It’s an exciting time to join the Digital and Direct team, as we increasingly play a key role in delivering our NFU Mutual future strategy and growth ambitions. To support this, we’re growing our Sales and Service Associate teams in Glasgow and Cardiff with up to 40 new roles being recruited over the next six months.
We caught up with Rachel Mills, Head of Digital and Direct, at NFU Mutual to ask her about the growth in her teams and why these new Sales and Service Associate roles are a great place to build a career at NFU Mutual. Rachel answered our questions below.
What’s your focus as Head of Digital and Direct?
As Head of Digital and Direct, my role is to lead our Digital and Direct teams who provide our direct-to-consumer channels for NFU Mutual, acquiring and retaining customers who have home, motor, equine and small business insurance. A big part of my focus is delivering our future strategy, ensuring our people feel supported as the business evolves and feel empowered in maintaining our quality standards.
I’m also focused on joining up the digital experience customers have on our website with the support they receive from the Direct team, so they get a seamless and consistently great experience, across all channels and interactions with NFU Mutual. Our strategy is to offer customers a choice of channels; we will not stop customers calling us if that is what they prefer to do - it’s what makes us different. That way, we continue to deliver the outstanding customer service we’re known for - and keep evolving as new technology changes how our customers want to interact with us.
Why are the Mutual Direct teams growing so much?
We’re going through a period of significant change, where we’re modernising how customers buy and manage their insurance across different channels. At the same time, we’re continuing to deliver the market-leading customer satisfaction and retention we’re known for; while also growing our Direct Business and the services we provide to our Agency Network of over 200 UK branches.
How are we growing the Mutual Direct team?
As our Direct business continues to grow, recruitment activity is a visible and positive sign of that expansion. You may see roles advertised regularly, which reflects our deliberate strategy to scale the team in a planned, steady way, bringing new people in progressively to support growth. This approach allows us to build capability thoughtfully, maintain service quality, and ensure new colleagues are set up to succeed as the team evolves.
We bring new starters in cohorts of around 10-12, so each group can be fully onboarded, trained, and settled into the team before the next cohort begins. This helps new starters to feel supported—and is part of our commitment to being a great place to work.
How is the Cardiff team different to the Glasgow team?
In Cardiff, the fully home-based team is made up of colleagues in Service Associate roles. Our Service Associates handle calls from existing customers who have questions about their policy, need to make a change, or want to discuss their renewal. While there isn’t a physical office, the team regularly connects both virtually and in person to maintain a strong sense of teamwork.
In Glasgow, the city-centre based team includes people in both Service Associate and Sales Associate roles. Our Sales Associates handle calls from new customers who are interested in receiving a quote and buying a policy with NFU Mutual. They support our growth by helping new customers choose the cover that’s right for them. Once any new members in the team have completed their training, they can work from home for up to 80% of their contracted hours. We’re looking forward to moving our Glasgow team into a new city-centre office later this year, which will offer a vibrant atmosphere and a great working environment.
Providing an outstanding customer experience is central to what we do across both our Cardiff and Glasgow teams. That’s why we invest in onboarding, coaching and ongoing development - so our people feel confident. As a result, our teams consistently deliver the high-quality service we’re known for, which is one of the key reasons customers stay with NFU Mutual for many years.
In your opinion, what makes the Sales Associate and Sales Service roles interesting?
These roles offer a great mix of pace and purpose. Our Sales and Service Associates teams support real customer needs in real time, across extended opening hours and often on behalf of the Agency Network through the Customer Support Centre.
We invest heavily in training and coaching, working together in teams, helping to build confidence in multiple products and systems. Our Sales and Service Associates become experts readily available to help customers and meet their insurance needs.
What’s next for the team?
As well as growing the Mutual Direct teams in Cardiff and Glasgow, I’m also in the process of appointing two new roles to the Digital & Direct Leadership Team - bringing all our digital and customer contact centre leaders together into one integrated team.
Together, this new team will ensure much closer alignment between digital delivery and telephony operations, strengthening performance across all our Digital and Direct channels and enabling the next phase of our strategy.
With the continued growth of our teams in Cardiff and Glasgow - and the new leadership team in place - now is a great time to join the team.
Interested in joining our Digital and Direct team?
Take a look at our current vacancies or register for job alerts by email. We look forward to hearing from you.