As a human resources expert or manager, it is very important to identify the employees and identify the factors that help them shine. Of course, the most important factor in this glare is motivation. According to Hay Group Research, 50 percent of successful employees are among the most motivated. Motivation expert James Sale shares 9 prominent types of employees at work and tips on how to motivate them.

Managers know how important motivation is to their employees success. Hay Group Research proves this by putting it into statistics. According to the research, almost half of the employees who shine in the office emphasizes that the most effective factor in this is that they are well motivated. Motivation specialist James Sale states that there are 9 main types of employees in the study he conducted on the subject. Having an idea of these types of employees and ways of motivation can be intimidating for managers and HR professionals.

Here are 9 types of employees and what can be done to motivate them:

Advocate

According to Sale, this type of employee seeks security, predictability and stability. The manager expects a certain job definition, a well-functioning organization and a predictable career path. Regular communication is the most obvious way to get motivated. Managers should regularly communicate with them, share good news, and explain how things are going to motivate such employees. Regular information and mails can also be effective in this regard. Given that this type of employee is loyal, rewarding the service is an extremely important step in the motivation process.

Friend

For this type of employee, it is very important to establish a sense of belonging, good friendships and meaningful relationships. He loves organizations with strong team perception, social events and helping others. The biggest way to get motivated is to get involved, supported and get their opinions. Its social organization will ensure a strong corporate culture and people-oriented activities shine.

Star

This type of employee often demands respect, social value and approval. He expects career paths to be clear, hierarchical order specific and clear titles. Yldz employee type can be motivated with awards and titles. It will nourish them to show them the career path they are thinking about, to include them in projects for their approval needs, to set regular goals. In this way, the star in it emerges easily.

Director

This employee type likes to have power, influence, control over resources and people. It is important to have a critical role at the core of the business and is generally suitable for leadership roles. For the leadership role, this employee needs to take serious responsibilities and be rewarded according to the results. For this ambitious, hardworking and careful type of employee, power and responsibility are highly motivating. Apart from that, it is extremely important for him to participate in coaching and training programs.

Architect

The only source of motivation for this type of employee is money and financial satisfaction. It can set aside all other expectations and perform very successfully in the name of a promotion or any award. This type of employee designs his life with this perception. If he is an employee at critical points in the company, he has a high financial expectation and will easily give you what you want as long as you motivate him.

Expert

This type of employee wants to have knowledge, expertise and title. Therefore, working environments where personal development is important are very valuable and motivating for them. He wants to work as a coach and mentor, and to participate in various trainings. As long as this motivation is achieved, this type of employee with a leadership spirit will make serious contributions to the company.

Creative

The driving forces for this employee are creativity, innovation and change. It follows new trends in the sector and tries to apply it to the business atmosphere. He is enthusiastic about approaching events and solving problems with new perspectives. Supporting this employee can be provided by providing him with an atmosphere where he can show his creativity. Working in an atmosphere where there is no routine, change and development opportunity will cause this employee to be restricted.

Free spirit

The key words for this employee are freedom, independence and autonomy. However, it is successful in environments where there is no pressure and it can work freely. In general, it operates efficiently in another working environment instead of the office. It is possible for this employee to be motivated with an atmosphere where he can show his talents freely instead of the rules.

Researcher

This type of employee seeks meaning and purpose in his work and wants to make a difference. In general, he wants to work in places with specific goals and a time management accordingly. If his individual goals coincide with the company goals, he does his job even more. How can I do this better? It is important to work in an environment that is suitable for the researchers structure and supports development and innovation. Especially by giving responsibility in the point of improvement and development, the motivation of this employee can be increased.

More:
9 employees' types and motivation ways - Thrive Global

There is no doubt that we are experiencing a paradigm shift in society. Individuals are now desecrating sacred things and hurting those who serve us.

There is an increase in the number of thefts at schools and religious institutions. Physical and verbal abuse of teachers are on the rise, as well as the killing of teachers and pastors. And I must hasten to add that women and children are no longer pardoned by those who seek to unleash terror. The environment has become so toxic, yet we must survive.

Our workplaces and school environments are reflections of our society, so they too have become toxic for stakeholders. Schools ought to be nurturing environments, where teachers use requisite skills and love to guide the next generation. However, they are now facing harsh times with disrespectful students and their parents who will come into schools and attack them.

The fact is the physical environment in many schools need improvement. There is often the non-existence of perimeter walls providing unhindered entrance to the property. For some institutions, the only security present are the vendors or a watchman.

Despite the challenges, our teachers still show up daily to ensure students success, but it is imperative that their safety is assured. The call of Jamaica Teachers' Association President Owen Speid for urgency to be placed on better security mechanism at schools is quite in order.

Signs of toxicity

In many workplaces, it is difficult for one to excel and function due to infighting, undermining, or blatant disregard for fair treatment, which is promoted by leadership. Several sources read revealed that toxicity can be identified if several people are experiencing depression, headaches, nervousness, or fear.

It is also evident when the job demands affect individuals living a balanced life or if workers feel underappreciated. Other signs cited, were that serious physical illnesses may start presenting, personal relationships begin to decay all around, and misery abounds with a deliberate effort share it.

According to Jennifer L M Gunn (2019), There are few more divisive practices than alienating staff members through poor communication. No one likes to feel uninformed, undervalued, or unheard. Top-down leadership can throw a nasty wrench into school culture and effectively dismiss the concerns, ideas, and contributions of a school's staff. In such environments, living things struggle to strive.

Survival is key

When water becomes toxic it becomes challenging for animals to survive, whether it is their natural habitat, or they depend on it to live. So it is in society. As we live amongst each other, the environment becomes toxic through words, inappropriate actions, and the ways things in which situations are dealt with improperly or with injustice. Surviving is not just staying afloat, but prospering and blooming. This does not necessarily mean getting a promotion, because in that environment promotions are not given to the qualified or hard-working, but to those who will play the game.

Breathing in toxic water is about you not losing your sense of self, guarding your joy and peace of mind. It is not easy, because toxic waters are set to destroy; but it is imperative that you are in a state of catch and release. This means to be in a state in which you are prepared to quickly release those who offend you or perpetuate the cycle of toxicity.

One way in which people may function is to be careful of your associations. If you associate with negative people it's inevitable that your mindset will begin to change from having hope to becoming a pessimist. It can tamper with your joy as you ingest the negative juices being spewed out.

Psychologist Nicole Martinez recommends the maintenance of a positive mindset. Another strategy is to find outside sources of motivations. Get involved in environments that will validate you, keep you grounded, remind you of who you are and what you are about. It's a place where you find encouragement, strength and refreshment.

Sometimes it's within a group, like the church. Many have found that the Word of God and the people of God have provided that atmosphere. Taking your vacation days and department leave, as well as learning a new skill for personal development or to facilitate job change can be helpful. Institutional leaders can facilitate staff growth and development through much professional development workshops focusing on building staff morale, staff recognition functions, and managing how promotions are attained. Additionally, organisations can design or adapt staff incentive programmes to inspire staff, which will have a positive impact on production. It is important to know that survival is of utmost importance and it is in your hands to live. Breathe!

