We are from Aotearoa New Zealand. Our indigenous Maori have a lovely proverb that answers this question:
What is the most important thing in the world?
"He tangata, he tangata, he tangata"
"It is people, it is people, it is people".
This wisdom certainly applies in our world.
We talk to a lot of people about Sentro. We talk to insurance companies, brokers, investors, engineers, employers, friends, family.
I've noticed something really interesting. We'll talk for a while about what Sentro does (group insurance administration) and how we do it (member-focused cloud software). We'll talk about how we make it ever easier for insurers to service their group customers.
Then I'll ask about their own experiences as a receiver of benefits from their employer. It is always the best part of the conversation.
Everybody has a personal experience about what it was like as a new employee to set up and receive their company's group benefits.
Sometimes it feels like a soul-cleansing experience ("I couldn't believe it took 4 months to get my benefit card - I couldn't make a claim!"). Sometimes it lets people share their wishes ("I wanted to get some extra cover, but I couldn't").
But it is always the moment that I know what Sentro is all about - the experience of the insured person (and their employer).
It is hard to articulate in words the shift in feeling when we start talking about their own experience as a new employee. I can *feel* the understanding click in. If something like Sentro would make that whole benefits onboarding experience better, that would be such a good thing.
Our team takes this as our collective challenge every day. Our Sentro aspiration is to enable 50 million workers to make their own choices in workplace benefits.
To make that vision a reality, we must pull together a lot of things:
- enable the group insurer to offer flexible yet profitable products that meet the needs of employers and their people
- support the sales partners and benefit providers who bring these products to companies
- make the employer comfortable about offering their people choice and flexibility, and also make it really easy to administer
- offer a great experience for the insured person and their family
That means thinking end to end about the whole life cycle, but always starting with the needs of the insured person in the workplace in mind.
We are pretty good at this already, but we know we can be so much better and our work every day drives us in that direction.
Workplace benefits including life and health insurance really matter to people.
What is the most important thing in the world?
"He tangata, he tangata, he tangata"
"It is people, it is people, it is people".