Liberty commits to remote working model for its staff

Liberty Insurance today announced its commitment to remote working as its go-forward working model, advancing on the company’s transformation process to becoming a fully digital organisation.

The insurer, which employs over 400 people across Ireland and Northern Ireland, including 148 in Cavan, will require all staff, including its senior leadership team, to work primarily remotely in future, with the option of spending up to two days per week in the office once the pandemic is over to carry out specific activities or hold face-to-face meetings.

Earlier today, under the slogan 'Liberty, Best Place to Be', Juan Miguel Estallo, CEO of Liberty’s European retail operations, personally announced the new working model to its nearly 2,000 employees across Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

Effective immediately, all staff will be able to work remotely from anywhere within their country of employment. This move is part of Liberty’s commitment to become a fully digital organisation.

Mr Estallo also announced that all ‘remote’ employees will receive an additional €660 gross annual payment to cover any related remote working expenses.

"This decision supports our core values as an organisation, as well as our employees' work-life balance. It is also a further step towards the cloud business model that we launched and started to build towards before the pandemic, and which will culminate in 2024.

"Equally, this is a response to what our employees are asking for. Through surveys to measure their experience, Liberty employees have told us that 93% of the workforce does not want to return to the pre-pandemic in-office working model. Therefore, we want to put people first, be more efficient and respond to the expectations of flexibility required by the best talent in the market, so that those who work at Liberty can live where they prefer," he adds.

John McCarry, talent leader for Liberty’s European Operations, said:

"At Liberty we live by our value of 'putting people first', and we have worked together with our employees to create a new working model that is consistent with our strategy and the current needs of our employees. This new model integrates benefits such as flexible working hours and geographic mobility across Ireland and Northern Ireland and mitigates the most sensitive aspects.

"For years, we have been committed to wellness programmes that guarantee comfort and safety in the workplace. In the last year, we have also focused on guaranteeing digital disconnection, the physical and emotional well-being of our employees, as well as the adaptation of the workstation in each employee's home."

In support of its goal of achieving a cloud-based business model and a fully digital organisation, in July 2020 Liberty Insurance announced an investment of €100 million across its European operations to create a new model of operating insurance through a digital ecosystem on Amazon's public cloud API.

Since then, its motor direct business for Ireland and Spain have been operating through an insurtech approach based on offering simple and modular products to customers.