Bright and early on a sunny January morning, 11 interns stood ready to be inducted into the Gallagher Bassett family. Now in its second year, our Internship Program is designed to equip young people with the necessary skills and experience to achieve success as professionals in the insurance industry.
GB’s internship program has already led to us being recognised as one of the top 25 internship programs in Australia in 2016, alongside Microsoft, Suncorp Group and BHP Billiton.
Guided by Program Coordinator Cathy James, the interns received a warm welcome from Managing Director of Australia, John McNamara and an introduction to the company by National Performance and Capability Manager Jodie Birleson.
They were then joined by several guests from around the office, to give them a full insight into life in the corporate world and the values Gallagher Bassett brings to the market.
“The Internship Program is a key strategic initiative for GB. It provides university students with an opportunity to work with Australia’s leading third-party claims administrator and explore employment opportunities in the insurance industry. In turn, it allows GB to build a pipeline of future talent and capability to support the growth of the company. I’m proud to lead this initiative, and work with talented and motivated students”, said Cathy.
Senior staff educated the interns on a number of essential business skills such as networking, communication, customer service and resilience. The aim of this was to support their ability to build long-term business relationships and hit the ground running from their first day.
“All the executives were really approachable and you could see that GB really practices what it preaches when it comes to culture and values.”
The interns participated in a range of activities to ensure that they were aware of what was expected of them and how to successfully carry out their tasks at Gallagher Bassett.
Focussing on these essential business skills will ensure that interns are well aware of not just their duties, but also the pressures of a working environment. In particular, we’ve found it important to build awareness around stress and how people can cope.
A highlight of the orientation was a special talk by burns survivor and now motivational speaker, Doug Herrington. Doug has spent his life going ‘through the fire’ both literally and figuratively – surviving burns to 50% of his body, mental illness and drug addiction. He educated the interns on his resilience strategies.
“Doug’s presentation was really inspiring – it really made us think about how to improve our resilience in the workplace.”
To demonstrate teamwork, interns were challenged to build prosthetic hands for the Helping Hands Program. Our interns undertook this while covering their dominant hand to understand what it feels like to go through life with a loss of limb.
“Participating in the Helping Hands activity really helped me see how people in other countries are struggling with undertaking basic tasks.”
Following the orientation, interns retreated back to their homes for an early morning start to continue their six week internship.
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