Andrea Palmer-Richards is a senior lecturer at Sam Sharpe Teachers' College. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or andrea.richards@samsharpe.edu.jm.

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Breathing above the toxic environment - Jamaica Observer

Published 21 February 2020

Martin Mackay extolls the benefits of working in the Highlands.

Theres a common misconception that having a thriving career in law means you have to work in a large city such as London or Edinburgh.

Having left a firm in Edinburgh to practise law in the Highlands over 20 years ago, I can confirm that simply isnt the case.

In fact, Ive listed five reasons why its a great place to develop your career as a lawyer.

The scope of work

Being involved in client work that is exciting, challenging and innovative is what every ambitious lawyer enjoys. Whats currently happening in the Highlands presents potential opportunities for lawyers to apply their skills and develop their careers.

5G roll-out for Inverness, development of the UKs first spaceport, the duelling of the A9 and A96, housing developments, investment in tourist attractions and accommodation, renewables contracts, decommissioning work, the buying and selling of land farms and estates as well as multimillion projects to transform the regions ports and harbours.and thats just for starters.

Theres a huge volume and variety of interesting activities underway - all of which require legal advice, whether that extends to private client, corporate matters, real estate or a specific industry/ area of expertise.

Connectivity

Living and working in the Highlands doesnt mean youre cut off from the rest of the country far from it. Youre only a video call, phone call or email away and if youre attending a client meeting or team session in another part of Scotland or further afield, strong transport links nearby give you the option of travelling in person by air, train or road.

Being part of Scotlands largest firm also means you have colleagues to provide support whenever required, so if youre working on a project that requires strength in numbers, cross-team collaboration, or specific expertise, you can rely on people across the firm, regardless of location, to become involved.

A great way of life

Being in a big city where the pace of life can be frantic often lends itself to higher stress levels and studies have shown that living in a rural area is associated with higher levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction.

On a day-to-day basis, the commute to work is a far cry from the noise and bustle of a crowded city who wants to see grey buildings and roadworks when you can enjoy views of mountain tops and the open countryside?

The countryside surrounding the office provides a great escape for lunchtime walks, which a few of my colleagues do regularly, and I personally enjoy being out and about meeting clients at their place of work - another opportunity to enjoy the beautiful area we live in.

Activity-filled weekends and evenings

At the end of a busy week, or during the long summer evenings you wont be short of things to do.

Inverness is a thriving hub of shops, and together with the wider local area has a multitude of cafes, restaurants and bars and there are high profile events including festivals and concerts frequently hosted in the area.

If youre an outdoors person, youre in the best place. The Highlands and North Coast 500 are consistently ranked among the top ten places to visit or experience, so theres plenty to explore whether youre a Munro bagger, camper or water sports/ski/snowboarding enthusiast.

For sports, the region is full of community organisations and clubs, plus two professional football teams, rugby clubs and world-class golf courses, so you wont be short of activities to fill your spare time.

Career and personal development

In addition to the technical side of the job, working in the Highlands offers the chance build strong links directly with clients, their businesses and advisers. There are lots of networking opportunities, supported by the likes of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and various local organisations. Theres also a strong focus on sharing knowledge and recognising achievements, through seminars, workshops and award programmes.

Martin Mackay is a consultant at Brodies LLP

Read more:
Martin Mackay: Five reasons to work in law in the Highlands - Scottish Legal News

Apparently there is a television show on Netflix called Sex Education. According to the BBC, it was reportedly watched by 40 million households in the first few weeks. I havent seen it and do not intend to, but the hype surrounding it is indicative of where popular culture is right now.

Anything with the word sex in it is going to get a disproportionate amount of attention. Nothing new there. People often accuse the Church of being obsessed with sex, as if that were all her moral teaching was about.

The Churchs vision for authentic human sexuality (not just the sexual act) is an important foundation upon which questions about life and love rest. As St John Paul taught, the male-female relationship is the deepest substratum of human ethics and culture. Thus, he proclaimed, Human life is by its nature co-educational and its dignity as well as its balance depends, at every moment of history and in every place of geographical longitude and latitude, on who she will be for him and he for her.

I am always struck by this co-educational aspect of moral formation, because it means that whatever our state in life married (with or without children), single, ordained or consecrated religious we are all called to human flourishing through life-enriching relationships.

From this September schools across England will have to teach what the Department for Education (DfE) now calls RSHE: Relationships, Sex and Health Education. Even though the DfE has been at pains to say there is no legal obligation upon primary schools to teach sex education, there has been a great deal of focus in the media on the impact this is going to have on young children.

Negatively speaking, there is no escaping the fact that many parents are nervous. There have already been some high-profile cases about the adverse and even emotionally damaging effect that some of the materials being aggressively promoted to schools are having. Social media is full of comments from parents who have been deeply distressed by some of the explicit images and language that their children have been exposed to, and how it has affected their child emotionally (to say nothing of the spiritual harm).

There is also the menacing influence of gender ideology creeping into schools and the power and influence that transgender activist groups have over public bodies. Pope Francis has been most emphatic about the dangers of this. In a speech to a gathering of the International Catholic Child Bureau in April 2014, he denounced such experimental education programmes, saying children are not guinea pigs.

One has only to consider how the new password-protected toolkit for teachers issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (under the Ministry of Justice) will guide teachers on how to police what goes on in the classroom for alleged hate crimes against transgender persons. Will this spell danger for pupils who openly declare their conviction, based on science as well as faith, that as far as gender is concerned, there is only the biological objective reality of the sex of male and female? Who knows?

The new statutory regulations from the DfE are supposed to allow schools with a religious character to teach and present issues around relationships and sexuality that conform with their doctrines and the moral, religious convictions of the families whom they serve. That being the case, what can be done from a positive perspective?

A Fertile Heart: Receiving and Giving Creative Love is a new resource for Catholic and other faith schools to assist them in the provision of RSHE. The vision is simple: to provide an inspiring and dynamic programme for the spiritual, moral, emotional and intellectual development of young people, enabling them to fully appreciate and understand whatmakes for life-enriching relationships.

The mission is creative: teaching young people that true freedom is so much more than just the mere freedom to choose; it is also the real and authentic freedom to choose well. The purpose is clear: to enable educators and parents to transmit the profound truths of the human person to children in a comprehensible, attractive and convincing way so that their desire to live by these truths grows daily. In this great endeavour we are all partners in a shared task.

A Fertile Heart is a faith-inspired programme of study that offers schools (especially those with a strong Christian identity), a new way of approaching RSHE that invites teachers and pupils to explore together the big questions of life. These include: what does it means to be human; why does sexual difference matter; and what lies at the heart of authentic personal dignity?

The content reinforces universal values of personal development, growth in character, mutual respect, love and patience.

