NI insurance firm’s staff to work at home permanently
THE 400 people making up the Northern Ireland workforces of Hughes Insurance and parent company Liberty have been told that they will now be working from home permanently.
Remote employees will receive a €660 (£566) gross annual payment to cover any related remote working expenses.
Us-owned Liberty Insurance has become the first big employer in Northern Ireland to publicly announce that it is continuing with home working indefinitely.
Hughes confirmed it will shut three branches across Portadown, Glengormley and Newtownards but a spokeswoman said no jobs will be lost.
The Ards branch will be used as a hub which staff can visit up to two days a week if they wish, the company said. “The needs of both our customers and our staff were central in the decision to close our branches... We also have plans to further develop the remote customer offering to include enhanced virtual customer-services which will replicate the traditional in-branch, face-toface experience in the digital format that customers want.”
Nearly all office-based businesses relocated to employees’ homes a year ago at the outset of the pandemic.
Hughes, which was taken over by Liberty in 2015, said a survey of staff showed 93% did not want to return to traditional working.
It said that embracing remote working had allowed it to keep all staff on during the pandemic, without resorting to support from the Government’s furlough scheme.
It is also recruiting 10 new people — with the hope that remote working will enable more people to apply.
Sarah Balmforth, head of human resources, said: “Hughes Insurance has been part of the fabric of Northern Ireland for over 40 years and although we have adapted our offering in response to our customers’ needs, we are here to stay.
“The remote model has served us extremely well throughout the pandemic with customers enjoying an impressive level of service. The technology we have in place still ensures that customers feel connected to our employees.”
Parent company Liberty Insurance said its 162 staff in Enniskillen would also be working remotely, again with the option to spend up to two days per week in the office when the pandemic is over.
Liberty took over the former Quinn Insurance business — part of the empire of former Fermanagh tycoon Sean Quinn — in 2012.
Juan Miguel Estallo, CEO of Liberty’s European retail operations, announced the new working model to its nearly 2,000 employees across Ireland, Spain and Portugal.
Mr Estallo said: “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.”
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.”
The company said it had no plans to cut its offices in Dublin, Cavan and Enniskillen and that they would be used for workshops, “team brainstorms” and meetings.