Nationwide announces five-year, $160M Future of Work investment

Nationwide is announcing a new five-year, $160 million investment to reskill and upskill its workforce and increase bonus incentive targets. In addition, the company is enhancing benefits and introducing a Summer Fridays pilot in 2020. Nationwide employs 28,000 associates across the country.

“We must attract, develop and retain the best and brightest talent to deliver on our mission of protecting people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care,” said Nationwide Chief Executive Officer Kirt Walker. “I’m proud that we are able to make key investments in our associates, try some new things to elevate Nationwide as the desired destination for top talent and prepare our workforce for the future. In so doing we will have talent that will deliver extraordinary care to our members and will innovate for our future.”

“Our people are our competitive advantage. We have and will continue to invest in them,” said Gale King, Nationwide’s Chief Administrative Officer. “Our commitment to them has to be holistic and must include helping them prepare for the future. The advancements in technology, the speed of change, competitive forces and the resulting impact of automation requires that we be proactive in preparing our associates for a very different future of work – one that is heavily technology enabled.”

Future of Work investment

The Future of Work program is a five-year program to reskill and upskill associates. The investment will equip associates in digital literacy and future capabilities training. It includes the launch of an online Future of Work Center next month.

Annually, every associate will be provided a personalized learning curriculum focused on the skills for the future. Associates will have applied learning opportunities that assist with their development and provide additional exposure to other career opportunities. Reskilling opportunities will be business-unit specific and will include targeted career paths.

“We’ve already had great success in reskilling within our IT organization through our partnership with Columbus State Community College in central Ohio,” said King. “We’ve also had success through apprenticeship programs across our business unit functions. We are aware of the roles in our organization that will be impacted by automation and the ones that are evolving and growing. We feel a strong obligation to equip our associates for these changes.”

“Nationwide’s leadership team has demonstrated great forethought and long-term vision to prepare its workers with future-ready skills and quality resources,” said Dr. David Harrison, president of Columbus State. “Columbus State has successfully partnered with Nationwide and other employers to offer workers the resources they will need as technology and consumer needs quickly evolve. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Nationwide as they plan additional investments in their workforce.”

Future of Work Associate incentive enhancements 

All front-line associates will receive an increase in their incentive targets in response to market data.

Summer Friday pilot

In 2020, the company is piloting a new program that provides summer flexibility. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, Nationwide associates who choose to participate will have the ability twice per month to condense five standard work days into four twice per month, giving them two Fridays off each month during the summer.