It thus complements good Religious Education, as well as parochial catechesis of the young for the sacraments of initiation. A Fertile Heart aims to contribute to the challenge laid before us in Amoris Laetitia that there should be an education in hope within which a sound response to the need for wholesome sexuality education can take shape.

In our current climate of new demands being made on our schools, we hope that A Fertile Heart will be used alongside other recommended material. Soon online resources will range from training and orientation videos to lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations with carefully crafted guidance notes to help teachers, including those who are not specialists in RSHE or Religious Education, to share the vision with material that is more accessible. It has been developed over a three-year period with educators, schools and moral theologians.

Several bishops have given positive feedback and endorsements, including Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff, who says: A Fertile Heart is offered as an important aid to pupils, parents, teachers, governors and clergy to remind us all that We are Gods work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it (Ephesians 2:10).

There is no denying that the whole area of RSHE is fraught with enormous challenges and tensions in the wake of relentless pressure of state imposition of progressively libertarian social policies.

Yes, times are tough and challenging for seriously minded Catholic parents and educators, but let us take courage from the words of St Thomas More, who wrote: You wouldnt abandon ship in a storm just because you couldnt control the winds.

Edmund Adamus is education consultant for fertileheart.org.uk, a new moral formation curriculum designed by Panda Press Publishing. Visit the website to become a supporter of the project, which hopes to invest profits back into continually improving resources and widening their availability. The project also hopes to establish a charitable trust to benefit credible causes connected with authentic Christian formation and evangelisation

Originally posted here:
Relationships education: there's a better way - Catholic Herald Online

1. Align your strategy with the national wellbeing agenda:Recently, the National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing announced the launch of 'Business for Wellbeing Council' - a public-private partnership that is designed to improve workplace wellbeing in the private sector. The council hosts eight top national and multinational enterprises serving across diverse sectors. These include Majid Al Futtaim Group, Landmark Group, Emirates NBD, Etihad Airways, Aldar Properties, Emirates Airlines, Unilever, and Cisco. The initiative is in line with the objectives of the National Strategy for Wellbeing, which was issued last year by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing is aimed towards promoting wellness in the workspace. Creating awellness framework on the basis of the principles outlined by the UAE government can give you the right foundation to get started.

2. Create an effective recognition system: Rewards and benefits are necessary to keep employees feeling valued and appreciated. They go a long way in keeping your teams happy, which reduces the turnover rate and shows better bottom line results. With most of todays workforce today being comprising of millennials, especially in the startup ecosystem, its time to change the age-old thinking about rewards from being money, insurance and housing perks, to what is valued more. Very often, rewards arent enough to motivate and incentivize an employee. It is important to give your employees something beyond a tangible reward to show them that their efforts are being recognised. This is why you need to encourage managers and departments to recognize their employees. This could be in the form of a weekly announcement or even as simple as a company-wide e-mail.

3. Invest in training programmes: Training is an approach that yields long-term results, constantly upgrading employees to equip them with the skills they need. This technique has personal development and growth at the helm of it and will encourage employees to be more productive and happy.. Bob Moritz of PwC shares his thoughts in an article for UPS: Its also about much more than hard skills like learning new digital tools and competencies. The soft skills leadership, adaptability, how to translate feedback into measurable change are what make the short-term skills training more long lasting and transformative. People are looking to leaders to provide a trusted path forward. Leaders need to understand the needs of employees: where they want to go, what motivates them and what is going to enable them. They need to learn how to lead in fast-changing times, empower people and create a culture of lifelong learning where entrepreneurship will thrive.

Also read: The X factor of great corporate cultures

4. Emphasise on a healthy work-life balance: People today have many passions, hobbies, and extracurriculars that they care about. It may be taking music classes, learning to code in their spare time, or even just cooking. If your employees spend a lot of hours in the office office, they will either experience burnout or eventually see a drop in productivity. So ensuring that work-life balance is a priority is a must; encourage your team to explore their interests outside of work to live a more fulfilling life. It can make a world of difference to how much they value themselves and your business.

5. Promote a happier, friendlier work environment: Happy employees make a happy company. There is nothing worse than watching the hours go by until you can leave work nor see an employee who does that. Take steps to promote friendliness and fun at work and youll feel the difference in employee morale. As the boss, also try to let go of superiority and embibe humility. Itll go a long way in easing the relationship your employees have with you, and make them feel more comfortable as well as respected. A thank you and please go a long way in promoting happier emotions at work.

Read more:
Wellness in the workplace integrating initiatives that work - SME10X

DMU has celebrated its commitment to peoples beliefs and the part it plays in their wellbeing with the official launch of OpenFaith.

Mayor of Leicester Sir Peter Soulsby joined Interim Vice-Chancellor Andy Collop at the event which was held in the Breathing Space at DMU, along with Phil Scarffe, DMUs Head of Student Welfare, and Mej Rahim, Student Cohesion Officer.

Faith and wellbeing advisors with Sir Peter Soulsby in the Muslim prayer room

OpenFaith is a part of #HealthyDMU and incorporates faith and spirituality into wellbeing and welfare services.

OpenFaith encourages students of all faiths and no faith to come together in celebrating diversity and humanitarian values.

The initiative encourages students and staff to access a variety of spiritual facilities including the prayer room, chaplaincy and the Breathing Space.

It is open to all regardless of belief and encourages staff and students to be able to explore spirituality, faith, religion and all belief systems in an open and accessible way.

As part of #HealthyDMU, all OpenFaith related activities, such as meetings, masterclasses and visits, focus on the health and wellbeing of students as well as supporting growth and personal development.

Following a tour of the facilities, Sir Peter said: This event today represents all the very best in Leicester and all the very best in DMU. You not only have a very diverse university but you are in a uniquely diverse city.

I do not for a moment pretend everything is perfect, although we do things better than any other city I know.

The diversity and cohesion that we are so proud of is always a work in progress so OpenFaith and this Breathing Space are important.

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DMU is exemplary in the physical connection it has with the city but what is amazing is the extent to which the people in the university set out to be an integral part of the city too.

This is more than just a physical space. It is about a community and the communities within that. With that I congratulate you and wish you well for the future.

Interim Vice-Chancellor Andy Collop said: We are very proud of our diverse community of students and staff and one of the great things we can do as an institution is to support that diversity and allow it to flourish.

People are at the heart of the university and faith plays an important role for many of those peoples wellbeing.

Harminder Singh Jagdev is Sikh faith advisor at DMU. He said: This space is brilliant. Since I started in September I have seen more and more people coming here and using it. I hope that growth continues.

Mej Rahim, Student Cohesion Officer at DMU, said: I think this space is integral to the student experience.

People look for a place that they belong and this has become really popular with the students. We have people of different faiths and no faiths coming together and talking to each other and breaking down barriers.

Posted on Thursday 20th February 2020

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DMU launches OpenFaith to recognise people's beliefs and its part in their wellbeing - De Montfort University

On what was a filthy night in northwest Belgium, amid the swirling wind, rain and hail, Jesse Lingard reached a milestone. It was his 200th appearance as a Manchester United player. For context, that is 48 more than Dwight Yorke, 23 more than the late Duncan Edwards and remarkably fifteen more than Eric Cantona.

