In March 2024, UK mutual insurer NFU Mutual was named one of only 60 companies across the globe to be recognised as a ‘Gallup Exceptional Workplace’ for the ninth year in a row. The award is only given to organisations that can prove they achieve exceptional performance through a highly engaged workforce. Gallup’s panel of expert judges recognised that NFU Mutual creates a culture of engagement, both within teams and across the whole organisation.
Having an engaged workforce has numerous benefits for a company, including higher productivity and profitability, as well as lower absenteeism and staff turnover. According to Gallup, just 23% of employees worldwide would class themselves as being engaged, in the UK this number drops to only 10%. At NFU Mutual, the figure is much higher at 83%, firmly establishing its place amongst the global Gallup Exceptional Workplace Winners.
NFU Mutual has built a culture which creates a deliberate and thoughtful employee experience, focusing on strengths, and coaching talent to its full potential. This creates a culture of excellence putting it far ahead of its competition. The insurer sees returns in retention, engagement, increased productivity, better customer experiences, true organic growth and higher revenue. As a result, NFU Mutual was recognised for its efforts again this year, winning the prestigious accolade of Which? Insurance Brand of the Year, for the third time in a row, the only insurer to achieve this.
People at the heart of strategy
NFU Mutual makes its people the key component of its business strategy and being a Great Place to Work is at the heart of NFU Mutual’s values as well as being one of its key long-term strategic objectives.
A key element of NFU Mutual’s company strategy is to lead the way in customer service, and it has an excellent track record of doing just that. Highly engaged colleagues are central to this aim, as an engaged employee is more likely to pay attention to the needs and wants of customers. This means you have to be serious about engagement, and that starts at the top. Visible commitment and passion from the very top of the organisation is vital, and the leadership team, including the CEO, needs to role model the expected principles and behaviours in everything they do.
Committing to its people and customers, deepening trust and putting relationships first, is just how NFU Mutual operates and one of the things employees say makes working at the mutual insurer feel different to other companies, helping to ensure it is a truly great place to work. Having strong working relationships moulds everything NFU Mutual does, and high levels of engagement are something the insurer works hard to achieve.
It's the deep connections that NFU Mutual establishes time and again with employees and customers that makes it much more than your average insurance company, and with an enviable customer retention rate of 95% and a current engagement score in the 99th percentile of the Gallup Overall Companies database, this strategy is clearly working!
To stay competitive, the company has built an authentic employee experience that attracts top talent, improves the lives of employees, and inspires excellent performance. Guided by a clear and consistent long-term strategy and a powerful set of principles, this company is following its internal compass as it transforms employee engagement and reinforces its culture.
NFU Mutual strives to create not just a high-performance culture but a winning-performance culture, where everyone is clear on what is expected of them and how their role contributes to successful overall business performance. The insurer does this by providing an inclusive working environment, supporting health and wellbeing, offering hybrid and flexible working, career development and training opportunities as well as supporting local communities through volunteering and promoting rural safety initiatives.
Investing in development is absolutely key and NFU Mutual invests in technical, product and interpersonal skills, which creates a higher quality experience for everyone, employees and customers alike.
NFU Mutual is committed to creating an environment of inclusivity and diversity where everyone feels valued, can thrive, and has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Employees know that their opinions count, and their feedback will make a difference, demonstrated by survey participation levels consistently over 90%.
      Published October 2024
Valuing people as a responsible business
As a mutual, the interests of its members matter to NFU Mutual. As a responsible business, it has a commitment that goes far beyond developing the insurance and financial products designed for its members’ needs. NFU Mutual is passionate about making a meaningful difference for members and employees, for farming and rural communities and for the environment, by doing business the right way. Acting with integrity and doing the right thing is central to NFU Mutual and the kind of business it strives to be.
Without the on-going support and enthusiasm of its highly engaged, committed, and passionate workforce, NFU Mutual would not be able to make such a positive difference for members and communities.
Communication is key
NFU Mutual strives to understand what its employees need: on a one-to-one basis with their managers, in their teams and from the company.
