COMPANY NAME
This is the Achieving financial headline of wellbeing and peace the feature of mind DIGITAL REPORT 2022
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
DIGITAL REPORT 2021
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www.standard.com
THE STANDARD
ACHIEVING FINANCIAL WELLBEING AND PEACE OF MIND
www.standard.com
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THE STANDARD
An employee from The Standard volunteered for Habitat for Humanity
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THE STANDARD
The Standard’s Rachel Henney details the company’s approach to ESG, commitments to simplicity in its procurement processes and strong third-party governance
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ounded in Portland, Oregon, in 1906, Standard Insurance Company (The Standard) is a leading provider of financial protection, insurance, retirement, and investment products and services for both employees and individuals. Under its holding company name, StanCorp Financial Group Inc., the organisation has four primary subsidiaries: Standard Insurance Company, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York, Standard Retirement Services, Inc., and StanCorp Mortgage Investors, LLC. When it comes to The Standard’s core mission, Rachel Henney, Head of Procurement, Supplier Management and Governance, explains her love of its simplicity. “The Standard is a family of companies dedicated to helping our more than eight million customers achieve financial well-being and peace of mind,” she says. Since joining the company in 2015, Henney reflects on the incredible growth of the group: “When I arrived, revenues were at US$2.9bn. We ended 2021 at nearly US$4bn,” says Henney. She adds: “We’ve also deepened our investment in technology. And in doing so, we came to understand that we cannot be experts in everything. So, we partner with strategic, best-in-class vendor partners to deliver value to our businesses and customers. www.standard.com
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HCL Technologies helps The Standard achieve their vision Ananth Subramanya, SVP of Digital Business at HCL Technologies, details how the company’s helping The Standard digitally transform now, and in the future
Helping The Standard to digitally transform Like any other insurance company, The Standard is focused on investing in its customer experience. The Standard offers a variety of solutions, including those for retirement, disability, dental and healthcare.
In recent years, technology has taken a central role pretty much everywhere. As a key enabler for many organisations, having advanced technology within core operations has become a key differentiator for businesses. “Organisations are no longer simply using technology as a substitute for labour to drive productivity,” says Ananth Subramanya, SVP of Digital Business at HCL Technologies. He adds: “Technology has become a core conversation in the boardroom. Now they are figuring out how technology can advance the business and drive the important aspects of the agenda. Investment in technology is becoming as important as the products an organisation sells.”
Helping organisations achieve their digital transformation vision With COVID-19 accelerating the pace of transformation for many organisations, technology has resulted in significant positive disruption to many regulated industries. “If you consider dynamically priced insurance industries, there is significant consolidation in the industry that is driving better experiences and modern capabilities; this can also be extended to the optimisation of functions such as underwriting. Those in the industry are using technology to improve the experience and value a customer gains.” says Subramanya.
“Ensuring that they deliver frictionless solutions so that customers don’t suffer from long wait times, as well as innovating and improving fast are key components for the Standard,” says Subramanya. He adds: “In order to achieve this, HCL Technologies is providing The Standard with significant optimisation capability for their current processes including infrastructure, development processes, and QR automation. With these capabilities, they are able to adopt and improve much faster. “The Standard has also invested a lot in improving its operations and driving efficiency throughout its local platforms with RPA. HCL is helping to ensure that the entire process in the backend is optimised so that the customer experience continues to remain valuable.”
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“Deeper storytelling will be a core element of the report. We’re committed to sharing stories — many of which have not been shared publicly — about ESG activities” RACHEL HENNEY
HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE, THE STANDARD
“But particularly in the last two years, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve really seen great success with our shift to working remotely while continuing to provide the superb customer service that sets us apart from our peers.” The Standard and its ESG commitment In the early stages of its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related work, The Standard’s approach to ESG has always been driven by its vision “to support a healthier environment for all, to strengthen communities, to align corporate values, and ensure we always take the high road,” says Henney. She adds: “ESG is important and it will continue to be a focus for us.” Yearly, The Standard reports on its ESG activities, sharing details on its plans to ensure the long-term sustainability of the company as well as its measurement and management of its impact. While Henney can’t share many specifics in regards to its upcoming 2021 report, she can say: “The 2021 report will be focused on how we ensure the long-term sustainability of the company, and measure and manage the impact our company has on our customers, communities and environment. It will also continue to highlight how we create a workplace culture in which each employee is valued and respected.” 8
www.standard.com
When asked how the 2021 report will compare to 2020, she adds: “Deeper storytelling will be a core element of the report. We’re committed to sharing stories — many of which have not been shared publicly — about ESG activities inside our various business units.” The Standard is committed to multiple United Nations Social Development Goals (SDGs), the adoption of which will help the company to not only track and report on its work, but to tell a more complete and transparent story when it comes to its sustainability. The Standard’s dedication to supplier diversity With supplier diversity being a core pillar of The Standard’s ESG model, this approach offers the company an opportunity to support its communities. “Supplier diversity is a business imperative; we take this very seriously and promote inclusion of diverse suppliers with our standard workflow for procurement and sourcing events,” explains Henney. She adds: “We continually grow and promote our supplier diversity efforts by benchmarking activities with industry peers for best practices, leveraging the advocacy organisations that certify companies as diverse (NGLCC, NMSDC, MBENC) for future matchmaking events to grow our portfolio of diverse suppliers.”
