IAG has announced a “consolidation” of corporate functions, to enable support services to work more closely with customer-facing divisions.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands that some group-level functions such as HR and finance are being moved into the direct and intermediated divisions. This could result in a “small number” of job losses.

In 2020, the insurer split its Australia division into direct and intermediated divisions in an effort to drive growth and profitability, as CEO Nick Hawkins marked his first day in the role by announcing a major restructure.

Staff were told of the latest changes this week, which were foreshadowed in May when the departure of Chief Insurance & Strategy Officer Tim Plant was announced. 

Mr Plant left the business on June 30, and the company said it would “consolidate its group functions to better support its three operating businesses: Direct Insurance Australia, Intermediated Insurance Australia, and New Zealand”.

“Over the past few years, we’ve made a number of changes to the company to focus on our core insurance business and provide the best possible service and support for our customers,” an IAG spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au today.

“As part of this we’re taking further steps to reduce complexity and to simplify our business operations.

“We’re consolidating certain corporate functions and moving some support services into our customer facing divisions.   

“This will lead to more efficient decision-making and allow us to continue to meet customer expectations.”

Impacted employees are being consulted, but no senior executives or frontline customer-facing roles are affected.

“We understand this is a difficult time for those employees and supporting them through these changes is our priority,” the spokesman added.