Lingard joins a century of others in Uniteds 200 club. At a sporting institution of this size, stature and ambition, no player reaches such a point without having the talent and application that is required to succeed there. This may be an era of mediocrity in Uniteds long, trophy-laden history but it is nevertheless a proud and commendable achievement.

And yet, Thursday was otherwise an evening for Lingard to forget. Only a few United players performed well in the 1-1 draw with Club Brugge and Lingard was not among them. He was far from the worst, further still from the best. But, as is increasingly the case with Lingard, he received more criticism than any of his equally ineffective team-mates.

Some of it is understandable. It is easy to see what many supporters think Lingard should be producing when looking at new recruit Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese has only made three appearances to date this latest outing came as a substitute and lasted just nine minutes but it is already clear that he makes things happen in a way that Lingard, Juan Mata and Andreas Pereira do not.

And as United are still in the market for another creative, attack-minded type capable of playing as a No 10, it is hard not to conclude that Lingards United career has only one direction of travel. His contract expires in the summer of next year, when United can automatically extend Lingards existing terms for a further 12 months. By that point, will they want to? And willLingard himself?

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The answer to both of those questions will almost certainly be no unless his long standing struggles for form and the relentless, sometimes gratuitous criticism of his performances have subsided. Lingard is attempting to turn things around.He has scaled back his social media habits. He does not read the newspapers.Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has spoken positively but also sincerely about the players efforts to improve in training.

And yet, it is also only natural for Lingard to be affected by hisform and the near-constant criticism. Last weekend, he reacted to the death of television presenter Caroline Flack by lamenting the pressure of social media and the national press in the public eye. Its actually a joke, he wrote. All human beings have feelings we are not robots. He has not tweeted again in the days since.

Any high-profile attacking player who only has two goals and an assist to show for their efforts midway through the season must accept they will be scrutinised, but this pervasive idea that Lingard is a worse player than the majority of his team-mates is wrong. It foregrounds the most challenging 18 months of his life and career and it forgets the previous two-and-a-half years of progress and personal development under Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho.

Solskjaer, by contrast, has not managed to elicit the same level of performance. Lingard has never been an easy player to categorise, but he does not fit neatly into any of the Norwegians preferred systems. There once was room for the bustling, energetic and hard-working presence that Lingard was when at his best. At 27-years-old, there is no reason why he cannot be that player again. But in order for him to rediscover that form, a change of scenery feels more and more necessary.

Earlier this week, amid all the fury about Paul Pogbas long-term future, it went relatively unnoticed that Mino Raiola publicly confirmed he is now representing Lingard as well as Pogba. For sure, I will reach out to Ole. I only wish him all the best, Raiola said as part of his spat with Solskjaer. Wishing him all the best is wishing Paul Pogba all the best, and wishing Jesse Lingard all the best.

And what may now be best for both Lingard and United is a parting of ways. It would be a shame for an academy-produced, locally-sourced first-team player to leave the club but the incessant debate on Lingards true ability is beginning to develop some common, neutral ground. Whether you believe he is a talented player or not, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is in need of a new start.

See more here:
Jesse Lingards problems at Manchester United may only have one solution - The Independent

Coles

A new partnership between Essendon Football Club and Coles is set to help Tiwi female football players to realise their dreams of becoming AFLW players.

The five-year partnership aims to unearth the newest stars of the AFLW by providing new opportunities for talented female footballers to make their way through Essendons Tiwi Pathway Program to the VFLW.

Talented footballers from the Tiwi Islands will live, train and play in Melbourne for Essendons VFLW team and receive mentoring and support from Coles, the largest private-sector employer of Indigenous Australians with more than 4,400 team members working across the country.

The young female talent will have a full immersive experience at the Club, focused on professional and personal development, elite training and preparation.

Coles becomes the official partner of the Bombers Tiwi Womens Pathway Program, the official supermarket partner of the Essendon Football Club and the official shorts partner of the clubs VFL Womens Team. The partnership is in addition to Coles support of the AFLW and AFL competitions which will see a focus on important issues such as health, nutrition, inclusion and community support.

Coles Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Ronson said Coles is excited to partner with the Essendon Football Club to inspire and support young Indigenous female footballers from the Tiwi Islands.

Supporting Indigenous communities is something we are passionate about at Coles. We are so inspired by the stories of these incredibly talented women and are delighted to be supporting them on their journey from the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne and hopefully help them realise their dreams of playing in the AFLW, she said.

Essendon Chief Commercial Officer Justin Rodski said it was a truly immersive partnership that would strengthen the Clubs female football pathways.

We are so proud to align with a national brand like Coles, who like our organisation, are genuine and committed to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities right across Australia, he said.

This partnership also reflects both organisations investment into providing mentoring and professional development opportunities for young female football talent in remote communities like the Tiwi Islands, while also providing a worthwhile immersion experience in Melbourne to support their footballing dreams.

Coles fresh ambassador and award-winning chef Curtis Stone, who has spent time exploring the culinary delights of the Tiwi Islands in his program Surfing the Menu, gave the players a warm Melbourne welcome by sharing some tips and tricks in the kitchen, while the girls showed off their skills on the football field.

The way womens football has progressed is just unbelievable. To meet these three incredible women from the Tiwi Islands which is this beautiful little remote part of Australia right up just off the coast is such an honour. To see them come down and chase their dreams, its amazing because I bet these girls one day will be heroes for the next generation, Curtis said.

VIDEO: Essendon and Coles team up

/Public Release.

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Coles and Essendon team up to unearth more Tiwi talent - Mirage News

COLUMBUS Feb 21, 2020 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of State Auto Financial Corp earnings conference call or presentation Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 4:00:00pm GMT

State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP of Commercial Lines & MD of State Auto Labs

Welcome, and thank you for standing by. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to State Auto Financial Corporation's Director of Investor Relations, Natalie Schoolcraft.

Thank you, Carol. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Today, I'm joined by our Chairman, President and CEO, Mike LaRocco; Senior Vice President and CFO, Steve English; Senior Vice President of Personal and Commercial Lines and Managing Director of State Auto Labs, Kim Garland; Senior Vice President of Data and Analytics, Jason Berkey; Chief Actuarial Officer, Matt Mrozek; and Chief Investment Officer, Scott Jones. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the lines for questions.

Our comments today may include forward-looking statements, which, by their nature, involve a number of risk factors and uncertainties, which may affect future financial performance. Such risk factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. These types of factors are discussed at the end of our press release as well as in our annual and quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Financial schedules containing reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures, along with other supplemental financial information, are included as part of our press release and available on our website, stateauto.com, under the Investors section.

Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [3]

Thanks, Nat, and good morning, everyone. First, I'd like to welcome Mayor and congratulate him on getting the opportunity to file the most innovative and exciting company in the P&C space. Welcome, Mayor.