As a result of moving to a hybrid working environment, regular communication and the ability to connect and collaborate effectively has become more important than ever for employee engagement, performance, and wellbeing.
To support communication, NFU Mutual has created engaging workspaces where teams can come together in the office to connect with colleagues and expand their networks, as well as investing in technology which allows employees to connect and collaborate effectively from more remote locations. This technology enabled approach also underpins a wider employee listening strategy which will increase the opportunities for real time feedback and give further insight into the overall employee experience at NFU Mutual, increasing opportunities for data-led decision making and driving meaningful change.
Measuring progress in employee engagement
NFU Mutual’s journey with Gallup started in 2011, when it first introduced the annual Gallup Q12 survey. The survey, which consists of 12 questions designed to measure what matters most to employees, gives the ability to assess and benchmark levels of engagement. This has allowed NFU Mutual to highlight areas for focus and set targets to drive improvement.
Results are ranked alongside thousands of other companies throughout the world and each company is given a percentile ranking, 1st percentile being right at the bottom and 99th percentile at the very top. In 2011, NFU Mutual set itself the ambitious goal of achieving ‘World Class' status (being ranked in the top 10% of companies) within five years, and it achieved this ahead of plan in 2015.
Not content with just being considered ‘World Class’ however, in 2018, NFU Mutual achieved what only 1% of companies have achieved globally within Gallup’s employee engagement database. With scores in the 99th percentile, NFU Mutual is one of just a handful of companies in the world with the highest possible level of employee engagement. NFU Mutual has maintained its engagement at this level every year with 2024 marking seven consecutive years in the 99th percentile.
So what does NFU Mutual attribute to its success?
Focussing on engagement, investing time and effort, listening to and acting on feedback, and genuinely wanting to make a difference!
Finding out the results and global comparisons are just the beginning. Once the engagement scores come in, NFU Mutual undertakes a programme of structured activity and communication. The first step is understanding the data, and a thematic analysis is conducted to interpret the results at company level and identify and highlight any trends in the data. These insights are then cascaded to all leaders and people managers throughout the company starting with the CEO and the Executive team.
The next step is to take action, and once everyone has their results, all teams commence with a series of engagement action planning meetings, where they discuss the outputs from the survey and identify meaningful actions. To support these conversations, the HR Business Partnering team at NFU Mutual works closely with Business Leaders to help interpret the scores, identify themes, and facilitate action planning. NFU Mutual also provides a variety of tailored development options, including leadership coaching and mentoring, to ensure its leaders are equipped with the right skills to lead and engage their teams.
An important part of the engagement approach at NFU Mutual is identifying and sharing best practice throughout the company. With a wealth of exceptional managers who consistently achieve outstanding levels of engagement, the company is not short of great examples to draw from and regularly conducts further research and analysis to study what these managers do well, sharing insights and practical hints and tips with the rest of the leadership population.
The engagement journey for NFU Mutual continues, with as much focus, enthusiasm, and commitment in 2024 as in 2011, and with engagement and employee experience viewed as fundamental to future business success, it certainly doesn’t take its incredible engagement levels and achievements, for granted.
Driving engagement isn’t easy, and although the organisation has had outstanding success, it is never complacent. NFU Mutual focuses on it day in, day out in order to achieve one of its three company objectives, which is "to be a Great Place to Work".
About NFU Mutual
NFU Mutual is the UK’s leading rural insurance company. The insurer offers a wide range of products, including general insurance, life, pensions, investments and risk management services. These products and services are delivered through its network of over 280 NFU Mutual Agent offices in rural locations across the UK, as well as through its direct sales and service centres.
NFU Mutual is proud to deliver more than simply insurance. Making farming safer, supporting rural initiatives across the UK and helping to look after the environment are just some of the ways they do that.
As a mutual, NFU Mutual has no shareholders, and is owned by and run for its members, which sets it apart from many other insurers. NFU Mutual continues to reward its General Insurance (GI) customers through a Mutual Bonus which provides a saving on the renewal premium of a GI policy.
