Background

As a business experiencing huge growth in the UK and internationally, specialist pet insurer, ManyPets were looking to embark on a demanding recruitment drive to move from using an outsourced claims service to their own in-house equivalent. For this, the insurer needed to recruit over a hundred claims professionals with a range of different of skills – and fast.

Within a period of only eight weeks, the client needed to recruit at least 30 claims handlers, all with previous general insurance knowledge (ideally veterinary nurses), so they were in post and ready to hit the ground running. But ManyPets induction and onboarding programme was not established to manage such a high number of recruits. Under serious pressure and needing support with managing a complex onboarding process with many moving parts and changing needs, they turned to Davies for help.

Approach 

Over a period of six months we helped the insurer recruit for roles covering a wide range of skill sets from technical claims and team leaders to insight analysts, sales and operational roles. ManyPets places an enormous emphasis on cultural fit in the recruitment process. For these roles we drafted the job descriptions and person specifications, designed a candidate attraction strategy, screened and interviewed candidates, organised interviews and dealt with the offer process for successful candidates. Working in close partnership with the recruiting managers, we deployed our video interview platform, Hinterview – which provided a short video to compliment the traditional CV and to accelerate the selection process.

In addition, Davies devised and developed a new induction and onboarding programme tailored specifically to ManyPets. Davies provided everything from project management, scoping, design, delivery and evaluation as part of a complete training programme – and we did it quickly. Key elements of the new programme included:

A Curriculum plan: This covered ten days of technical onboarding content on processes, systems, product knowledge and style guides to help new starters handle claims effectively.

Curriculum materials: Materials to deliver the Curriculum including session plans, workbooks, and a ‘Train the Trainer’ guide.

Digital learning modules: Three digital learning modules and explainer videos were created to support the retention of key knowledge in a more creative format.

Results

Over a twelve month period, Davies has supported ManyPets on specialist claims recruitment, executive search and developing a rapid onboarding programme. This has enabled their rapid growth from start-up through scale-up and onto ‘double-unicorn’ status which they achieved in Q2 of 2021.

Learner feedback on all aspects of the onboarding programme we developed were very positive, with one of the new recruits Davies trained receiving a 5 star review from a customer within days of starting their role. Today ManyPets is equipped to deliver its own onboarding and has already used the resources we provided for subsequent inductions.

Commenting on the relationship, Jennifer Gabrielle-Chapman, UK & International Talent Acquisition Lead, ManyPets said:

“We’ve worked with Davies from the early years of our company inception right through to our present scale-up year in the UK.  Finding the right blend of both culture-add, knowledge and skills is always tricky, however we’ve found them to be a trusted partner who can help us navigate the ever-changing talent landscape. Their consultants know the market well and they can help us find talent through their established networks.

We’ve also worked closely with Davies to help us train our people via the Davies Learning Platform, with fantastic results. It’s been a quick, easy and effective way to help our teams upskill and access the learning they need. No matter the question we have around hiring or learning needs – we know we can rely on them for a partnered approach and honesty.”