Next, let me update you on some internal changes we made at the beginning of the year. I asked Jason Berkey to lead our Data and Analytics area as our Chief Data Officer reporting to me. We believe that a combination of technology, data, analytics and innovative culture will be a key factor in who wins going forward. Therefore, we felt it was critical to creating this focused and centralized group. With this change, I consolidated our business lines, both personal and commercial, under Kim Garland's leadership. Kim previously led personal lines before moving to commercial lines, so his institutional knowledge will ensure a seamless transition.

Now for the results. 2019 was a year that had many twists and turns, ups and downs, but ultimately, it was a successful year. We started this journey to modernize State Auto just a few years ago, and last year, we took another significant step forward. At the end of the last year, I said the turnaround of State Auto was complete. I was mostly correct. Unfortunately, there were 2 areas that we had covered early in 2019 that needed additional intention. There were some flaws in our personal auto product and our personal auto platform. While I'm disappointed that these challenges put us behind our schedule, I'm pleased that we have put fixes in place and entered 2020 prepared to compete across all our lines of business. Kim will address the product challenges in auto and what we fixed in 2019 and the changes that are coming early this year.

The auto platform needed some additional work to improve both the speed and stability as well as enhancements to improve our processing of auto endorsements. The vast majority of that work was completed by the fourth quarter of last year, with just a handful of updates that will be resolved in the first quarter. Again, while these fixes were not anticipated as we entered the year, I'm pleased that we were able to make the needed adjustments. This is the benefit of having a modern digital platform.

Unfortunately, the result of our misses was a year where we did not grow across auto and failed to make an underwriting profit, both unacceptable results. As a veteran of this industry and specifically auto, I'm confident we can and will bounce back from this poor year. We understand the business and now have a stable and innovative digital platform upon which we will place an appropriately competitive product.

There is room for State Auto to write a significant amount of auto insurance. Our digital approach and emerging product will allow our agents to win their fair share of this competitive line. While we hit bumps across auto and failed to meet our expectations, the news was mixed but much better in homeowners. We continue to achieve a significant growth, a clear indicator of the power, again, of our digital platform and well-designed product. As our auto product comes back and becomes more competitive, whole will benefit as we anticipate an increase in multi-policy sales.

Of course, growth without profit is unacceptable as well, so we consider the overall home results a disappointment. We look carefully at the results and know that we had a significant level of both cat and non-cat weather. In addition, we had a handful of fire losses, particularly in the fourth quarter. The combination resulted in a combined ratio well above our expectations. Now we do not use weather, cats or otherwise or fires as an excuse. We own the results, and we expect to return to profitability this year.

Now commercial lines had an outstanding year. We have consistently expressed a belief that these lines presented a unique opportunity for State Auto. Once we exited large commercial and E&S, lines that are both unprofitable and a distraction, we knew our focus on small and middle market commercial would lead to realizing the potential in commercial lines. 2019 was our first major step in that direction.

Our digital platform for commercial auto and small commercial has been embraced by our agent partners as well as newly designed products that provide better segmentation and matching of rate to risk. Our middle market success has come without the benefit of our new platform. Instead, our culture, which is the foundation of the new State Auto, properly empowered our team, resulting in gains in both efficiency and effectiveness. In the second quarter this year, we will -- we anticipate the start of the rollout of our middle market digital platform. This will allow us to be even more efficient, helping all 3 components of the combined ratio of growth, loss control and expenses.

I'm especially pleased that we grew across all commercialized products other than workers' comp. We believe we can grow workers' comp, but we refuse to file the market trends where rates continue to be set at unprofitable levels. Our focus remains on underwriting, claims handling and getting the appropriate rate. That discipline will offer some growth in 2020, even with the undisciplined pricing in the market. Workers' comp will be the final line on our new platform. Once complete, our agents will be able to write the complete package for both small and midsized commercial on the same digital platform.

We just launched our farm and ranch product on Connect, again, our digital platform. This is so significant because the product has a level of innovation and sophistication that is unique in the industry. Our rapid growth in this line will also be boosted as we add 8 new states, states we are currently in with the rest of our commercial lines business. As I noted in the second quarter, we will start to roll out a middle market commercial, leaving only workers' comp, which should be in the market by the end of the year.

As happy as I am about our commercial growth, I'm ecstatic about the profitability. We still have lines that need attention, but the underlying loss ratios are generally performing to our expectation. We believe our products have been well-designed and are built for ongoing profitable growth. The key, as always, for consistent profitability across commercial will be our expense ratio.

In an industry not known for innovation, words can't capture the pride I have in our team's technology achievement. We set out just a few years ago to modernize this 99-year-old company. Indeed, we were, at the time, a 95-year-old startup. As we enter year 5 of this journey, we have brought State Auto to the front of the industry with our digital technology and new products. The cost was not insignificant, but with the largest part of the investment now behind us, we can continue to build the scale that will lead to efficient growth.

Achieving scale on our platform is key to getting a competitive expense ratio. We will continue to be disciplined about our expenses as we have been for the last few years. Even with the large investment in technology, we have been able to get some expense ratio improvement, but we are now at the point in our journey where we must prove the value of our investment with profitable growth.

2019 was an incredibly challenging year, and our results did not meet our expectation. We take full responsibility for those results. However, numbers do not tell the full story. We now have our digital platform in place for the majority of our products, products that have been rebuilt with sophisticated modeling and pricing. We have stabilized and improved that platform across our largest line. This year, we will complete the rebuild of our auto product that began last year, allowing us to continue our journey to profitable growth in this key product.

Finally, our unique culture continues to be the driving factor in our success. We are building on a lead team of professionals who are innovative, empowered and passionate about winning. We entered 2020 as an organization that is ready to compete and win across personal and commercial lines of insurance.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Steve.

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Steven Eugene English, State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP & CFO [4]

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Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. As you can see from this morning's release, STFC reported net income for the 2019 fourth quarter and full year that was significantly greater than the same corresponding periods in 2018. The swing in net investment gain or loss is the primary reason as it reflects the change in unrealized gains and losses on equity securities and other invested assets in accordance with the new rules that went into effect last year. This new guidance has created the volatility it was predicted to create.

On an operating basis, which excludes the impact of net investment gain or loss, STFC reported $0.29 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to $0.67 in the fourth quarter of 2018. On a year-to-date basis, STFC reported $0.63 per diluted share in 2019 compared to $1.20 for all of '18. Included in these results are the ongoing personal and commercial insurance operations as well as the impact of the specialty runoff business. The lower level of operating earnings is primarily driven by underwriting results with higher combined ratios.

Looking at combined ratios on a GAAP basis, comparing fourth quarter 2019 to 2018, the GAAP combined ratio of 100.4 is 5.8 points higher than the fourth quarter a year ago. Quarterly results can fluctuate, but our fourth quarter cat loss and ALAE ratio of 7.7 is 5.1 points higher than the cat ratio of 2.6 reported in the fourth quarter of 2018.

