Bupa changes way it pays staff in wake of royal commission

Health insurer Bupa says the “quality of customer conversations”, and not sales, will drive how much it pays its staff.

Bupa says when you don’t deal with customers in an ethical way “you don’t have any integrity to what you do”.

Health insurer Bupa has enhanced changes to the way it remunerates customer-facing staff in the wake of the royal commission into financial services, with sales no longer the driving metric.

Justin James, director of customer growth at Bupa, said private health insurers, and all other industries, could not turn away from seeing that what was revealed in the royal commission, and prior to that the 2017 Sedgwick retail banking remuneration review, as part of their problem.

“I absolutely believe we are all facing the same expectations from customers and community and we all have to rise to that challenge,” he said.

Mr James added that it was not a regulatory requirement to change the way sales staff were remunerated but said it was prudent of any sector to review their business in the wake of the findings of the royal commission.

“If we look to the next six to 12 months and whatever government is in power we will see the majority of the recommendations from the royal commission hopefully supported and rolled out,” Mr James said.

“I think our regulatory bodies will then put those standards in place.”

Bupa has moved away from a framework solely recognising and rewarding staff based on sales. Performance indicators are now set on customer conversations and the quality of that conversation regardless of whether there was a sale outcome.

Mr James said Bupa had first started to change the way it financially rewarded staff in 2014 but the royal commission and the Sedgwick retail banking remuneration review had refocused it on the issue.

“The royal commission helped validate some of those (2014) decisions, improve them and correct them where they weren’t going as well as we would like.” he said.

“Everything you have seen in the royal commission reinforced that the customer wants transparency and choice and to be given the best for their needs and not being conflicted by interests elsewhere.

“When you don’t deal with customers in an ethical way you don’t have any integrity to what you do.”

Bupa, along with all health insurers, generally fields more product queries at this time of year as Australians are hit with the annual hike in premiums. This year’s average increase, which came into effect on Monday, was 3.25 per cent.