“It’s never easy for an organisation like ours with 2,000 people based broadly in one building.
“They are used to operating in a very physical way in terms of interacting with each other, going to the office every day, seeing colleagues.”
But, he notes, on the day of the national lockdown there were “no teething issues”.
Mr Mazzocchi says: “We managed still to support our customers with their queries. Phone calls were received as if people were in the office supporting customers with the right security around it. We invested a lot but, more importantly, we invested at the right time to be able to be ready.”
Now, Wesleyan is asking some employees to return to the office, if they want to, as it is “trying to work out now what the future will look like”.
He says it is unlikely that the business will go back to having all employees in the office at the same time and that they “might phase people differently”.
He notes: “I think it’s kinder to the environment, I think it’s the flexibility that colleagues want. But it’s an important point to consider that some people really like the office environment.”
Mr Mazzocchi certainly has a longer commute than most, given that he lives in London and Wesleyan is located in Birmingham.
Customer behaviours
He joined the mutual as chief operating officer in December 2018, having spent 15 years at Lloyds Banking Group, and was appointed group chief executive in August last year.
“The reason I joined was I thought there was an opportunity to shape the organisation, to really put your arms around it,” he says, admitting that a pandemic was certainly not what he was expecting to deal with in the first 10 months in the role.
Even the outcome of the coronavirus crisis has been slightly different than the company forecast earlier in the year.
“What we have ended up with is actually a much more benign trading environment than we feared,” he explains. “But we are expecting the tail of Covid-19 to be much longer.”
The coronavirus pandemic has also prompted a change in customer habits and behaviours, with a shift to an interest in protection products and away from investing.
“That is being driven by – from an investment perspective – people holding onto their cash because there is uncertainty and when there is uncertainty you want it to be available to you,” he notes.
“The shift to protection I don’t think is entirely driven by Covid-19, but it has been the trigger for some important reflections.”
Ellie Duncan is a freelance journalist
Mario Mazzocchi’s career highlights
2002-2003: Head of brand marketing, European region at Visa International
2003-2015: Various roles at Lloyds Banking Group