2 items -- 2 significant items drove the higher level of cats. First, we recorded additional specialty Irma and Harvey losses in response to claim development we are seeing beyond what was expected. Loss development seems to be impacted by efforts by insureds and public adjusters representing insureds seeking damages by late reporting of claims and/or seeking additional damages beyond what we believe we owe on claims already reported. We added to these reserves in the second quarter of 2019 as well. Some of these claims are or will possibly end up being litigated. This drove the 6.6 million of cat loss for the quarter in specialty runoff. Specialty adverse development added 2 points to the quarter and 0.9 year-to-date. For the quarter and year, these cat losses are the most significant story within specialty.

Second, we recorded an estimate of $16.5 million for storms in late October of 2019 impacting the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Collectively, this is $23.1 million of the $24.8 million for the quarter. Comparing fourth quarters, the non-cat loss and ALAE ratios for the fourth quarter of 2019 rose 2.3 points compared to the fourth quarter of '18, and the GAAP expense ratio declined 1.6 points when comparing the same 2 periods. On a year-to-date basis, the GAAP combined ratio of 102.7 for 2019 compares to 100.6 for '18, an increase of 2.1 points. The cat loss and ALAE ratio was up 2.2 points, the non-cat loss and ALAE ratio was up 0.9 points, while the GAAP expense ratio declined 1 point. Each successive quarter, the impact of the specialty runoff has become less and less impactful, and the focus continues to be on the adequacy of our reserve estimates.

I will turn the attention into our personal and commercial segments. As can be seen from our press release disclosures on a statutory basis, our personal and commercial segments' combined ratios were 97.1 and 101.2 for the 2019 fourth quarter and year-to-date, respectively, compared to 92.8 and 98.6 for same periods of '18. Our personal segment drove the overall higher combined ratios in 2019, with quarterly and year-to-date combined ratios above 100, while our commercial segment reported improved results and combined ratios below 100 for the same periods of time. 2019 personal lines underwriting results in the quarter and for the year when compared to the same periods in 2018 were impacted by higher cat losses, ALAE ratios and higher non-cat loss and ALAE ratios. These were somewhat offset by slightly improving expense ratios. The personal lines book grew 9.1% for the year in 2019 when compared to '18.

2019 commercial underwriting results were much improved, with combined ratios of 86.5 and 97.0 for the fourth quarter of '19 and full year '19, respectively, compared to 90.4 and 101.2 from the same periods a year ago. For the year, commercial lines loss and the LAE results improved 1.8 points when compared to 2018, and the expense ratio declined 2.4 points on the same basis. Commercial lines grew over 12% when compared to 2018 for both the quarter and the year. Kim Garland will provide greater product detail in his prepared remarks.

To wrap up my comments on underwriting results, let's spend a few moments on prior year loss development and expenses. For the year, personal lines reported 1.7 points of net favorable development of prior year non-cat loss and ALAE reserves compared to 4.9 points a year ago. 2018 development included 2.9 points of favorable development for homeowners compared to 0.1 point of adverse development for '19. Homeowners has not aligned a business where we expect significant amounts of development as it is short-tail property. For the year, commercial lines reported 12 points of net favorable development of prior year non-cat loss and ALAE reserves compared to 10.1 points a year ago. We continue to see favorable experience emerge on workers' compensation. The absolute dollar amount of development was greater in 2019 than in 2018. But keep in mind, the book has been shrinking, so current year earned premium is less contributing to the higher ratio impact in 2019 as well. Small and middle market commercial reflected higher amounts of favorable development, while commercial auto was roughly half of what it was in 2018.

On a statutory basis, the total personal and commercial lines expense ratio for the year ended December 31, 2019, at 34.4% compared to 35.6% a year ago, a reduction of 1.2 points. With overall growth of 10.2% and net written premium, the expense ratio did benefit from scale. Base commissions, though, as a percentage of net written premiums is trending down as more of our book is comprised of business written on our digital Connect platform. With lower overall underwriting profitability, associated variable compensation was less in '19 as compared to '18, and offsetting these items is the normal pressure from increased fixed costs such as wage and salary adjustments for associates. There was no material dollar change in our project-related costs, although those costs focused more on middle market, farm and ranch and workers' compensation lines of business as compared to commercial auto and small commercial in 2018. With continued rollouts of our Connect system and growth, we would expect to see the overall expense ratio continue to improve as we move forward.

Moving on to investments. Net investment income was up sequentially from the third quarter of 2019 but lower than last year's fourth quarter. Year-to-date, net investment income was $80.4 million compared to $84.9 million for 2018. $3 million of the $4.5 million decrease was in fixed maturities split evenly between traditional fixed income, securities and tips. The overall fixed maturity portfolio and amortized cost declined during 2019. A contributing factor is the settlement of specialty claims and runoff. Overall, specialty reserves are down $85.2 million from December 31, 2018, and stand at $233.7 million as of December 31, 2019.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kim.

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Kim Burton Garland, State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP of Commercial Lines & MD of State Auto Labs [5]

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Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I'll be covering both personal and commercial lines this morning. For both the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2019, it is the tale of 2 different stories. I'll start with commercial lines. 2019 was a historically good year for State Auto, which produced a 4Q '19 combined ratio of 86.5 versus 90.4 in 4Q '18 and a 4Q '19 written premium increase of 12.6% versus 4Q '18. And for the entire year of 2019, our commercial lines produced a combined ratio of 97 and a written premium increase of 12% versus 2018.

The highlights of the quarter and the year for commercial lines. The commercial lines expense ratio dropped 2.4 points in 2019 from 42 to 39.6. Growth continues to strengthen with all of the commercial product lines, except workers' compensation growing in 2019. Commercial new business premiums increased 76% in 2019. Our product is currently on commercial Connect, while commercial auto and commercial umbrella gained traction in 2019, and it continued in January 2020 as we wrote $9 million of new business written premium in these products on the Connect platform. This is almost the amount of new business that we wrote for all of commercial lines in an average month in 2018.

The challenges of the quarter and the year for commercial lines were the following: the commercial auto combined ratio is still above 100, 102.5 for 4Q '19 and 104.9 for all of 2019. We need to both get more rate in commercial auto and continue to improve the expense ratio. And while we have maintained pricing discipline in workers' compensation, we are still shrinking in this product line. We still need to solve how to both maintain pricing discipline and grow.

There are many opportunities in front of us, including farm and ranch Connect, which launched its first 5 states earlier this month. With our farm and ranch Connect rollout in 2020, we will be entering 8 new states.

CPP or middle market Connect is scheduled to launch its first state, Indiana, in the next couple of months. And while we have started to get traction with the products currently on commercial Connect, BOP, commercial auto and commercial umbrella, there is still a tremendous amount of untapped upside potential for these product lines on commercial Connect.

Also, we have only scratched the surface of the expense ratio benefit for commercial lines from Connect. For all of commercial lines, a percentage of premium on Connect is the following: In 2018, it was 1.8%; as of 1Q '19, it was 5.2%; as of 2Q '19, it was 6%; as of 3Q '19, it was 6.4%; and as of 4Q '19, it was 7.5%.

