What’s your favorite ice cream?” an employee recently asked Shivan Subramaniam, president and chief executive officer of the newly formed Factory Mutual Insurance Co. “Strawberry,” he answered.
Not the typical question most employees would ask the boss, but Wednesday wasn’t a typical day at the company’s Johnston headquarters. It was a celebration of the merger of Allendale Mutual Insurance Co., Arkwright Mutual Insurance, and Protection Mutual, which was completed on July 12. Twenty-two buses transported employees from offices in Norwood, Waltham and Gloucester, Mass. to the former Allendale office, which now serves as the merged company’s headquarters.
Though long-time competitors in the insurance industry, the merger wasn’t a total surprise to employees since the three companies were all partners in Factory Mutual, which was a Norwood-based research facility that helps devise ways to protect commercial and industrial properties from fire and other property damage. As a result the new company is calling itself Factory Mutual Insurance, or FM Global.
FM Global has more than 4,000 employees, 49 locations worldwide, serves nearly 100 countries, and has nearly $6 billion in U.S. assets. It specializes in commercial and industrial property insurance.
The ice cream question, by the way, was part of an assignment designed to get employees from the companies to mingle and learn more about the organization for which they now work. Employees who filled out the sheet’s 10 questions – which included listing the name of the Connecticut piano maker who invented the automatic sprinkler system, and learning the favorite ice cream flavor of a senior management member – could win a color TV.
There was also an exhibit explaining the company’s 165-year history – where employees could find the answers to several trivia questions – and a live “game show.” Contestants stepped up to the buzzer to see if they could answer more trivia questions about the company, which were posed by a tuxedoed emcee. Among the questions: “Who was the founder of Factory Mutual: Zachariah Allen (a Rhode Island industrialist), Tim Allen, or Alan Alda?”
“We wanted to make it not just an educational experience for employees; we wanted it to be fun,” explained Johanna Vintinner, of the employee communications office.
The goal of the half-day event was to make employees know more about the company and “also make employees feel part of the company,” said Vintinner.
“We could have had a sort of dry meeting and have somebody talk about what our products and services are going to be,” she said. “We felt that would fall flat ….This is a merger and a lot of employees are feeling antsy and not sure about what’s going on.”
Some overlapping jobs were eliminated as a result of the merger, but company spokesman Steve Zenofsky didn’t have an exact count. Some employees were able to move to new jobs within the company, while those who didn’t received severance packages as well as some job placement services, he said.
From Atwood Avenue the insurance company’s sprawling Johnston campus looked like the site of a school fair, with red and white canopies visible through the trees and literally hundreds of people walking around the beautifully landscaped property.
“We’re really hoping when people leave here they’ll be very positive about what it’s like to work for this company,” he said.