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EXECUTIVE BIO RACHEL HENNEY TITLE: HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE Rachel Henney is the Head of Procurement, Supplier Management and Governance for Standard Insurance Company. Henney is responsible for leading the supplier management division and for ensuring ensuring a strong and capable supplier base is in place
to support the company’s suppliers of products, professional services, software, hardware and outsourced services. Henney joined The Standard in 2015 and has over 25 years of experience in procurement, supplier management and enterprise shared services. She has held previous roles in business consulting and solution delivery, focusing on programme management, simplification, business case realization and strategic vision & planning.
www.standard.com
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Business transformation
Human elevation We don’t just create real-world transformation. Driven by our purpose, we amplify the impact insurers have on the world empowering employees and helping communities thrive. Discover how we can make a difference together.
Genpact helping its clients to insure customers for life Sameer Dewan, Genpact’s global business leader for insurance, discusses how the insurance industry is embracing a new age of data and lifetime customer journeys
is a key partner in helping organisations connect, predict, and adapt to become instinctive insurers and lifelong protectors in their customers’ lives,” adds Dewan.
Genpact is a global professional services firm delivering business transformation by putting digital and data to work to create competitive advantage.
Partnership with The Standard
It’s guided by its mission – the relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people. Genpact is focused on delivering ESG outcomes for both itself and its ecosystem of shareholders, stakeholders, employees, and the communities it operates in. As global business leader for insurance, Sameer Dewan partners with insurers, brokers, and MGAs to drive transformation, develop digital and analytics capabilities at a fast pace, and deliver business growth and efficiency. State of flux from transactional to lifelong customer journeys The role Genpact plays - as detailed in its report Insurance In The Age of Instinct - is to help the insurance industry tackle challenges such as changing consumer expectations, the explosion of data, and a fast-moving technology landscape. “How insurers respond today will lay the foundation for future resilience, and Genpact
The Standard provides insurance, retirement and investment products and services, with total assets under administration of USD$45.36 bn. Genpact creates value for them as an extension of The Standard’s team, creating growth with agile operating models that can scale up to meet demand and running operations to ensure they deliver value. “We started by assessing the current state of operations and customer journeys and the choke points in each. This led to a redesigned operating model, with customer journeys at the heart of designing the new process - driving a better customer experience and growth. But transformation is not a ‘one and done’ project, we also created a transformation roadmap to consciously and continuously drive improvements, meeting The Standard’s goals of growth and profitability over the long term.” said Dewan.
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Allegis Global Solutions Allegis Global Solutions (AGS) is a managed service provider of contingent worker procurement for The Standard. “In the last year, the amount of contingent worker diversity spend was just over 27%,” says Henney. She adds: “AGS as a company is focused on three Sustainable Development Goals for 2022, including climate, work and economic growth, and reduced inequalities, all of which align with The Standard’s core values as well.” Dun & Bradstreet Leveraging several services from Dun & Bradstreet, the company provides The Standard with third-party insights. “With information from their internal certified data, we include unique businesses that have been classified using can be segmented to specific socio-economic classifications, such as minority, women, veteran, LGBTQ, and disabled-owned businesses,” explains Henney. With this information, The Standard can understand the composition of its existing third-party catalogue. Genpact As one of The Standard’s primary suppliers, Genpact supports business process delivery across the policy lifecycle. “We share a deep commitment to three key objectives,” says Henney. “Improving our business through simplification, collectively serving our customers’ needs, and increasing diversity. “They parallel our focus around prioritising diversity and inclusion as published on their website” says Henney. “The results of our strategic engagement with Genpact continue to support not only our company’s vision and mission but also our culture.”
