Our people think we're 

simply the best. 

And we love it when they tell us.

We’re delighted to share the Insurance Post named First Central Best Insurance Employer at their British Insurance Awards last week. We’re thrilled to have received such a valuable honour. 

Now in their 30^th year, the awards were given out in a glitzy ceremony which entertained over 1,400 people at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Based as it is on independent, anonymous colleague feedback, this recognition reinforces First Central’s commitment to authenticity and transparency. No charge or fee changed hands, the prize is generated by genuine employee views. We’re obviously doing something right and it’s great to be acknowledged. 

We’re all about people, their energy and dynamism, and this award recognises First Central’s commitment to growing a culture of individual growth and team development across its four sites in Haywards Heath, Salford Quays, Gibraltar and Guernsey and for its population of remote colleagues. We relish the diversity of our people whether that’s their age or ethnicity, their gender or socio-economic circumstances and we’re focussing on making sure our senior leaders represent our colleagues’ backgrounds. 

We’ve created five colleague-led communities to amplify the diverse range of voices throughout our organisation and let them tell us what we’re doing well and what we’re missing. These communities drive progress across a range of topics, including but not limited to: LGBTQIA+, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Age, Disability, Neurodiversity, Socioeconomics and Religion. So, let’s just say watch this space...

Enhancing our Diversity is a no-brainer for us. It drives innovation, business performance and pretty much makes work a nicer place to be for everyone. So here are just a few of our commitments:

 Read our 2023 Women in Finance Charter here. First Central also operates a ‘Women in Leadership’ network, which focusses on attracting, retaining, and developing female leaders. Since 2023, the number of women in senior leadership positions has increased by 15%. We’re constantly looking for new ways to give our people learning and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring courses and sessions to discover and nurture aspiring leaders. Our latest exciting expansion is an enhancement of our secondment facility. We’re beefing up our provision so people who’re trying out other roles in the business temporarily can choose to take up some relevant training during their placement. This way, even if the secondment ends and they return to their former positions, they’ll have added new skills to their toolkit. The business also runs regular skills workshops to help employees ‘level up’ their soft skills and we’re putting a strategy together that’ll support people back into work after they’ve had a gap. 

At 4.4 out of 5, First Central enjoys one of the highest Glassdoor scores in the industry, once again demonstrating our wholehearted commitment to employee experience; the business was also ranked 22nd in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list in 2024. Not satisfied by annual testing, we make sure we canvass our peoples’ views once every quarter using an employee satisfaction tool called Peakon. Our latest Peakon scores put First Central in the top 10% of companies in financial services and the top 5% for employee health and wellbeing.

Jo McGowan, Chief People Officer, said: “At First Central, we are firm believers that positive culture drives an excellent customer experience. We’ve seen the benefits of high colleague engagement through our ability to attract and retain top talent, and, most notably, the effort and passion of our colleagues to deliver and exceed our business goals.”

“We’re dedicated to learning and development not just on building training programs, but through a culture of supporting people to grow their careers in ways that work for them. Our company isn't just about providing insurance, it's about investing in the growth and development of our people, because we know it’s our people who drive our success.”

Michael Lee, Group CEO, added: “We’re proud of our collaborative culture. It’s key to our business success and, just as importantly, means the experience for our colleagues is a positive, fulfilling and supportive one. Our growth is founded on a combination of our people-first ethos and our industry-leading use of data to drive excellent customer and business outcomes.”

So, there you have it. We’re on a roll. Just ask our people.