Author: Carmen Duarte

Categories
Social Media

Communications Reminder: Posting on Social Media

The events of the past several weeks have prompted a profound expression of civilian frustration and demands for change. Across Intact, we have been clear in our position, noting our zero tolerance for racism and affirming our values, which frame our interactions with fellow employees, our brokers and customers. We avow to behave with integrity and to treat one another with respect and fairness. We are also committed to providing everyone with a safe working environment.

Today, we’re writing to remind you to practice our values and consider potential consequences when you are communicating with each other and with those outside the company – particularly on social media platforms that may connect you with OneBeacon or Intact. Your personal views and beliefs are your own, of course, and we respect your freedom of speech. However, actions and speech can have unintended consequences. We ask that you be mindful of your statements’ potential interpretation and impact on others – particularly if such posts associate you or your beliefs with our company. Only members of the Marketing & Communications or HR teams, or senior leadership may post on the company’s social media accounts, and only designated spokespeople can make public comments on the company’s behalf. When you choose to communicate in a public forum, we ask that you forgo tying your opinion to the company, and remember that this assumption can arise because you’ve simply listed OneBeacon or Intact on your profile. We encourage you to review our media and social media policies in our Employee Handbook as a reference, and feel free to speak to your manager or HR if you have any questions.

This is certainly an unprecedented time that invites discussion and sharing opinions. We will work hard to sustain our open dialogues and welcome hearing from you directly or through communications@onebeacon.com.

Categories
Events & Conferences Surety

Onward and Upward!

Recently, our Surety Group recognized its top producers by hosting them for two days in Scottsdale, AZ. Through a variety of networking opportunities, the team reinforced the value of building personal connections as important to our business partnerships. Downtime events included an afternoon hike in the surrounding desert enjoyed by all. The team looks forward to renewing this recognition experience in 2020!

Categories
Events & Conferences Industry Associations

Fall Connections: CIAB Conference

Last week, Mike Miller, Charles Brindamour and several members of our senior leadership team joined 1,200 industry colleagues at the annual Insurance Leadership Forum hosted by the CIAB (Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers). This “who’s who” of our industry, which has been hosted for over 100 years, brings together broker, carrier and reinsurance representatives from around the world for four days in Colorado Springs. Like many industry conferences, there are notable keynote speakers, but most of our time is spent meeting one-on-one with our key partners.

This year, most of our top brokers were in attendance resulting in nearly 30 broker meetings and an evening reception. The discussion takeaways are being prioritized in order to leverage the good momentum as we wrap-up 2019 and prepare for 2020.

SVP Jeff Richardson and EVP Paul Brehm were among the OneBeacon leaders networking with conference participants at our hosted reception.
Categories
Intact News

Getting to Know Us: Intact Leaders Host Townhalls for Guarantee Company and Frank Cowan teams

Pictured (L to R): Steve Ruschak, Mike Miller, Louis Gagnon, Jules Quenneville and Martin Brodigan.

Summer may be winding down, but things are gearing up for our soon-to-be colleagues at The Guarantee Company (GC) and Frank Cowan Company (FC), who recently spent time getting to know members of our leadership team. Throughout the past two weeks, Louis Gagnon and Mike Miller visited five GC/FC offices (Southfield, Michigan; Montreal, Toronto, Woodstock and Princeton) and cohosted eight townhall meetings, joined by various executives from Princeton Holdings and GC/FC, including Donna Barclay, Larry Ryan, Martin Brodigan, Jules Quenneville and Steve Ruschak. These events included approximately 600 employees and featured overview comments and lively Q&A sessions.

Importantly, these conversations provided an opportunity to reinforce our appreciation for the business those teams have created – and excitement about our future together – while introducing our values and focus on employee engagement. Integration preparations are also underway, so stay tuned for regular updates on our progress!

Pictured (L to R): Steve Ruschak, Mike Miller, Louis Gagnon, Jules Quenneville and Martin Brodigan.

 

Steve, Mike and Louis share some insights with the GC/FC teams.
Categories
IT Training

Agile Attitude

IT’s Barry Dillon leads the group through its agile training session.

You may have been hearing about our IT colleagues working under the “agile” approach or building new applications in “scrum teams.” Yes, this new collaborative style to pursuing our technology initiatives has taken hold across all of IT—and is already making an impressive difference.

The agile methodology dates back to 2001. Its genesis was expediting software development by collaboratively—and iteratively—developing business requirements and building solutions. This differs from the “waterfall” method where requirements were documented first—and then handed over to IT to build, with no interim previews. Over time, agile’s proven benefits (e.g., improved collaboration, speed to market, etc.) has prompted broad adoption across many industries and expanded into areas beyond IT divisions.

In the past two years, OneBeacon has transitioned its development teams to the agile approach, beginning with our online/on-demand efforts. More recently, the experience is being extended to business areas that work closely on technology initiatives, such as Finance, Enterprise Underwriting, Legal and Marketing & Communications.

Given the new protocol and unique language surrounding agile, the first step has been an in-person training session often facilitated by OneBeacon’s own agile experience coach, Barry Dillon. Last month a group gathered in our Plymouth office for such a session, also supported by IT’s Lisa Ellerton. Including some friendly team-building competition throughout the day, it was a successful introduction to our agile methods.

So if you hear about two-week sprints, don’t imagine we have colleagues participating in some sort of ultra-running competition. Sprints are one of agile’s inherent elements, where development tasks are tackled in two-week (+/-) intervals with outcomes presented at each sprint’s conclusion.

Interested in more insights? Check out the official “Scrum Guide” or ask your IT partners for insights!

IT’s Barry Dillon leads the group through its agile training session.
Jennifer Weiner, Carmen Duarte, Jennifer Geelan, Gwenn Harth and Lori Seitz celebrate their winning marshmallow tower.