Gore Mutual Insurance is on a journey with purpose

When he was a teenager, Chris Sheehan says he could see how much satisfaction his mother derived from her career in the insurance industry. Even so, when she recommended he follow in her footsteps, he says he had his doubts.

That was then. Sheehan is now a field production underwriter, commercial lines, with Gore Mutual Insurance Company (Gore) and says he’s excited to go to work every day. “There’s so much variety in what I do,” he adds. “There’s never a dull moment.”

Sheehan was working for another insurer when three friends suggested he should join them at Gore. He followed up and met with a manager whose descriptions of the company’s innovative and collaborative culture and opportunities for career growth proved compelling.

“I haven’t looked back,” says Sheehan, who joined Gore as a senior commercial auto underwriter in late 2021. “The culture here is amazing. There’s a very welcoming environment all around.”

Founded in 1839, Gore is one of Canada’s oldest property and casualty insurers. Over the decades, it has expanded and adapted as changes in society brought about new demands. In 2019, Gore launched Next Horizon, an ambitious strategy to transform itself from a mid-size regional insurer into a national one.

To that end, it focuses on streamlining operations and investing significantly in talent and cutting-edge technologies. Gore also refreshed its brand as a modern mutual defined by its purpose: Insurance That Does Good.

Chief people officer Sonia Boyle says being a purpose-driven organization is integrated into everything Gore does. This includes the positive impact it has on attracting and retaining employees who want to work for an organization whose values they share.

In addition to its history of corporate philanthropy, Gore provides a range of initiatives and opportunities for employees to get involved with charities and non-profit organizations.

Through its Circle of Good program, for example, Gore supports the causes that matter most to employees. This includes matching an employee's personal donations up to $500 a year, fundraising efforts up to $1,000 a year and personal volunteer hours also up to $1,000 a year.

“Our employees want to be part of something bigger,” Boyle says. “Volunteering helps bring our purpose to life.”

Gore is committed to helping employees thrive in their careers and uses a wide range of tools, including data analytics, to assess how it’s doing. Regular sentiment checks, biannual employee engagement surveys, focus groups and town halls also highlight employees’ perspectives on a range of matters like the workplace culture and their job satisfaction.

Sheehan, for one, is happy to be asked so many questions.

“You don’t feel like a number, you feel like your opinion really matters,” he says. “They’re really willing to listen and to make positive change.”

Sheehan initially worked as in-house underwriter in Gore’s head office in Cambridge. Then, in mid 2023, he leaped at the opportunity to become a field production underwriter and work with brokers throughout the Region of Waterloo as well as the rest of Ontario.

Armed with his laptop, Sheehan says he has access to all the tools and technology he needs to offer timely advice and solutions to Gore’s broker partners and their customers. Still, he says, he can only do his job thanks to all the support he receives from the team back in the office.

Gore’s focus is clearly on the future, Boyle says, but its history and legacy remain relevant.

“We were founded by people who got together to help one another overcome adversity,” she says. “We still operate for the benefit of our people, broker partners, customers and the communities we serve.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Waterloo Area’s Top Employers winners, published January 14, 2025 in The Waterloo Record. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.