After various research stages, we presented our findings internally - within the group - and then myself and 2 others presented the findings and recommendations externally to Zurich’s Customer Communications Team within the UK Customer Office. The Customer Communications Team manager said “Just wanted to say a big thank you for presenting at my team meeting yesterday and sharing the great work you’ve been doing on digital appetite. I know the team found it really interesting. Thanks again”. This project has played a key role in forming part of Zurich’s business strategy.

• On 1st December 2021, before completing my apprenticeship, I signed up for our internal Fast Track course for the CII Diploma in Insurance. The course is run by an external training provider who covers the diploma syllabus over 18 months. I started the diploma on 28th January 2022, one month after finishing the apprenticeship. Currently, i have successfully passed two out of four of the modules and am on track to complete the Diploma by May 2023. This will mean I will have completed the CII Certificate in Insurance, SCQF Level 6 Providing Financial Services, and the CII Diploma in Insurance within 29 months of joining Zurich.

• For the 2022 Scottish National Apprenticeship week I volunteered to lead the Glasgow Branch's involvement. I planned the weeks actives, allocated tasks to the team of apprentices, monitored progress of the tasks, and ensured everything ran smoothly and targets were met. I received positive feedback from Kyle Gray: “Jordan got involved in NAW Scotland and went on to lead the project with the apprentices. Jordan got all her actions completed well and the week went well. Jordan had everything under control throughout and lead the team well. Great job!”

• I applied for the Claims Apprentice, a competition run by Kennedys Law and The Insurance Post, and was one of six candidates selected to take part from across the UK. The competition took place and was filmed in London where we were split into two teams and set a series of challenges related to current hot topics in the insurance industry. One team was selected as the winner of each challenge, my team were successful In winning 2 out of 3 of the challenges. After all 3 challenges were completed we had individual interviews and the individual Claims Apprentice winner was chosen.

• When a new cohort of apprentices joined Zurich in Glasgow I put my name forward to be a mentor. I was partnered up with Scott, and as a mentor I provide guidance and support for Scott throughout his apprenticeship programme - this mentoring relationship is still ongoing. Scott provided the following feedback via our online platform: "Jordan has been a constant source of support and encouragement since being introduced to me. Consistently offering solutions and advice where needed. A pleasure to work with."

• Myself and five of my apprentice colleagues were set a project and tasked with investigating how we can improve our TNPS score and deliver a better journey for our customers. Over a few months we conducted research by analysing data and speaking with various people across the business, then we presented our findings and solutions to key stakeholders. I received positive feedback following the presentation and I’m driving forward initiatives suggested such as looking to implement TNPS training for staff to better understand the importance of TNPS. Feedback includes:

• Kyle Gray, Head of Technical Claims Offshore: “Hi Jordan. I thought the presentation went really well. You led the group and conversations well and were confident answering questions. Feedback on the actual presentation - I thought it looked good and came across well. You generally come across as one of the leaders of the group in any work I see.”

• Graeme Mushet, Head of Customer Success & Continuous Improvement: “I thought you spoke very well and took the lead in the presentation, you added comments of value at the right time and clearly articulated your thinking behind the solutions presented within the findings. I am personally delighted to see how far you have come in the last year or so - very confident, speak very well and not afraid to take the lead. You should equally be very proud of the progress you have made - keep doing what you are doing.”

• Verity Ross, tNPS Operations Manager: “Jordan delivered a fantastic presentation this morning on tNPS and recommendation on how to improve this metric within claims. This is a very meaty topic with lots of activity ongoing already so it was challenging to understand the landscape to then present on further recommendations. She drove many of the conversations and pulled together most of the slides. She worked extremely hard to get this completed to the best of ability and within the timescales. She was confident when presenting which is testimony to how she has pushed herself out her comfort zone recently with the Claims Apprentice process.”

• In June 2022, I applied for a new role within Zurich which was a grade up from my previous position. I was successful in my application and in September 2022 began my new role as a Subject Matter Expert in the Technical Offshore Claims Delivery Team. In this role I will be supporting the delivery of claims performance in our offshore claims teams by working to improve audit results, reduce indemnity spend, upskill the offshore handlers, tackle any pain points related to processes, cut out errors/re-work/handoffs, reduce caseloads, and ensure technical capability in the offshore teams. In this role I will travel to India with my team for 7 weeks to work with the offshore teams .

• In September 2022, I was successful in my application to be a pillar on the Woman's Innovation Network (WIN). My position is part of the enable pillar of the network and their focus is to listen to people and use feedback to guide the committees future plans. They do this by creating and sending out a survey then analysing the data to shape how the committee proceeds. As I have only just joined, I have not yet made contributions but meetings have been scheduled and I look forward to working with the network to drive improvements.

• I put my name forward and was selected by the Expert team managers to be the Communication Champion for the team. My time in this role was short due to my move to a new role but in that short space of time I drove forward improvements. I identified that we were seeing an increased number of claims being incorrectly allocated to my team, meaning they were sitting with the wrong handlers or in the wrong queues, causing delays, and decreasing the quality of service for customers. After identifying this problem, I raised this with my manager and drove forward improvement by creating a claim allocation guidance document, getting it signed off, distributing it to the relevant teams, and raising awareness of this on the team comm cell.

• I was nominated by Expert Team manager Kyle Gray for Summit Innovation Quarterly Champion award. Kyle wrote "Jordan started as a claims apprentice and has been exceptional since day 1. Always displaying a great attitude and perfect behaviours. Jordan smashed through her apprentice program and has now completed it to a high level. Jordan secured a promotion into a more technical claims team and is delivering well. Jordan is always willing to put her hand up to take on new tasks and lead projects . She was selected to be part of the Insurance Post Apprentice work and has been filming in London for this. I'm sure she will smash this and keep an eye out for the episodes to watch! Jordan is a real star and will no doubt go on to have a great career at Zurich".

• I believe a key factor in personal development and progression is reflection, therefore, I signed up for coaching . I was paired up with Kevin, a Global Customer Relationship Manager within Zurich Insurance Group Limited. Coaching differs from the mentoring that I’m involved in as mentoring is typically, someone more senior, guiding you from their experiences, you then go away and try out what they advise. Whereas in my coaching sessions we reflect on things that have happened, exploring, challenging, and changing thoughts, feelings and actions. The coaching is relatively new, but it has been a great addition to my personal development.

• I received two ‘employee of the quarter’ nominations whilst in the Motor Expert Team.

• "Can I nominate Jordan for EOTQ. She has put a lot of work into handling her caseload and getting up to speed with how to manage her day-to-day tasks and getting to target etc. She is really hardworking and if you give her anything to work on, EG improving her productivity or fixing an error on claims, she does it instantly and works hard to make sure she fixes it and doesn’t make the same mistake twice. She is a great addition to our team, extremely hard working and always asks when she needs help. I wanted to give her a nomination as I have been really impressed by her work ethic and she has fitted in great in such a difficult time (virtual wise). Well done Jordan!"

• "EOTQ nomination from colleague - Aligns to Ensure Technical & Operational Excellence Objective - Jordan is a really keen learner and has done great since joining the Expert team. She isn't afraid to ask questions and always gives 100%. Even though her case load is super busy in the OIC team, Jordan takes it all in her stride. She seems to soak up knowledge like a sponge! Any time she takes a call for another handler she will do everything she can to progress the claim in that call and assist others. We are lucky to have her!"