Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston says home, motor repair labour still in short supply

Steve Johnston says building and motor repair costs are starting to moderate, but they are still well above the general inflation rate.

Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston. Picture: Brendan Radke

CEO SURVEY 2025: FULL COVERAGE

Economy

How would you rate the momentum of the Australian economy as we head into 2025? Official forecasts have Australia trimming interest rates from the first half of calendar 2025, is that consistent with your view? What are you seeing around inflation in your own business?

Building and motor repair costs are starting to moderate, but they are still well above the general inflation rate with some trades still in short supply, particularly in home repairs, and labour supply in motor repair remaining an issue.

The RBA raised the cash rate by less than other central banks, and unemployment rate remains quite low, so we expect rate cuts when they come are likely to be measured.

Outlook

What excites you heading into 2025? Are you likely to increase, hold steady, or trim your investment spend?

We have increased our investment in growth to what we consider to be a realistic, sustainable level to support our future aspirations. Heading into 2025 this investment is focused on modernising our core insurance policy platform to reduce complexity, support product innovation and enable personalised customer experiences.

We are also investing in further digitisation, automation and the measured deployment of GenAI with a focus on customer experience, increased efficiency and improved risk controls.

Reform

As we move into an election year, in your mind, what’s the single biggest lever that can/should be used to lift Australia’s competitiveness or productivity? This could be across any area from labour market, tax reform, training or other areas to encourage investment.

Tax reform is long overdue. Changes to how and where tax revenue is collected can help increase equity, improve opportunities for young Australians and increase investment in financial and human capital.

Improving the resilience of the homes we build, and ensuring they are built in the right areas, would reduce the negative impact extreme weather has on the economy, freeing up capital to invest in productivity.

Geopolitics

Will a Donald Trump presidency have a potential impact on your business or sector (tariffs or streamlined regulation)? Does geopolitics drive a bigger part of your decision-making?

The impact of geopolitical issues which can dislocate supply chains thereby increasing costs which then flow through to higher insurance premiums for customers.

People

Has your organisation’s approach to flexible working – including working from home – evolved during the year. Is this likely to change further into 2025?

Suncorp was one of the pioneers of flexible working and acknowledges hybrid working is a key driver of our people’s engagement, attraction and retention.

In an organisation as large and diverse as Suncorp, we know that a one size fits all approach simply won’t work. Our leaders are empowered to determine the right balance for their teams and the work they do, be that at home, in the office, or on the road. We are however looking at ways to ensure a more consistent spread in office attendance across the five days, particularly Mondays and Fridays.

Technology

Where is your organisation along the AI journey – is it in the developmental stage, or are you now using the technology at scale across your business? If so, are benefits matching the promise?

GenAI is moving from experimentation phase to scaled deployment across our business, and it is starting to have a real impact for our customers and our people. We have been experimenting with large language models before ChatGPT was widely released and are actively exploring 120 GenAI use cases, with 20 of these slated for deployment in the current financial year.

Given the insurance industry relies on vast amounts of data – including unstructured data in many forms – the future potential of emerging AI capabilities across our business will be significant.