Admiral Technologies: Encouraging Cooperation Over Competition
Admiral Technologies is in the league of companies who have kept pace with the times and redefined their people practices to be able to retain talent. The company is a technology support wing of Admiral Group Plc., aUK insurance company that counts among the coveted FTSE 100 index. The Admiral Group Plc. has been providing insurance products worldwide for over two decades.
Admiral Technologies began operations in India in 2009. Its admirable work culture has already been recognised by GPTW, Times Best Companies to Work For and other renowned independent institutions. Admiral Technologies treats its employees with respect, ensures that their good work is appreciated and offers a culture of learning. The company encourages cooperation over competition and fosters community feeling among its employees.
Work Culture
Gaurav Kumar, Country Head of Admiral Technologies says, “Our philosophy at Admiral Technologies is that people who like what they do, do it better. So we go out of our way to ensure that coming to work is fun and not a routine. We are proud to offer an honest and open culture. Every member of staff is treated as an equal, achievement is rewarded, recognised and most of all, coming to work is enjoyable. We have four pillars that uphold the working culture of Admiral - communication, equality, rewards and recognition and fun. It’s all about creating the right environment for people to let them freely do what they like to do, and then watch them do it better.”
“Being part of Admiral Group Plc., was both a massive help and a huge challenge. How do you transfer culture from one country to another? This was the challenge that the team took on board and with continued efforts of everyone in the organisation, we are starting to see signs that we have built something unique within Admiral Technologies too. Through dialogue with our employees, involving them as part of building our culture, we have come up with few policies that are quite unique to Admiral Technologies and for some other policies that we implemented within the organisation, we were ahead of time,” says Kumar.
Admiral Technologies has an informal work environment, where staff are trusted and have autonomy within their roles. Decisions are made collaboratively and quickly through a flat hierarchy to respond to change. These changes are then implemented almost immediately. Admiral’s laid back atmosphere means that staff are allowed to wear to work what they feel most comfortable in – be it jeans or joggers. Employees also get endless opportunities to advance their career from regular internal job postings, support and training.
People philosophy
By investing in its people and maintaining a supportive workplace, Admiral Technologies assists its staff in achieving their career goals and personal aspirations. Just as an example, over the last ten years, Admiral Technologies hired only a couple of managers externally. The rest of its senior management team has come from within the organisation.
“We believe we are quite unique on this KPI. On average an employee spends four plus years with us within the organisation, which for a mid-size organisation, we are quite proud of. We have a ten-year club, which now consists of five founding members, and we believe it will grow between 10 per cent and 20 per cent every year, which again will be quite unique for a company of our size,” says Kumar.
