Yafit Cohn is Travelers’ first Chief Sustainability Officer, responsible for leading environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts across the company. Under her leadership and through extensive research and comprehensive conversations with investors and senior individuals across the company – we identified 16 drivers of sustained value, which are discussed on our sustainability website. Each driver contributes to our long-term value, and each is essential to our ability to remain competitive and deliver on the Travelers Promise.

What does sustainability mean to Travelers?

Travelers takes a holistic view of sustainability; we believe that a company’s long-term value creation depends not only on its financial strategy but also on the way it manages various economic, environmental, and social factors.

We recognize that our long-term success requires that we do three things successfully:

• Perform today
• Transform tomorrow
• Make good on the Travelers Promise and fulfill our promise to our customers, communities, and employees – take care of each other

Why is it important for Travelers to put a greater focus on these efforts?

Customers, employees, and prospective hires have been showing greater interest in sustainability-related information. For us, it’s a no-brainer. Showcasing our drivers of sustained value is key to explaining our core belief that our long-term success depends not only on our business strategy and competitive advantages but also on keeping our promise. Only by faithfully keeping the Travelers Promise will we earn the support of key stakeholders essential to creating shareholder value. And only by successfully creating shareholder value will we earn the resources we need to keep the Travelers Promise. One is not possible without the other.

How will Travelers track and quantify the success of our sustainability efforts?

Our success will be apparent when our stakeholders appreciate Travelers’ deeply rooted recognition that long-term success depends on a commitment to all stakeholders. For us, sustainability is not a branding exercise — it’s how we conduct business and create shareholder value.

Kimberly H., Senior Sales Executive at Travelers, went in for a routine colonoscopy in January 2021 and left the appointment with the news that she had stage 4 colon cancer.

“I remember waking up and finding out,” Kimberly said, “I was shocked. These things always happen to someone else, never to you. I had been healthy my entire career.”

In 2019, Kimberly’s doctor had recommended she get the scan the following year as typical proactive health protocol. With the COVID-19 pandemic in full force in 2020, Kimberly pushed the appointment off. When her doctor found out, he urged her to go in 2021. “I called my doctor right after I found out the news and thanked him,” Kimberly explained, “If he hadn’t been so professionally demanding, I probably would’ve put it off for another year.”

Doctors quickly discovered that the cancer had already spread to Kimberly’s lungs. She underwent two surgeries to remove as much as possible and was assigned six months of chemotherapy post-op. “I was fortunate to only have to go through six months of chemo,” Kimberly said, “I saw stage 4 patients who were assigned 12 months ongoing. I had bought two wigs thinking I’d lose all my hair. I didn’t. I was lucky in many ways.”

Kimberly was on medical leave for nine months during treatment and is now in No Evidence of Disease (NED) status, also called remission. She is back at work, assisting Travelers’ agents and doing what she loves.

When asked how she stayed resilient during that time, Kimberly smiled. “My team and insurance industry partners were amazing,” she recalled, “They sent me cards, flowers, emails, prayers, meals – an overwhelming amount of support. Halfway through my chemo treatments my husband said we needed a bigger refrigerator to hold all the cards!”

It wasn’t just the emotional support that assisted Kimberly during this difficult time. It was the financial support as well. “Long-term disability is a benefit that you never think you will use,” Kimberly said, “I was so grateful that I had it. I didn’t have to worry about my job or my income while I was out. I could just focus on my health.”

Travelers’ comprehensive benefits program offers short- and long-term disability coverage, medical, dental and vision plans, paid time off, 401k Savings Program with company match and so much more. “The company has been great to work with,” Kim reflected, “During my leave, they reached out and helped me understand the LTD process, file paperwork, and even connected me with cancer support groups after treatment. I am one of the biggest advocates for our benefits package. I’m so thankful for my colleagues, my agents and for Travelers.”

In this Power of Travelers Is Us video, you will meet Jhavier L., a Software Engineer at Travelers.

While he understands and values the importance of sharing his authentic self at work, it has been a journey to grow his comfort level. He attributes his Travelers managers and mentors for guiding him along the way.

“Being earlier in my career, I don’t want to overstep or make anyone feel uncomfortable and I’m trying to kind of like find the space between which parts of myself should I leave at home,” Jhavier says in the video.  Throughout his career under the umbrella, his membership of the Travelers Pride and Allies Diversity Network facilitated mentor relationships that encouraged him to be more open with his team.