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www.standard.com
Commenting on the partnership with Genpact, Brenda Smith, senior director of Workplace Possibilities at The Standard says: “Genpact has been supporting our area for many years now, starting with two important business processes: both case and invoice set up. Through a solid partnership, our relationship has grown and the team has taken on additional processes including document creation and components of correspondence. All members of the team are hardworking and conscientious, bringing forward ideas for improvement, questions and issues as they arise. Their attention to detail shows in their most recent metric results: 99.41% accuracy and 100% timeliness.” HCL Technologies Working with HCL Technologies since 2016, The Standard continues to grow its strong partnership with the company. “Our collaboration with HCL Technologies brings significant value, operational efficiency, and thought leadership to The Standard,” says Henney. “Their operations are well-aligned to The Standard’s culture of transparency, trust and openness.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, HCL Technologies was a vital partner for The Standard to pivot its operation in the ‘new normal’. “With HCL Technologies alongside our other strategic partners we experienced no loss of productivity, expanded our network capacity, and transitioned to 100% remote working,” says Henney. She adds: “The partnership between HCL Technologies and the Standard has helped the organisation tap into a larger skill and talent pool enhancing our company’s competitiveness in the market.”
THE STANDARD
The Standard simplifies its processes and drives effective governance When it comes to the simplification of its processes, Henney explains that The Standard leverages a methodology called ‘lean management system’. She says: “Lean at The Standard is a set of tools and behaviours that focus on continuously improving the value we provide to our customers, with an engaged and empowered workforce.”
The Standard’s goal is to maximise the performance of its systems or value stream to eliminate waste in the value chain. “Asking ‘why’ each step is required, it serves as a baseline for simplification opportunities,” adds Henney. Choosing a third-party risk governance approach, The Standard uses subject matter experts from across the enterprise covering multiple risk areas — geopolitical,
The Standard’s annual Volunteer Expo in Portland, Oregon
Achieving financial well-being and peace of mind
www.standard.com
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THE STANDARD
“ Change is inevitable, it is one thing that remains constant” RACHEL HENNEY
HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE THE STANDARD
technology, compliance, fraud, and legal, to name a few. “This provides a holistic governance approach for our third parties,” says Henney. “These ‘Risk Domain Owners’ work with our centralised TPRM Governance group who act as the central clearing house for TPRM risk monitoring and information management.” In 2021, The Standard further evolved its Third-Party Risk Management Governance group by leveraging leading practices to expand its TPRM programme. “Using a risk-based approach, the TPRM Governance programme monitors third-party providers across a wide number of Risk Domains,” says Henney. She adds: “One of the current focus areas for the programme is to provide enhanced reporting capabilities so business stakeholders have improved visibility to current risk information about their third parties. The Third-Party Risk Management Governance group works with both business and third-party stakeholders to ensure that risks are monitored and appropriately managed throughout the engagement lifecycle.”
The Standard's strategic suppliers help to simplify processes PwC When it comes to quality, cost and control, strategic suppliers at The Standard work with business leaders to determine where the group should focus its outcomes. “While we want to improve all of these, it’s not possible,” explains Henney. She adds: “You can’t require that a supplier is fast, inexpensive and delivers sustainable solutions. Choosing two of these as primary outcomes and objectives together help focus operational results that meet expectations. Our strategic suppliers are integral to core operations and our customer satisfaction.” As a Strategic and Preferred Supplier, PwC works with The Standard to enable and enhance business intelligence and analytics, transforming our end-user ecosystem. PwC and The Standard defined a strategy to simplify our operating and governance model, modernising technology to complement business strategy. PwC’s approach helped The Standard support sustained internal growth and adoption of transformation, including the creation of an internal delivery structure focused on strategy realisation. “Change is inevitable,” says Henney, “It is one thing that remains constant. PwC assists The Standard with the pace of change, and as we progress in our transformational journey, we leverage PwC’s insurance industry experience as well.”
www.standard.com
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THE STANDARD
“ Over the past couple of years, the pandemic has reshaped our industry and its perception” RACHEL HENNEY
HEAD OF PROCUREMENT, SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE THE STANDARD
The Standard’s outlook for the future Looking to the future, Henney expects the industry to continue to be impacted by the current global landscape including the pandemic, geopolitical unrest, and employment retention challenges. She says: “These next couple of years will focus on a deeper evaluation of our supply base, looking at how we can optimise the utilisation of strategic, preferred partners to mitigate inflation impacts.” She adds: “Future trends are in part defined by a reflection of the recent past; over the past couple of years, the pandemic has reshaped our industry and its perception. We sell a promise to be there for our life and disability insurance customers when they need us. “The pandemic, sadly, gave us the opportunity to be there for many people and families experiencing the worst. We're proud of our capability to provide income replacement for people experiencing a disability, and funds to cover expenses and mortgages for families who lost a loved one. The pandemic showed how critical our products are and will continue to be.”
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www.standard.com
A group of employees from The Standard volunteered for Habitat for Humanity
THE STANDARD
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