Finding purpose in a 165-year-old institution: Guardian’s transformation story
When Stacey Hoin, CHRO of the insurance company Guardian, joined the company in 2021 after many years at GE and as a lawyer, she admits she wasn’t interested in quick fixes to the challenges facing the venerable institution. Instead, she saw an opportunity for meaningful transformation.
At the time, the world was changing rapidly, with the advancement of AI, shifting workforce demographics and a pandemic that fundamentally altered views on well-being. Guardian needed to evolve, but Hoin understood that business transformation wouldn’t happen without cultural transformation, she related at this year’s Workhuman Live HR conference in Denver.
Guardian’s leadership team embarked on a journey to discover their purpose, speaking with companies like Amazon and Google that had successfully reinvented themselves. The answer they found — “to inspire well-being” — became their North Star. “Without purpose,” Hoin explained, “you don’t really know who you are or why you exist.” This purpose statement allowed Guardian to expand beyond traditional insurance offerings to serve customers “mind, body and wallet.”
Purpose alone wasn’t enough, however. Guardian established four core values and five “success factors” describing how employees should behave. The framework has deeply penetrated the organization — remarkably, 92% of employees can recite these values, according to Hoin. Every decision, from partnerships to hiring to product launches, is filtered through this cultural lens.
Early on, Hoin identified two missing elements in Guardian’s culture: continuous learning and gratitude. To address the latter, she implemented Cheers for Champions, a recognition program that awarded nearly 50,000 recognitions worth $2.2 million in just a year’s time.
The human impact is powerful. When Danielle, a Guardian employee, faced financial pressure after her husband was laid off, she used her recognition points to buy baseball equipment for her 10-year-old son. “We could have given Danielle cash. It’s just not the same,” Hoin said. “She’s not going to tell somebody she got $25 for her electric bill, but she’ll tell them about her son and Little League.”
Guardian’s cultural transformation has driven business transformation focused on customer centricity, brand elevation and product expansion. The company introduced Colleague Advocacy Listen and Learn sessions so employees could better understand the customer experience and implemented a care model based on a simple philosophy: “If there’s a moment that matters to our customer, it’s a moment that matters to us.”
Rather than a wide-scale advertising campaign, Guardian builds credibility through research about worker well-being and strategic partnerships, including one with the New York Mets. The insurer has expanded its offerings through innovative partnerships that support comprehensive well-being — including with the company Empathy for grief support, Wellthy for caregiving, Wagmo for pet insurance and Spring Health for mental health services.
Looking ahead to the dawn of the next decade, Guardian introduced a strategy called “Journey to 30.” Hoin acknowledges that while the organization has clarity on its destination, individual employees need their own road maps, so it launched Careers@Guardian, built on three pillars: empowering colleagues to drive their careers, connecting them to the organization, and creating growth opportunities through continuous learning.
Guardian is also reimagining talent acquisition by focusing on skills rather than credentials. When struggling to fill claims positions, the company discovered that consultative skills — not degrees or insurance experience — predicted success, an insight that enabled it to broaden its candidate pool dramatically. It is also experimenting with Sherlock AI, democratizing coaching by making it accessible anytime on employees’ smartphones.
As Guardian charts its course through constant change, Hoin reminds HR leaders of their unique position to drive transformation rather than merely respond to it: “In HR, we have an opportunity to drive change, not just react to change. We are uniquely positioned to help our businesses thrive in the face of change.”