Jon Dye: Hiscox is third of way through ‘strategy for profitable growth’

After eight years at the helm of Allianz Insurance, Jon Dye switched camps to become chief executive at Hiscox UK from September 2022, assuming responsibility for the insurer’s UK retail general insurance business.

Shortly after getting his feet under the table, Dye introduced a new four-year strategy in 2023 for his part of the business, focused around achieving “profitable growth” of between “5% and 15%” at “the right level of profit”.

The overarching strategy encompasses a three-pronged game plan designed to further support and grow broker relationships, as well as a separate programme of work that targets direct end customers, such as “white collar SMEs” and high net worth (HNW) clientele.

Now roughly a third of the way through actioning his “mission”, Dye tells Insurance Times that there is still “a lot to do” – however, there is also “a lot of very positive momentum” driving the strategy forward.

He says: “The business feels like it’s got some really good energy. We’re getting some great feedback from our brokers in terms of what we’re able to deliver for them, which is great.”

Positioned as a specialist schemes insurer

One pillar of the three that Hiscox is looking to deliver for broker partners – of which it has around 713, including any appointed representatives of those brokers – is in the creation and management of schemes in the fields of “profession, sports, health and wellbeing, real estate [and] consumer”.

Equating to about a third of the business Hiscox UK transacts with brokers, the insurer has a “ringfenced” team of 50 staff – up from five employees a few short years ago – that handles schemes implementation and delivery.

Dye explains that Hiscox UK currently runs 117 schemes in “tandem” with its broker partners – 10 of these schemes have been added in 2024, with one or two new schemes still expected to launch by year-end.

“We have a really big pipeline of opportunities,” Dye comments. “There’s a lot of activity in that part of our business and it’s been something which [has] grown hugely.”

In terms of why Hiscox UK has such an insatiable appetite for schemes, Dye explains that this comes down to showcasing the insurer as a specialist, rather than being viewed as simply “a mass market player”.

He says: “We are a specialist insurer and so schemes is a great way for us to zoom into those areas where we’ve got the knowledge, expertise and products.

“We have schemes for tree surgeons, hairdressers, equestrian centres. It’s a really broad church and that’s great.

“We’re obviously working in tandem with brokers because the broker will have come up with an idea and then they want to be working with a carrier [that] can help [it] make that idea real and then grow it.

“With schemes, winning the deal and putting it live is important – but when it’s live, the big challenge then is how do we grow this thing together, because that’s what we want.

“We’re working with brokers to help them grow their idea into something that’s as big and successful as it can be.

“We’ve got a great pipeline and there’s some real excitement around what we can do in that part of the business.”

Cementing its schemes focus further, Hiscox UK appointed Tasha Pettet as its new UK head of schemes in May 2024.

Dye explains that in this role, Pettet has “a particular focus on the digital agenda because we have a digital offering for schemes and we have a manual offering and clearly it’s important to be able to offer both of those to brokers”.

ETrading evolution

The second important broker pillar for Hiscox UK is HNW. Dye highlights that this book of business is experiencing “double digit growth” right now, with new business growth up 21% year-on-year.

A key driver of this growth has been Hiscox UK’s eagerness to eTrade its HNW products.

The insurer first launched its eTrading extranet for brokers in January 2023, providing access to a professional indemnity and office journeys product.

From April 2024, it began to roll out its HNW products on this platform, with the insurer’s chief underwriting officer, Jo Musselle, confirming to Insurance Times in August 2024 that Hiscox UK’s full HNW proposition would be available for brokers to eTrade by the end of the year.

In May 2024, Hiscox UK made its HNW “hero product” – a high value home product called 606 – available for brokers to trade via software house Acturis. Dye describes this move as providing “a unique offering”.

He continues: “If you’re a broker and you want to buy on the Acturis panel in the high net worth world, we’re it.”

Hiscox UK didn’t take this step lightly, however.

Dye notes that Hiscox UK’s HNW offering on Acturis’ platform has been “co-created” with the insurer’s broker partners – five of which were initially “piloting it in anger”.

A further 10 brokers were subsequently added to the pilot, with Dye now planning a full rollout this month (October 2024) so that any of Hiscox UK’s 140 HNW broker partners can access the insurer’s products via Acturis.

Dye says: “The take up has been great. The conversion is really good. That’s quite an exciting development in that market where we’ve got some really strong competitive advantages, great to be able to pipe that through to brokers digitally.”

Reaching regional brokers

The third and final pillar for the broker focused element of Hiscox UK’s strategy is around the insurer’s regional reach and making sure that brokers can easily access underwriters.

With this in mind, Hiscox UK has seven UK operating sites that are split into four geographical regions – this includes its Glasgow, Manchester and York offices making up its northern region, Birmingham and Colchester forming its Midlands region, Maidenhead being the headquarters for its southern region and London completing the roster, the natural home for the insurer’s London market business.

The insurer has around 850 staff across these UK sites, as well as an additional support function that is based in Portugal.

This regional structure has been in situ for around a year now, Dye explains – he believes this format is “really starting to get some fantastic traction in the local market”.

He continues: “[This approach puts] our empowered, talented underwriters in the market with the brokers, so that we can write business where they are. That’s what that is designed to do and that’s beginning to work really nicely now.”

Active listening

Underpinning Dye’s strategy is a corresponding “tech blueprint”, which seeks to provide the technological nuts and bolts that bring Hiscox UK’s action plan to life.

For example, in 2024, the insurer updated its core policy admin system in July, introduced a faster claims payment process so that claims can be paid instantly in May and refreshed its broker customer relationship management portal, “to capture all of our activity with that broker in one place”, again in May.

Hiscox UK is additionally tapping into technology to offer digitalised schemes propositions – for both new and existing schemes – as well as continuing to expand its eTrading functionality on its extranet and via Acturis, in particular around specialist products such as cyber and medical malpractice.

Dye says: “Almost all of [our strategic undertakings] will have some sort of technology underpin. So, we have to have a tech strategy which is running alongside that and is rolling things off at the moment that we need them, to actually deliver for our brokers and for our end customers.

“It’s a big endeavour and I don’t think there’s a chance it will ever be finished.”

Another facet directing Hiscox UK’s strategy is broker feedback.

Dye continues: “The market is still a vibrant place. Brokers are resilient. They are innovative, they’re entrepreneurial. The key thing from our point of view is listening to what they’ve got to tell us.

“We’re listening to what they’re telling us about where they want to go and which products they think it would be interesting to trade digitally. And we follow their lead.”

As well as basing business decision-making on face-to-face conversations with brokers, Hiscox UK also runs an annual survey in quarter four to collect more quantitative broker pointers.

For Dye, Hiscox UK’s ongoing strategy ultimately depicts how the insurer wants “to show up in the market for brokers” – as a “specialist that’s easy to deal with, that makes customer level decisions and is really good with claims.”