How Eames became the go-to supplier of actuarial and tech talent for a leading London market insurer
by Hannah Turner
The client
A leading global provider of insurance and reinsurance operating on the London market, focused on underwriting complex and largescale risks for brokers, with profit in excess of £700m for 2023 and nearly 1,000 employees.
The challenge
“It felt like we had to prove ourselves again – so that’s what we did.” Hannah Turner, Partner and Director, Actuarial
In 2020, Hannah Turner, partner and director in our actuarial and risk team, took over our account with a leading London market insurer who we’d been supplying with actuarial talent since 2013. At the time, we were one of many suppliers – and when the client brought in a new talent attraction team and manager, our relationship almost had to start again from scratch.
Hannah spent the next couple of years building a rapport with the new team. When there followed further significant changes in the insurer’s change and tech team, including a new recruitment manager in 2022, we weren’t just faced with a period of flux, but a significant opportunity.
The solution
“In the past, it had always been about calling hiring managers rather than working with a TA team. But that had to change. It’s about trying different things to find out what works for you and what works for the client.” Tom Cowan, Senior Principal Consultant, Business Systems
Believing we could make a massive difference to the insurer’s tech proposition, Tom Cowan, a senior principal consultant focusing on contract roles, saw the opportunity to build on Hannah’s work and extend the relationship into the world of technology. He duly got in touch with the recruitment manager to understand their needs, the gaps in the team and how we could help.
Although the client principally used its own talent attraction team to bring in new hires, this wasn’t a barrier to working successfully with Eames Consulting. Our team adopted a non-transactional approach, staying in touch to provide market updates, share useful content and keep them informed on what was happening at their competitors. This showed we had relevant knowledge of the big trends in their market.
The key was to understand that we were not working at cross-purposes with the TA team. On the contrary, whenever a particular role proved especially challenging, we’d work closely together to find the right candidate, utilising each other’s expertise and networks. By working closely with the client over a long period of time, we gained a thorough understanding of their needs and how best to service them.
The result
“Hannah Turner is a great recruiter who always understands the brief, and I thoroughly enjoy working with her!” Recruitment Business Partner – Technology and Data
- 90 placements since 2013, from pricing analysts, pricing actuaries and risk managers to data architects, data analysts and cloud security architects.
- 37 interim/contract technology placements
Thanks to the trusted relationship Tom has built with the tech talent manager, the company now employs Eames Consulting for all contract work in infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, platform, cloud/cyber security, and change and transformation.
Tom has placed six platform engineers reporting into the head of platforms over the last 12 months to assist with Azure consultancy and project delivery.
Hannah has made 11 high impact actuarial placements in the last 12 months, and as a business we’ve made 90 overall, since 2013. We’re now solidified as the business’s number one supplier for permanent and temporary actuarial roles.
The future
“This is about being consultative, honest and upfront, offering insight beyond the transactional hiring of the right talent.” Tom Cowan, Senior Principal Consultant, Business Systems
We’re now the client’s exclusive technology partner with defined service level agreements to provide five CVs within 24 hours of any requirement, and nine days to hire from role release to the offer being accepted.
Having developed a detailed, holistic understanding of the client’s business and challenges over more than a decade, we’re able to deliver across multiple specialisms, covering actuarial, pricing and underwriting as well as tech and change recruitment.
We’ve also started filling actuarial roles with a subsidiary business, which is now operating on a standalone basis under the same group, indicating a successful ongoing relationship.
To discuss how we can help you source the best actuarial and technology talent for your organisation, please contact Hannah Turner here for Actuarial and Tom Cowan here for Technology.
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