“[My mentor] is teaching me that you bring your entire self to work. So I think the true benefit of Travelers as a whole, even outside of the diversity networks, is that you still have spaces on your day-to-day job with your main team where you can feel comfortable and share who you are.”

Within an inclusive community and with the guidance Jhavier has received, he has found Travelers to be a company where he can grow his technology career and a workplace culture that invites all unique ideas, perspectives and people to the table.

“[My mentor] has helped me to understand the importance of being seen and visible so that people would have more respect for your identity in different spaces.”

Watch the full video to hear more about Jhavier’s journey.

For working parents and other caregivers, finding a balance between the priorities of work and family is a constant challenge. Over the past couple years, many working parents and caregivers have been particularly challenged to keep up with their personal and professional responsibilities. Employees with young children may still face issues finding childcare due to current health concerns or limited availability.

During these challenging times, having the support of colleagues and access to resources has never been more important. Our Working Parent and Caregiver Resource Group provides a forum for employees to network, share tips and resources and show support for each other as they strive to balance their personal and professional commitments. Some of the support and resources include:

• Live, Hosted Events – covering a broad range of topics and activities, from quick coffee chats, to kids’ dance parties, photo shares and panel discussions.
• Real-Time Open Forum – using Microsoft Teams, this forum was created so members can collaborate with other working parents and caregivers to answer real-time questions as they arise.
• Homework Helpers on Demand – employees willing to share their time virtually with a child of a Travelers employee who needs help with homework.

The Working Parent and Caregiver Resource Group was established in September, 2020 as a result of the pandemic and currently has over 1,300 members. This voluntary resource group is led by a team of selected employees to foster a supportive environment for parents and caregivers. All Travelers employees and temporary employees are welcome to join.

The company has made significant progress in reducing its carbon footprint, cutting Scope 1 and 2 emissions* by more than 40% between 2011 and 2020. Over the next decade, Travelers will achieve carbon neutrality by reducing or offsetting an additional 50,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of eliminating the impact of about 125 million vehicle miles. In this way, Travelers will be doing its part to align with the target set forth in the Paris Climate Agreement to limit the global temperature increase in the 21st century to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

This initiative is the latest in a series of enhancements Travelers has made in recent years to make its operations more eco-efficient. These include, among others:

• Cutting energy consumption in half at its largest owned campus (in Hartford, Connecticut).
• Increasingly relying on renewable energy sources to supply electricity at its owned facilities.
• Ensuring all of its owned campuses are ENERGY STAR® certified.

In addition to minimizing Travelers’ carbon footprint, the company’s climate strategy includes providing risk management products and services to alternative energy businesses through its Global Renewable Energy Practice, thereby facilitating the transition to a lower-carbon economy. In 2020, the company grew this business by approximately 40%.

More information about the company’s eco-efficient operations and climate strategy is available at sustainability.travelers.com.

Reforestation Commitment

For years, Travelers has supported American Forests, the country’s oldest nonprofit conservation group, to protect the nation’s forests and promote reforestation. In April 2019, Travelers launched an important and impactful initiative with American Forests, committing to fund the planting of one tree for each Personal Insurance billing account converted to paperless billing. Since then, the company has funded the planting of 1.5 million trees in areas most in need of reforestation while lowering its paper consumption by tens of millions of pages.

The company announced that it is extending its support of American Forests and expects to plant an additional 1.5 million trees by June 2022.

“Ensuring the vitality of our forests is critical to minimizing the effects of changing climate conditions,” said Michael Klein, Executive Vice President and President of Personal Insurance at Travelers. “We are excited and extremely proud to deepen our relationship with American Forests, and we look forward to making an important contribution to the reforestation of some of the country’s most endangered ecosystems.”

“Through our partnership with Travelers, we have made a substantial impact on some of America’s most essential natural landscapes – helping to grow forest resilience in the face of a changing climate and create a better, healthier environment for everyone,” said Jad Daley, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Forests. “We are grateful for Travelers’ generous continued support and look forward to achieving this new goal together.”

Customers can opt in to paperless billing, manage their accounts and access online claim resources by visiting MyTravelers.com.

*Scope 1 emissions include those that are directly generated by the company’s activities, and Scope 2 emissions include those that are indirectly generated by energy purchased by the company.

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Preparing For a Video Interview

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Video interviewing is becoming more common in the hiring process. Advanced technology and the accessibility of video chat apps and programs give job seekers and employers face-to-face interaction without having to meet in person.

Although your job interview may take place in a casual atmosphere, that doesn’t mean you should have a casual attitude about it. It is still a job interview, with the same implications as an in-person office meeting.

