PruHealth has announced the transfer of its servicing operation from South Africa to the UK has now taken place, resulting in the creation of 150 new jobs.
The insurer has said this first phase is one of the biggest and fastest staff expansion programmes seen in the PMI market.
A work transfer programme, in which PruHealth's South African servicing operation, including all telephony and back office claims processing, has been fully migrated to the UK.
This has created 100 new jobs in Stockport and 50 new jobs in Bournemouth. Customers now have all their claims, servicing enquiries and Vitality wellness programme support delivered by the UK team.
In addition, PruHealth has launched a dedicated distribution services division. A number of operations have been integrated to provide a seamless service, and instead of a one size fits all strategy, PruHealth has segmented how it works relating to each of its sales channels.
The insurer said it has already seen tangible results delivered as a result of these changes. Lapse rates have reduced by a third since the customer service programme began two years ago, and the volume of complaints has halved and is still reducing.
Neville Koopowitz, chief executive at PruHealth said: "Our vision is clear and we are investing heavily to ensure we achieve it. We have delivered an enormous amount of work to lay the foundations, but we still have a lot more to do.
"Going forward in the second phase of the project we will be looking at areas that will add real value and help us go that extra mile for our customers. We are embarking on some exciting new initiatives that mean we will be covering previously unchartered ground."