While our commercial lines business still has much work ahead of us, 2019 was a year where the business significantly advanced. I could not be prouder of our commercial lines associates, and we all believe that we are just getting started.

For personal lines, 2019 was a year of challenges for State Auto. Our personal lines business produced a 4Q '19 combined ratio of 103.9 versus 94.7 in 4Q '18 and a 4Q '19 written premium increase of 6.8% versus 4Q '18. And for the entire year of 2019, our personal lines business produced a combined ratio of 103.9 and a written premium increase of 9.1% versus 2018. Personal auto is the product line where State Auto was challenged the most in 2019. Our results reflect those challenges.

For 2019, our personal auto results are a combined ratio of 103; a written premium growth rate of minus 0.1%; a policies in force growth rate of minus 7.2%, which is a minus 5.1% policies in force decline if you exclude Georgia legacy; a new business count growth rate of minus 13.2%; and a retention level of 67.9. For 4Q '19 alone, our personal auto results are a combined ratio of 114.1; a written premium growth rate of minus 5.9; a policies in force growth rate of minus 7.2, again, minus 5.1 when you exclude Georgia legacy business; and a new business count growth rate of minus 20.8%; and a retention level of 67.9%. These are unacceptable results. Questions are, why did these results occur? And what are we planning to do about them? Walking through some history will help explain these results.

First, our objective back in 2015 and 2016 for personal auto was to become a predominantly preferred auto insurer that also wrote the entire spectrum of personal auto risks. This was different than State Auto's historical personal auto strategy of focusing on writing "prime of life" personal auto risks.

When we talk about the higher risk end of the personal auto risk spectrum, we are not talking about no prior insurance risks, but we mean risks with activity, lower credit score risks and minimum limits risks. The industry might describe these risks as standard risks and the better end of nonstandard risks.

From day 1, we understood that to successfully manage this entire spectrum of risks, we had to effectively manage both the preferred book of business and a standard better nonstandard book of business, and that successfully managing these 2 books of business required doing things differently for these 2 books of business, different approaches to pricing and different operational requirements.

Our struggles in personal auto predominantly come from not effectively managing our standard better end of nonstandard personal auto business. Over the last couple of years, we have been evolving our pricing, raising rates on the standard better nonstandard risks and evolving our operations. For example, significantly reducing the number of risks where we accepted 1 month down payment.

Our poor 2019 highlighted that our mistake was not making changes urgently enough or aggressively enough in the area of rates. Generally, our rates for standard better nonstandard business were still lower than they needed to be. And our operations. Our operational approach and execution still resulted in underwriting and premium leakage that was higher for a standard better nonstandard book of business than it was for our preferred business. These mistakes in standard better nonstandard rates and operations resulted in us attracting a higher percentage of these risks than we expected at rates that were not adequate.

To address these issues, we will be taking the following actions: One, we will be implementing an updated personal auto pricing model that lowers rates for ultra preferred and preferred risks and increases the rates for risks at the higher end of the risk spectrum; and two, we will be making operational changes in underwriting and sales that reflect the reality that managing a standard better nonstandard personal auto book of business is different than managing a preferred personal auto book of business. We know what we need to do to improve the results of our personal auto business, and the team is ready and able to execute these changes.

Homeowners also struggled in 2019, but our homeowners story is much different than our personal auto story. For 2019, our homeowners results are a combined ratio of 106.8%, a written premium growth rate of plus 19.4%, a policies in force growth rate of plus 12.5%, a new business count growth rate of plus 20% and a retention level of 75.

For 4Q '19, our homeowners results are a combined ratio of 94.4%, a written premium growth rate of plus 20.7%, a policies in force growth rate of 12.5%, a new business count growth rate of 13.1% and a retention level of 75%.

In 2019, Texas represented 27% of State Auto's total homeowners business, and 2019 was a bad weather year in Texas. There are 2 issues here to consider: One, are the catastrophe and weather loads in our Texas homeowners rates adequate? Generally, we believe that the catastrophe weather loads in our Texas homeowners rates are appropriate; two, with Texas, representing 27% of our total homeowners book of business, our homeowners results are very dependent on the weather in Texas in any given year. We need to increase the growth of our homeowners business in other states so that Texas makes up a smaller percentage of our homeowners business. This will be a focus in 2020.

Again, our results in personal lines are unacceptable. That being said, I'm thrilled to get the opportunity to work again with our personal lines business and associates. During my 6 weeks back in this role, the 1 thing that has been crystal clear is that the personal lines associates are eager and ready for the work ahead of them to improve our personal lines business.

When I look across our 7 major product lines, personal auto, homeowners, commercial auto, small commercial, middle market commercial, workers' compensation and farm and rance, 6 of them are in good condition and well positioned for immediate success, and one, personal auto, has a meaningful amount of work required to get it to our desired state.

And with that, we will open the line for questions.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) Our first question today comes from Paul Newsome from Piper Sandler.

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Jon Paul Newsome, Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [2]

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A couple of related questions. First, I was hoping you could kind of give us some more detail on the auto retention situation and how you think or hope that will change in the future. And then I was hoping as well, relatedly, if you could talk about the auto insurance's market environment. Lots of concerns that it has become a very, very competitive market. And how does that make it -- has that made the challenge of trying to improve the profitability, the book more difficult? Or...

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Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [3]

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Thanks, Paul. I'll let Kim weigh in on both. I've got quite a view on the market environment that I certainly want to share as well. But I think Kim can talk about retention and some thoughts on the market.

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Kim Burton Garland, State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP of Commercial Lines & MD of State Auto Labs [4]

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So I think retention is going to be a combination of a couple of things. So I think on the first side of retention, it's sort of things that we do ourselves. So I mentioned, I think, when we look at rates at both ends of the spectrum, I think we are probably priced a little bit high on the preferred end of the spectrum and a little bit inadequate on the sort of higher risk end of the spectrum. And so as rates are stable or down in preferred, that should help preferred auto versus the retention. Also, Mike mentioned that we have brought greater stability to the platform, and I think greater stability is going to help our agents sort of -- their renewals be less -- have less systems-related issues. And so that should help our retention also. I think a third aspect of it is, last year, we mentioned we had stopped writing a bunch of 1-month down payment, and that business had very low retentions. And so the fact that we aren't writing that business anymore is going to help the retention of a book as a whole. And so there are a lot of things. If we think about each of these markets, I'll call them preferred standard, nonstandard individually, those things should help retention levels in those markets individually.

But 1 of the things I mentioned was because of some operational issues and sort of prices being lower than they needed to be at the higher end risk of the spectrum, we probably attracted a bit more of that business than we were expecting, and that type of business just has general lower retention levels. And so I think what you will see over the coming year is a shift more and writing more preferred business, which just brings a higher retention level. And so as that mix changes, that will be as important a driver as the individual sort of things that we are working on.