Preparation and set up for the video interview is crucial. Consider this advice as you set up, dress up and take on your next video interview.

Set the stage: Choose a quiet space where you can control the surroundings. If you can, try to avoid public places or spots with background activity. Ensure that your backdrop is simple, clean and well-lit. Face a window to take advantage of natural light or set up a lamp behind your camera. Facing the light will help eliminate distracting shadows from your face and background.

Avoid distractions by cleaning off your desk and keeping a glass of water, a pen and paper and a copy of your resume handy. Close applications that may be running on your computer or phone and set all notifications to “do not disturb.”

Tech check: Find out beforehand what app or video platform the employer would like to use and download if need be. Test the application with your internet, audio and video connections, to ensure its stability. It is a great idea to test with a friend to ensure that everything works properly.

Set up your camera at eye level, leaving 10-20% of the screen above your head empty. If your computer is too low, use books to prop it up. If using your phone or tablet, you can also use books or something stable to prop it up.

Using headphones will help prevent echos in the audio and a microphone will help your voice come through clearly.

Dress the part: You may be in your bedroom or kitchen, but you still need to look like a professional. Wear what you would wear to an in-person interview at the company, from head to toe. You will feel and act more professionally if you look the part.

Steer clear of very bright, distracting colors or prints, like stripes, that may cause a visual glitch on camera. Avoid jewelry that makes noise or causes a glare.

During the interview: Similar to an office interview, you want to convey optimism and positive body language. Maintain good posture with your feet on the floor and your back straight, with arms rested on your desk or lap.

Eye contact is essential. When you are talking, make sure you are looking at the camera and not the screen. When listening, smile and nod to show you are engaged. Use hand gestures when it feels appropriate, keeping your movements small and close to your body. Avoid fidgeting, touching your face or looking away from your device.

At the end of the interview, be sure to thank the interviewer for their time and follow up the next day with a thank you email.

If things don’t go to plan: Make sure you have a secondary way to contact your interviewer. If you lose audio, video, or internet connection, call your interviewer and see if you can continue by phone or reschedule.

If an unexpected noise or disruption occurs, simply apologize for the interruption, ask for a moment to step away, or wait for the noise to subside. Mute your microphone and secure the space before beginning the interview again.

With these tips, along with your traditional interview prep, you will be well on your way to making a great first impression.

For the second straight year, Travelers has been selected by the CIO 100 Awards competition, which honors 100 organizations whose teams use technology in innovative ways to deliver business value. This year’s recognition is based on our enterprise-wide approach to digitizing key aspects of our business value chain, and for transforming the way we engage with customers, collaborate with partners and maintain our competitive advantage in risk expertise.

The highlights of our nomination included our powerful use of deep-learning AI models, the Business Owner Policy (BOP) 2.0 product offering, the Claim Virtual Visit tool and our Unified Chat platform capabilities.

We’re applying our models to streamline the underwriting process and improve customer service – especially in the aftermath of weather catastrophes. Our Roof Shape Classification AI Model is one of the latest examples of how we use aerial imagery, deep learning models and geospatial data in an AI-powered tool now used by our agents.

For BOP 2.0, we built a product enabled by a technology platform that includes an AI-powered recommendation engine and uses geospatial and third-party data to predict the business type based on information submitted by agents to properly classify and accurately price businesses up the underwriting process.

And we rolled out a major release for our Unified Chat platform in response to the escalating customer needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, retraining an AI-powered, self-service chatbot within 24 hours to better answer pandemic-related questions.

Mojgan Lefebvre, Travelers Chief Technology & Operations Officer, says, “It is a tremendous honor for Travelers to receive this year’s award two years running. It further demonstrates how an innovative mindset plus advanced analytics and AI can power exceptional customer experiences.”

Read the CIO 100 press release to learn more about the award and consider joining a winning team through a technology career at Travelers.

How long have you been with Travelers?

I’ve been fortunate to celebrate 35 years with the company. I started at Travelers as a Medical Case Manager, acting as liaison between our claim representatives, doctors, employers, and injured employees to ensure the proper medical care was in place to get them back to work.

What is your career background? How did you discover Travelers?

I have degrees in nursing and started my career in insurance. To be honest, I never knew that insurance companies hired nurses. It was 10 years after graduating that I was looking in the newspaper to see what was available for nurses if I moved back to the city I grew up in. I saw a Travelers job ad in the Sunday paper. It sounded interesting and I was one of four nurses hired for the claim department to pilot a new team to handle medical malpractice and Workers’ Compensation cases. The rest is history – 35 years later.

