Although the April jobs report was barely higher than economists predicted, hiring slowdowns proceed, as organizations throughout industries navigate an unsure economic system. But, for insurance coverage firm Progressive, hiring is about to select up—with plans to extend headcount by 12,000 by the top of 2025. And the corporate is already greater than one-third of the best way to that purpose.
In response to Neil Lenane, enterprise chief of expertise acquisition at Progressive, the hiring purpose is a testomony to the multi-year high-growth interval the group has been in.
“Progressive tends to be on the vanguard of the place premiums are going, and during the last three or 4 years, the worth has been proper to draw clients,” he says. In flip, the group is laser-focused on what’s going to appeal to the expertise wanted to serve this increased buyer demand. And, Lenane says, it has all come right down to tradition.
Each few years, the group refreshes its employer model. In help, it not too long ago rolled out Vacation spot: Progress, an “ode to Progressive’s tradition of inside motion,” Lenane says.
“Your journey has already begun—let Progressive enable you preserve your profession transferring ahead,” reads the welcome message on its profession web site.
It’s a press release that, Lenane says, is supposed to mirror that Progressive is a spot the place job seekers can “come, develop and have a profession.” Lenane is an ideal instance: He’s held 13 positions in his 35-year profession with the group.
“We’re going all in on one thing key to all of us: this long-term striving for growing and advancing our careers,” he says.
The Vacation spot: Progress initiative has allowed actual Progressive expertise to inform that story to potential staff by a video sequence showcased on the profession web site and social media platforms.
The storytelling strategy, Lenane says, lends credibility to the message.
“Any time job seekers are taking a look at an organization, it’s onerous for them to establish the reality: ‘I see the phrases in your profession web site, however is that what actually occurs?’ ” he says. “[Hearing from real employees is] one thing candidates worth; they need it to be genuine.”
A willingness to attach candidates to the corporate’s genuine tradition is embedded in Progressive’s hiring practices. As an illustration, typically candidates might ask to talk with a member of an worker useful resource group to garner a firsthand take a look at employment with Progressive, and the group has facilitated such requests.
Progressive’s exterior recognition can be serving to to speak its tradition, Lenane says: The group has been named to the FORTUNE 100 Finest Firms to Work For eight consecutive years and scored within the 98th percentile amongst U.S. corporations in a current Gallup Engagement and Tradition survey.
Strategizing for future progress
The areas through which Progressive is hiring run the gamut: claims, buyer care, authorized, gross sales, knowledge science, advertising and extra.
Altering the discourse about what working within the insurance coverage trade is like is a part of the duty going through Progressive hiring groups, Lenane says.
“Lots of our insurance coverage opponents are challenged with hiring within the trade—however the reality is, insurance coverage has many diversified jobs,” he says. “That’s a worth to job seekers, who can say, ‘Hmm, I by no means thought in regards to the insurance coverage trade like that.’ That diversified quantity of jobs makes it engaging.”
Although HR’s function in executing Progressive’s hiring technique shall be pivotal to its ongoing enterprise progress, Lenane acknowledges that not all HR features are equally located right this moment. Nonetheless, even in organizations the place hiring is slowed or frozen for the time being, he notes, HR can nonetheless be a champion for strategic enterprise success.
“Even if you happen to’re not rising, you possibly can nonetheless be investing in expertise,” he says, advocating for a pointy concentrate on each engagement and retention.
“You’ll be able to nonetheless add to the underside line by focusing in on the issues that staff worth most—serving to them see alternatives, which might create increased ranges of engagement so that they’re extra more likely to go above and past in serving clients—and keep for the lengthy haul.”
