Firing lineJul 30 2020

Wesleyan is working hard to support NHS staff

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Wesleyan is working hard to support NHS staff

Wesleyan group chief executive Mario Mazzocchi understands all too well the toll that the pandemic has taken on GPs, hospital doctors and dentists, as the company was founded in 1841 to serve these professional groups, as well as teachers and lawyers.

“Clearly, our segment has been very much at the forefront of the crisis,” he says.

The shift to protection I don’t think is entirely driven by Covid-19, but it has been the trigger for some important reflections

A crisis on this scale required a similarly wide-ranging response, which is why Wesleyan announced a package of support measures for its customers in April, including free access to a 24/7 healthcare and wellbeing support hub called Wesleyan Wellbeing, offering online psychological triage assessments.

Mr Mazzocchi explains: “It’s critical for an organisation, especially in a segment that was so much involved with managing the unprecedented crisis, to show that actually we were there with them.”

Strong message

Its charity, the Wesleyan Foundation, also gave more than £100,000 to multiple charities that support the mental health of key workers.

“If we think about how pressurised the environment has been, especially for hospital doctors at the peak of the Covid-19 emergency, we thought that it was a way to show support to our segment, to our customers, and really do something to support their mental wellbeing,” the chief executive says.

Among the support measures Wesleyan rolled out, one of the best-received was the change to its Practice Plan membership fees: in April and May it gave back half of the membership admin fee to dental customers.

Mr Mazzocchi acknowledges that the company “took the hit, but it was absolutely the right thing to do”.

He adds: “I think it sent a strong message, which was extremely well received.” And he notes that dentists were particularly hard hit by the crisis.

Then, in May, the board of directors made their own commitments, with each of the non-executive directors declining the scheduled increase in their pay and allowances for 2020, as well as pledging 10 per cent of their salaries to various charities over the following six months.

Chairman Nathan Moss committed to donating 20 per cent of his salary and Mr Mazzocchi also pledged a personal donation of 10 per cent of his salary for the subsequent six months.

He adds that these were a “combination of actions that were reflective of the tougher trading conditions”.

Going into lockdown

Back in February, the company began readying itself operationally for the “worst-case scenario”, so that it was prepared when the lockdown was eventually implemented in March.

“We decided to act very proactively because it was the right thing to do to protect the business and to protect our customers,” he explains.

“It’s never easy for an organisation like ours with 2,000 people based broadly in one building.

“They are used to operating in a very physical way in terms of interacting with each other, going to the office every day, seeing colleagues.”

But, he notes, on the day of the national lockdown there were “no teething issues”.

Mr Mazzocchi says: “We managed still to support our customers with their queries. Phone calls were received as if people were in the office supporting customers with the right security around it. We invested a lot but, more importantly, we invested at the right time to be able to be ready.”

Now, Wesleyan is asking some employees to return to the office, if they want to, as it is “trying to work out now what the future will look like”.

He says it is unlikely that the business will go back to having all employees in the office at the same time and that they “might phase people differently”.

He notes: “I think it’s kinder to the environment, I think it’s the flexibility that colleagues want. But it’s an important point to consider that some people really like the office environment.” 

Mr Mazzocchi certainly has a longer commute than most, given that he lives in London and Wesleyan is located in Birmingham.

Customer behaviours

He joined the mutual as chief operating officer in December 2018, having spent 15 years at Lloyds Banking Group, and was appointed group chief executive in August last year.

“The reason I joined was I thought there was an opportunity to shape the organisation, to really put your arms around it,” he says, admitting that a pandemic was certainly not what he was expecting to deal with in the first 10 months in the role.

Even the outcome of the coronavirus crisis has been slightly different than the company forecast earlier in the year.

“What we have ended up with is actually a much more benign trading environment than we feared,” he explains. “But we are expecting the tail of Covid-19 to be much longer.”

The coronavirus pandemic has also prompted a change in customer habits and behaviours, with a shift to an interest in protection products and away from investing.

“That is being driven by – from an investment perspective – people holding onto their cash because there is uncertainty and when there is uncertainty you want it to be available to you,” he notes.

“The shift to protection I don’t think is entirely driven by Covid-19, but it has been the trigger for some important reflections.”

Ellie Duncan is a freelance journalist

 

Mario Mazzocchi’s career highlights

2002-2003: Head of brand marketing, European region at Visa International

2003-2015: Various roles at Lloyds Banking Group

2015-2017: Managing director, insurance division, at Scottish Widows

2017-2018: Chief operating officer, insurance and wealth division, at Lloyds Banking Group

2018-2019: Group chief operating officer at Wesleyan Assurance Society

2019-present: Group chief executive of Wesleyan Assurance Society