Underwriter at Old Mutual South Africa

Responsible for risk evaluation, requirements management, pricing and selection / rejection of new and renewal business for all assigned accounts within the portfolio.

• Analyse commercial lines accounts to make decisions based on individual risk characteristics, exposure analysis, hazard recognition and controls.
• Use underwriting guidelines and organisational best practices to ensure compliance with guidelines / regulations.
• Price business according to organisational underwriting and pricing guidelines. Use creativity and underwriting knowledge to write appropriate risks and retain profitable business within delegated authority levels.
• Partner with Sales to support marketing activities to develop ongoing relationships with brokers to discuss market appetite, quality and profitability of submissions, service standards, and underwriting and/or product changes.
• Partner with Sales to communicate with customers on underwriting issues including, but not limited to, decisions on cancellations, declinations, exposure concerns, and survey results.
• Partner with Sales to identify patterns to resolve or improve issues.
• Participate in customer planning and review processes to identify sales and marketing opportunities.
• Promote the organisation’s product through customer networks and stay abreast of changes within the industry and at competitors.

Continuous improvement to ensure effective service

• Actively participate in problem solving activities to define problems, assess current state root causes, design and test solutions, implement solutions, and sustain and continuously improve to permanently eliminate problems.
• Actively participates in continuous improvement by fully engaging in daily huddles, generating suggestions, following appropriate procedures and continuous process improvement work principles, participating in problem solving activities, and utilizing continuous improvement tools to support the work of the team.
• Ensure statutory and legislative knowledge is always current in order to resolve customer complaints, to advise the business on corrective solutions to mitigate risks and to improve the customer experience whilst complying with governance requirements.
• Ensure adherence to organisational policies, practices and procedures.
• Identify solutions to enhance cost effectiveness and increase operational efficiency

Service delivery to ensure customer satisfaction

• Maintain service, quality and desired outputs within a specific functional process through ensuring compliance to tactical policies, procedures and standards.
• Establish productive operational relationships with key stakeholders in the various channels and administrative teams.
• Develop work routines in line with operational plans / schedules in order to manage achievement of service delivery goals.
• Share knowledge on, and participate in the creation of new standards, control systems and procedures to maintain service delivery.

Cost control and governance adherence

• Proactively ensure use of time, of resources, money, materials or equipment is in line with policies and procedures.
• Comply with corporate governance policies, procedures and standards.
• Operate within agreed mandates.

Quality people practices

• Align own behaviour with the organisation culture and values.
• Share and transfer product, process and systems knowledge to colleagues.
• Ensure achievement of own performance objectives.
• Actively share information with other team members regarding successes, issues, trends and ideas.
• Actively participate in own professional development and career path.
• Actively promote a culture of learning and high performance culture amongst team members

Job Requirements

• Grade 12
• Insurance Level IV qualification (or studying towards)
• 2 year underwriting experience
• Any form of sales/marketing experience in insurance will be advantageous
• Computer literate

Additional Details

• Customer : Putting the customer at the heart of business decisions and driving to improve value for customers
• Collaboration : Creates trust, respect and builds meaningful relationships. Able to handle a wide range of relational challenges to ensure collaboration across boundaries
• Leading with Influence : Influences and rallies people behind common goals; actively supports growth and inspires others to exceed expectations. Communicates clear strategies and objectives for own function
• Innovation : Generates creative/out of the box solutions. Challenges the status quo and/or demonstrates ability to relate to challenges from a range of diverse but relevant perspectives. Willing to take calculated risks when introducing novel ideas
• Personal Mastery : Learns and actively works to build self-awareness; develop through experience and feedback from others. Copes effectively with stress and has the resilience to take on stretching and challenging assignments. Adjusts effectively to work within new work structures; processes; requirements and cultures
• Executing : Displays consistent energy, drive and perseverance in order to deliver results. Demonstrates a willingness to take calculated risks to achieve stretch performance