What has kept you with Travelers?

I found over the years there have been 2 key factors that have kept me here.

First, the opportunities. You truly own your own destiny. After my first role as a Medical Case Manager, I went on to serve as a Workers’ Compensation Claim Professional, an HR Manager, an Underwriting Development Program Director, a Talent Acquisition Manager, and more. In total, I’ve held 12 different positions across Underwriting, Claim, and Human Resources during my 35 years at the company.

Second, the people. Travelers encourages a diverse workforce of people who bring many ideas, skills and experiences to the table. This collaborative environment allows each of us to contribute to the success of Travelers while we grow and develop. It’s this and the leadership balance that helps drive the innovation which sets us apart.

Can you tell us about any stand-out moments you have had?

While I have had many unique and challenging opportunities over the years, one that I think about often is being given the once in a lifetime opportunity to create, develop and run the Underwriting Development Program for 7 years. It afforded me the career satisfaction of bringing the next generation of underwriters into the insurance industry.  It was deeply gratifying to see how Travelers’ leadership took a vested interest in the programs and kept in contact with many who completed the programs.

What would you tell someone who was thinking about exploring a career at Travelers?

The opportunities are endless. Remember, it won’t be easy, but you must start somewhere. This is just the first step on the stairwell, so don’t give up, and know that the best is yet to come!

Shot of a young businesswoman using a laptop at work

Managing your career can be an arduous task, but a very necessary one. While managing one’s career is a priority, many people will exhale after landing a job, settle into it and then stay in that job even after years of frustration or doubts about their career path. Who says you have to stop pursuing a “career” that is meaningful, gratifying and has some semblance of what you dreamed of or dressed up as during Career Day in elementary school?

There is something powerful about transferring what is in your head, what you dream about and what you envision, to what is on a piece of paper. A study done by Dominican University psychology professor, Dr. Gail Matthews, shows that those who write out their goals are 42% more likely to achieve their goals. You know what is even more powerful than writing down your goals? Following through with them. And it all starts with how you see and manage the 50 or so hours you spend working each week. There is no exact answer because we are all uniquely different, but these three principles can serve as maintenance or help you start managing you career – we call them The Three P’s of career navigation.

Passion

Passion is what gets you going.  It is that “thing” you do until your brain hurts. It keeps you up at night, and then you wake up only to do it again. Steve Jobs famously said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” The best way to accomplish this is by starting with your passion. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of time trying to find it.

Now you are probably asking yourself, “How do I find it?” Again, there is not have a “one size fits all” answer, but you can start with these questions:

1. What would I do if I didn’t have to work?
2. What issue in society do I want to solve?
3. What comes easy to me?

Purpose

Often, we hear the words “passion” and “purpose” used synonymously. However, we like to think of passion as the catalyst and purpose as the totality. If passion is what gets you started, then purpose is what keeps you going. If we organize our life around our passion, we can turn our passion into our story, and then turn our story into something bigger – something that matters and is purposeful. The concept of purpose can be difficult, however here are some building blocks to figure it out:

1. Who are you? What do you stand for and what qualities, beliefs and personality traits make you authentically you?
2. What do you do? Your default answer may be to describe your occupation, but I am asking about your calling. Another way to phrase the question is, what is the one thing you feel supremely qualified to teach others?
3. Who do you serve or who do you do it for? Who are the people you’re helping to achieve happiness, fulfillment and significance?
4. What do they want or need that they come to you for? How can they benefit from your skillset, network or/and knowing you?
5. How do others change or transform as a result of what you give? What impact do you want to create?

Preparation

The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” If passion is your “what” and purpose is your “why,” then preparation is your “how.”

However you define success, and whichever ladder you choose to climb, it’s inevitable that you will face some adversity and setbacks in your professional pursuits, but it should not be for a lack of preparation. Here are a few tools that have helped me along the way:

1. Conduct informational interviews with as many people as you can to learn about their career journey, secrets to success, influences and inflection points. Never stop learning.
2. Operate in your current job as if you are already in that next job. Stay a step ahead of the “game.”
3. Block out time at the end of the week to review meetings and deliverables for the next week. Dedicate a max of 15 minutes to each future meeting to go over the audience, purpose and meeting agenda.

Put your career in the right perspective. Breaking your career plan down into small action steps will keep your focus on your passion and your goals. Your career is a journey with many inflection points. Put pen to paper, begin with an end in mind, and start by figuring out your what (Passion), why (Purpose) and how (Preparation).