Financial Services – Taking our Social Licence Seriously

Financial Services – Taking our Social Licence Seriously

With the ongoing shake up in the financial services industry as more Royal Commission findings are rolled out – the question of the role of corporate culture has continually surfaced.

Social licence and responsibility

Life insurance is a social responsibility, not just a business. It comes down to human nature and the responsibility of looking after each other. This is not in conflict with being a commercial entity. In fact, it can be completely consistent. Looking after your customers and doing the right thing is simply good business.

American Author, Mario Puzo summed it up well when he said:

I have always believed helping your fellow man is profitable in every sense, personally and bottom line.

We are proud that at NobleOak, our culture is very important to us and we truly believe in helping our clients. This is shared right across our organisation. We only recruit people that share this passion. We constantly share stories of successful claims and client experiences across our teams, and celebrate team members that excel in looking after our clients, especially when we receive great feedback directly from them.

It’s that genuine belief in doing the right thing wherever we can that is just as important as adhering to the wording in a PDS (Product Disclosure Statement).

Looking after clients with no regrets

Despite what many people think, the biggest regret people who are near death often have is not that they wish they had earned more money, had a bigger house, had a more senior job, worked harder, or travelled to more places – they simply wish they had the courage to live a life true to themselves. They wish they had better followed their true beliefs and dreams, and had not made other choices attempting to meet the expectations of others. (Bronnie Ware – “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”.)

To build the right corporate culture, leaders must realign their thinking about what success is, and understand that treating people well and doing the right thing has great benefits for both clients and to them personally! The interests of clients and business are aligned. This all sounds simple but it is often lost in larger corporations where incentives, promotions and peer expectations can take over the pure logic.

The importance of the industry

The Australian Life insurance Industry has consistently provided financial security for Australians for over 150 years. It paid out over $9.6 billion dollars in total claims last year alone – that’s almost $20 million each and every day. Most claims would have been paid without any drama and without unnecessary hassles and delays and this all reflects and confirms the priorities of this wonderful Industry.

I hope that on the other side of this adverse media coverage, that Boards, Management teams and staff across corporate Australia, take this opportunity to reassess their customer focus and take time to review their own behaviours.

Sources:

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia – Mario Puzo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Puzo viewed 11 March 2016
The 5 Biggest Regrets People have Before They Die. – https://greatist.com/live/most-common-regrets