Jon Diamond remembers when it wasn’t so easy to attract people to come work at SafeAuto Insurance Co. It was 1993 and there were no quirky TV commercials or clever catchphrases to help people identify with the company.
“It was a company being born out of zero,” says Diamond, a co-founder along with Ari Deshe. “Ari and myself and four others started the company in a small little office off of Goodale Boulevard right here in Columbus. If there was any challenge back then, it was attracting quality people.”
Making this task even more difficult was the fact that Diamond and Deshe were pretty much learning on the fly.
“None of us had any experience running or managing insurance companies,” says Deshe, the company’s chairman and CEO. “Jon was brand new to the insurance industry. I’ve been in insurance pretty much all my life, but it was pretty much on-the-job training for the two of us as well as the people who started with us.”
The two men kept their wits about them and got SafeAuto off the ground and in the business of providing affordable auto insurance to those who need it. They found people who had the same passion for growing the business and serving customers as they did and could help take the company where they knew it could go.
“We were very lucky early on to have attracted people who flourished in the entrepreneurial environment Ari and I established from day one,” says Diamond, who serves as president and chief operating officer. “We grew from within, and for many years, people that came in to work for our company at entry-level positions grew to be senior management and top management today.”
It’s that ability to first of all know what you want in an employee, and then be able to go out and find it, that gives your business a real chance to succeed. It’s helped SafeAuto grow to 1,000 employees and a presence in 14 states and 70 markets across the nation.
Here are a few things that worked to help Diamond and Deshe build a culture that people would both want to be a part of and be able to grow and flourish in.
