'You don't get to be a 150-year-old company without having an amazing culture'

Brigid Pelino is committed to reshaping common misperceptions abundant in the insurance sector. As the chief people and culture officer at Definity Insurance, she tells HRD that despite some beliefs that insurance is a traditional and conservative field, her experience in the sector has been anything but.

“I have been amazed at the kinds of careers that are available in insurance," she explains. “Over the past 10 to 15 years, the sector has undergone a massive transformation – so it really does make for quite an exciting industry to be a part of.

“I think the impression of insurance being “stable” or “conservative” from a change/transformation perspective  has significantly dissipated. When you have major transformation in the industry due to significant broker and insurer consolidation, changing customer/broker/employee expectations, intense climate change implications, and global supply chain and economic upheaval, the business of insurance is both incredibly complex and extremely interesting.

“It's a really exciting industry to work and grow your career - better than many other industries right now.”

‘You don't get to be a 150-year-old company without having an amazing culture’

And part of what made Pelino’s time in both the insurance sector, and more specifically at Definity, so exciting was the culture.

“You don't get to be a 150-year-old company without having an amazing culture," she notes.

At Definity, formerly known as Economical, this historical success has been pivotal. Pelino prefers the term "culture evolution" over "culture revolution," believing that very few situations require a complete overhaul.

"It's about understanding what made the organization great and celebrating it with the employees who got us here,” she adds. “And then strategically understanding where the culture needs to evolve to be future ready and resilient.”

Over the past 6+ years, Definity transitioned from a mutual policy company to a fully public company, and Pelino and her team faced the challenge of creating and then maintaining high engagement levels.

“Over the long term, you cannot achieve high levels of performance without high levels of engagement," she adds.

The focus of her time at Definity has been on retaining the strengths of the existing culture while introducing new values and behaviors necessary for success as a public company.

The result? Significantly higher engagement scores (moving from 54% in 2019 to top-quartile engagement at 80% in 2023) and a deep sense of belonging among employees, both new and longstanding.

“We've also had a lot of growth,” adds Pelino, who is based in Kitchener, Ont. “That means a lot of new employees coming into the organization. We have that opportunity when they're joining Definity of engaging them on what we're all about, what we expect and what we promise to our employees. We have both an expectation that our employees to live by our values (“We Work Together to Win Together”, “We Inspire Customer Confidence”, and “We Are All Owners”) when they join Definity, and we also have our Employment Promise around what they can expect from Definity as a team member ( Our promise of CARE – Collaboration, Achievement, Rewarding and Empowering).  Each of these concepts have corresponding behaviours that are regularly measured to drive a consistent employee experience.”

‘People always want to be part of something bigger than themselves’

And if anyone knows how to build on past successes, it’s Pelino. Her career spans various industries but all well known, iconic Canadian brands, from Highliner and WestJet to Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire – and pulling from a diverse background has equipped her with the insights needed to adapt strategies across different sectors.

“People always want to be part of something bigger than themselves," she explains. “When they can feel a sense of accomplishment that they've really contributed to the success of their company – team members then feel a sense of true ownership in that company. And I think that need cuts across all industries.

“ The biggest difference as an HR professional, frankly, is coming in and truly and deeply understanding the business model: ‘How do we make money here? How do we go to market? Who are our customers?’ [It’s about] making sure that you understand that value chain of what it is you're delivering to your end customer.”

Whatever sector she’s in, Pelino is particularly passionate about fostering an inclusive environment. However, she  prefers discussing "inclusion" over "DE&I," as the former term itself is more inclusive.

"People often forget that biases extend beyond gender and race to aspects like leadership style, generational or even geographical" she adds.

Making inclusivity automatic

Recalling a conversation with her teenage daughters, who couldn't understand why discussions about underrepresented groups were necessary, only served to underscore Pelino’s own commitment to fostering real systemic change.  

“I remember speaking at a Diversity event and I was telling my two early teen daughters about it,” she explains. “They were confused as to why diversity was such an issue in companies as they fundamentally didn't understand why we needed to talk about  underrepresented groups and creating pathways to help them advance - because in their world of experience, they didn’t see discrimination.”

“In their world, everyone is  accepted and respected for who they are. And I thought to myself, they’re right. The real inclusion agenda needs to be to create a world where we don’t need to talk about diversity and inclusion.  Where it is simply not a social or business “issue” anymore and is only a “strength”.  That is the REAL goal --- but in the meantime, it is incumbent upon organizational and individual leaders to continuously seek out bias/barriers , acknowledge them and develop systemic solutions”.

At Definity, Pelino is practicing what she preaches – measuring inclusiveness through surveys and boasting an impressive inclusion index score of 88%.

“Unless you get underneath and really start to work on those issues, you won't get there,” she tells HRD. “That's how we approach it from a people and culture standpoint – we try to deeply understand what is getting in the way and systematically address through our initiatives and processes.  Our goal is both to increase our representation of deserving groups and increase employee belonging and inclusion for all.”