Guardian is consulting on staff redundancies as part of its 2025 strategy to reduce growth targets, Health & Protection can reveal.
Interim CEO Peter Mann (pictured) confirmed to Health & Protection the consultation was underway but did not give any details about how many people, which roles or what departments would be affected.
He added the shift in strategy for 2025 required a different team structure.
Earlier this week as part of the strategy, the insurer revealed marketing and proposition director Jacqui Gillies, was leaving after eight years with the business and departing the industry after 42 years.
Meanwhile the provider said it will be focusing on working with fewer advisers and lower growth goals in the next year.
Mann told Health & Protection that over the six years since launch the firm had been focused on establishing the brand, product development and forming adviser relationships.
But he added that the firm’s focus was now moving to cutting growth targets to the low double digits, as opposed to its current 40% growth rate.
According to Health & Protection’s latest Individual and Business Protection report, Guardian had 116,042 lives covered under life insurance policies at the end of 2023 having sold 43,934 plans during the year.
Company reorganisation
Providing further detail on the company’s plans in 2025, Mann told Health & Protection that any strategy required careful thinking about how the company was organised and to ensure it was “well placed to deliver what it has set out to achieve”.
“Given our focus up until now has been on rapid growth, we have built a team structure based on this,” Mann said.
“Our shift in strategy quite naturally requires a different team structure and we have put forward proposals that are now in consultation. Within the proposals, there are some roles at risk of redundancy, and as you’ll appreciate this is an unsettling time for those people affected.
“I’m afraid I can make no further comment on the number of roles we’ll lose, or the departments, until the outcome of the consultation process, which is expected at the end of November.”
Reflecting current economic context
Reiterating his points made earlier in the week, Mann said the company’s strategy reflected its age and stage of the business which it believes is the right path given the current economic context.
“Going into 2025, we now have a full product range, the necessary connections and an established reputation,” Mann continued.
“It’s time to move away from a focus on building scale rapidly, to a focus on delivering the most value from the opportunities we have created by deepening our relationships with like-minded firms.”
Commitment to growth
Mann added the economic context also played an important role.
“We’ve been growing sales by 40% year-on-year – but market conditions are challenging,” he said.
“The sector as a whole is experiencing a decline in overall life cover sales. NMG have reported life sales down by 12% in the first half of 2024. Life cover sales account for a significant chunk of our business, so if life cover sales aren’t growing, there isn’t the same opportunity for us to grow as rapidly as we have.
“Our commitment remains to deliver growth – but more measured growth – as well as to focus on delivering the most value. We still intend to buck the current market trend of declining sales, but we also need to put in place projections that reflect the current market context.”
