Company Background

Hastings Direct ranks among the top 12 largest general insurance providers. Launched in 1997, the company offers car, motorcycle and home insurance and now has over 750,000 policyholders, over 1,300 staff and handles in excess of 3 million enquiries each year.

Striving to provide competitively priced insurance, together with exceptional service, Hastings Direct was named ‘Cheapest Car Insurance Provider’ for 2004 and Quarter 1 2005, in an independent survey conducted by Consumer Intelligence. They were delighted to have recently received a High Commendation in the Insurance Times Awards for Call Centre of the Year. Receiving recognition for our customer service underlines the fact that we back up our low prices with excellent service.

Premises

Conquest House, the home of Hastings Direct, is an 80,000 square foot building in six acres of land. With over 750 staff the building is not currently used to its full capacity, leaving room for planned expansion.

The Leicester office has recently been refurbished and the headcount increased to 277. The Company currently only uses the top floor but owns both floors of the two-storey building.

August 2004 saw the opening of the new state of the art contact centre in Manchester’s King Street. The decision was taken to relocate the existing Manchester office to this more central location, in the heart of Manchester’s financial district. 300 staff are currently located at this site.

Excellent Training and Support

Most positions do not require specific qualifications, a good standard of education and good keyboard skills are the main criteria.

Hastings Insurance Services already has excellent in-house training systems in place, dedicated to providing theoretical and practical hands-on training to successful applicants. It is this level of investment in staff that results in recognition such as the Motor Induction Training Programme being accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute Training Advisory Service.