When I think about sort of the state of the market, again, it's -- we look at -- I think when we set rates, we look at both what our actuarial indications are and both the competitive position in the market. And I think while we have seen the market getting more competitive, when we go market by market, I think we believe that we can put rates in the market, especially in the preferred, ultra preferred end, that are both adequate and competitive. And so we think even though personal auto is always competitive, and it continues to get more competitive, that we will be in good position there. I think what we will see is, at the higher end of the spectrum, we will take the rate that we need to take. And so we may not be competitive on some of the standard or better nonstandard risks, and that part is fine with us.

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Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [5]

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Yes. And Paul, just to add some commentary. I mean, it's very clear that companies that are spending between $1 billion and $2 billion advertising, and there's a handful of them, they're going to win their fair share of the marketplace. And those advertising dollars, obviously, are driving customers to their site, and they are able to close those opportunities. So it would be foolish not to suggest that there's going to continue to be some level of consolidation towards the top of the market, particularly with a handful, and I truly mean just a handful, of companies that are pushing into that space.

The thing that's interesting about the auto market is that it's extraordinarily inefficient. And what I mean by that is that if you go out, I'm sure you've done this, and get 5, 6, 7 quotes, the range of rates that will come back to you would be surprising. And they're not always the companies that are spending those $1 billion and $2 billion to drive those opportunities. So there is opportunity for more than just a handful of companies to consolidate.

Now do I believe the old line mutuals and the old line regionals are dead men walking and are not going to be able to compete successfully? 100%. Because you have to have some core things. You've got to have a very efficient system to make the process seamless if you're selling through an independent agent. And you've got to have enough efficiency in there that you can have, at least a competitive rate because your expense ratio reflects that.

The other thing that's a misunderstanding about the market is that independent agents are either walking away from auto -- and by the way, a lot of those regionals and small mutuals are trying to switch to become commercial underwriters because they're literally not seeing a future in auto, which creates more opportunity for those tweener companies like State Auto. But the other misconception about it is that agents are just kind of accepting this change and not adjusting themselves. We have a significant number of our agents who are what we would call digital agents or at least a portion of their business is that they go -- they set up online search engines, and they are driving customers to their website. They get the advantage of kind of having that local presence. And they are doing quite well in that space. And what they're really looking for are partners like State Auto that have also a digital presence.

And so the combination of the inefficiency of the market, the bottom dwellers who will start exiting creates opportunities in that space for companies that have a level of innovation around their platform and their products, especially with things like telematics and some of the other changes that our team has been launching and will continue to launch into 2020.

So we're actually all in on auto. I know some of you who look at the market from the outside don't agree with that. But we have a very strong feeling that we can win more than our fair share of that business, and we'll continue to pursue it.

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Operator [6]

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(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Meyer Shields from KBW.

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Meyer Shields, Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division - MD [7]

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Great. [I wanted to push] auto for a second. When you talk about managing the books differently, does that encompass handling the claims differently? And can you talk about your capabilities on either end of the spectrum?

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Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [8]

See the original post:
Edited Transcript of STFC earnings conference call or presentation 20-Feb-20 4:00pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

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Table of Contents 1 Personal Financial Management Tools Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Personal Financial Management Tools 1.2 Personal Financial Management Tools Segment by Type 1.2.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate Comparison by Type 2020 VS 2026 1.2.2 Compact Type Personal Financial Management Tools 1.2.3 Standard Type Personal Financial Management Tools 1.3 Personal Financial Management Tools Segment by Application 1.3.1 Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Comparison by Application: 2020 VS 2026 1.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market by Region 1.4.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Size Estimates and Forecasts by Region: 2020 VS 2026 1.4.2 North America Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.3 Europe Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.4 China Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.5 Japan Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Growth Prospects 1.5.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.3 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 2 Market Competition by Manufacturers 2.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity Market Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.3 Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) 2.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Average Price by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.5 Manufacturers Personal Financial Management Tools Production Sites, Area Served, Product Types 2.6 Personal Financial Management Tools Market Competitive Situation and Trends 2.6.1 Personal Financial Management Tools Market Concentration Rate 2.6.2 Global Top 3 and Top 5 Players Market Share by Revenue 2.6.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion 3 Production Capacity by Region 3.1 Global Production Capacity of Personal Financial Management Tools Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.3 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.4 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.4.1 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.4.2 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.5 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.5.1 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.5.2 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.6 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.6.1 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.6.2 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.7 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.7.1 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.7.2 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption by Regions 4.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption by Regions 4.1.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption by Region 4.1.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Market Share by Region 5 Production, Revenue, Price Trend by Type 5.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Market Share by Type (2015-2020) 5.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Market Share by Type (2015-2020) 5.3 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Price by Type (2015-2020) 5.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Share by Price Tier (2015-2020): Low-End, Mid-Range and High-End 6 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Analysis by Application 6.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Market Share by Application (2015-2020) 6.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2015-2020) 7 Company Profiles and Key Figures in Personal Financial Management Tools Business 7.2.4 Main Business and Markets Served 8 Personal Financial Management Tools Manufacturing Cost Analysis 8.1 Personal Financial Management Tools Key Raw Materials Analysis 8.1.1 Key Raw Materials 8.1.2 Key Raw Materials Price Trend 8.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials 8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure 8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Personal Financial Management Tools 8.4 Personal Financial Management Tools Industrial Chain Analysis 9 Marketing Channel, Distributors and Customers 9.1 Marketing Channel 9.2 Personal Financial Management Tools Distributors List 9.3 Personal Financial Management Tools Customers 10 Market Dynamics 10.1 Market Trends 10.2 Opportunities and Drivers 10.3 Challenges 10.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis 11 Production and Supply Forecast 11.1 Global Forecasted Production of Personal Financial Management Tools (2021-2026) 11.2 Global Forecasted Revenue of Personal Financial Management Tools (2021-2026) 11.3 Global Forecasted Price of Personal Financial Management Tools (2021-2026) 11.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Forecast by Regions (2021-2026) 11.4.1 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 11.4.2 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 11.4.3 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 11.4.4 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 12 Consumption and Demand Fprecast 12.1 Global Forecasted and Consumption Demand Analysis of Personal Financial Management Tools 12.2 North America Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Country 12.3 Europe Market Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Country 12.4 Asia Pacific Market Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Regions 12.5 Latin America Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools 13 Forecast by Type and by Application (2021-2026) 13.1 Global Production, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type (2021-2026) 13.1.1 Global Forecasted Production of Personal Financial Management Tools by Type (2021-2026) 13.1.2 Global Forecasted Revenue of Personal Financial Management Tools by Type (2021-2026) 13.1.2 Global Forecasted Price of Personal Financial Management Tools by Type (2021-2026) 13.2 Global Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Application (2021-2026) 14 Reseach Finding and Conclusion 15 Methodology and Data Source 15.1 Methodology/Research Approach 15.1.1 Research Programs/Design 15.1.2 Market Size Estimation 15.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation 15.2 Data Source 15.2.1 Secondary Sources 15.2.2 Primary Sources 15.3 Author List 15.4 Disclaimer . 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