Listen: In this episode of the Employee Benefits podcast, Anne Middleton, head of HR for the UK and Ireland at Atradius, details how the organisation supports its employees’ financial and mental wellbeing during difficult economic times.
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need for the trade credit insurer to put mental health support at the centre of its reward and benefits proposition. Middleton explains how Atradius shifted its focus onto mental wellbeing, and introduced vital financial support to further help employees.
At a glance
Atradius is a financial services business specialising in trade credit insurance. Some of the main job roles at the organisation are commercial and risk underwriters, customer services, marketing professionals, claims examiners, collectors, IT roles such as cyber security, asset management, procurement, web technologies, platform engineers, and service desk support.
It has 430 employees in the UK and Ireland, and more than 7,000 in its group of businesses worldwide.
The average employee age is 42, and the average length of service is 12 years.
Primary business objectives that impact on benefits for the coming year:
Persistent risk challenges across the world mean that the demand for services remains strong; continuity and retention of the workforce is very important to Atradius, therefore its reward and benefits must reflect the market and the needs of its workforce. Reward and benefits must continue to be fair, and employees must continue to feel valued.
Career history
Anne Middleton joined Atradius in November 1998. Prior to being appointed as head of HR at Atradius UK and Ireland in 2005, Middleton worked for the group HR department implementing job categorisation for the Atradius Group. From 2001 to 2003 she was a managing underwriter in its risk services department, and from her start date of November 1998 to 2000, Middleton was an HR business partner to the risk services department.
Before joining Atradius, Middleton worked in steel manufacturing for 10 years, first as personal assistant to a managing director, and then joined the personnel department where she attained her CIPD diploma, which eventually led to a Masters in employment law.
Some of Middleton’s key achievements include the introduction of the standard job categorisation across the Atradius Group, as well as the graduate programme that allows the organisation to build a talent pool which aids its succession planning.
“I’m proud to have such fantastic colleagues in my team, my region and the Atradius Group, and that right from our management board and throughout our organisation, we try to do the right things, and particularly try to do the right things by our people,” Middleton says.
“I’m proud that our employee engagement survey results reflect our great culture and our cooperative and supportive management style, particularly important through the pandemic years.”