Five minutes with… Covéa Insurance

Covéa Insurance is the UK subsidiary of Covéa Group, a European leader in insurance and reinsurance. With over 60 years of trading experience, they offer a wide range of home, motor and commercial insurance backed by great service.

Grab a cuppa and read on to see how they have been living the Chartered Ethos!

How long has your firm been Chartered?

We have held Chartered status for 8 years.

Why is Chartered status important to your business?

Chartered status is important to our business because it demonstrates to our policyholders that they can expect the highest quality of service, ethical practice, and technical expertise from us. It also shows our staff that we are committed to supporting their professional development.

What initiative has the organisation been involved in which has had a social impact/corporate social responsibility focus on?

We have a broad approach to social responsibility so have a wide range of staff-led community groups whose sole focus is on Covéa's corporate social responsibilities. Examples include:

• Charity, Wellbeing, Climate Action Groups
• Inspiring Colour Network
• Covéa Pride Community
• Gender Balance Network
• Accessibility for All Group
• D&I and Covéa Minds Groups.

We also partnered with DA Languages to support non-English speaking customers and with SignLive to help communicate with British Sign Language users.

How do you ensure your employees remain at the forefront of their profession?

98% of our customer-facing staff are CII members.

In addition to our well-established 'soft skills' learning and development pathways, at the end of 2022 we invested in CII Assess as a tool to enhance our underwriters' technical knowledge and support their long-term professional development.

How have you implemented the CII Code of Ethics into your business?

As Covéa's Responsible Member for Chartered Status, my role is to set the tone for our alignment with the CII Code of Ethics.

My team and I lead by example in seeking to demonstrate that we work to the highest ethical standards and integrity. The best interests of our policyholders are at the centre of what we do, and our focus on excellent customer service has recently been endorsed by the Institute of Customer Service accrediting our Commercial underwriting teams with Distinction, alongside our Commercial claims teams.

What advice would you give a firm who is considering applying to become Chartered?

The business benefits of Chartered Status are tangible. It gives brokers, policyholders and staff confidence that they are placing their trust in an insurer committed to technical expertise and the highest standards of service and ethics.

The application process is a valuable exercise in itself. By requiring evidence of achievement, it allows the business to objectively review what it knows it already does. It can also enable them to identify areas where there is room to improve.