Why returning to Allianz was a no-brainer

Chriss Scrbak shares her career journey, and explains why she left Allianz but later returned.

  • “I was in hospitality for 20 years and needed a career change,” Chriss shares. “I applied for a role as a customer service specialist in sales and service in the Allianz Contact Centre in Adelaide. I really enjoyed interacting with our customers, coming into work everyday and working with my team.”

    It was here that Chriss found her true calling: Learning and Development.

    “I became interested in learning and development and told my leader that was the career pathway I wanted to pursue, and I was supported all the way. I worked hard and landed a secondment in the L&D Team, where I stayed for five wonderful years.”

A new challenge that came full circle

 

After five years with the Allianz L&D Team, Chriss decided she needed to stretch herself professionally and took on an external opportunity in the energy industry, where she worked in L&D for four years. Stepping away for a new challenge gave her the opportunity to gain new skills in a completely different industry. Whilst the learnings were invaluable for her career, Chriss had discovered that workplace culture was so important to her, and that in fact the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side.

Ultimately, she returned to Allianz, where she feels comfortable bringing her full, authentic self to work.

“​​I realised I needed to be where my personal values and brand aligned to the company,” Chriss says. “The people and culture here at Allianz are incredibly special and I really missed that. I also felt I had a lot to bring back to Allianz with what I learned and skills I developed while I was away.”

Culture built on people development

 

Today as a Learning and Development Consultant, Chriss is passionate about empowering people at Allianz to pursue their goals to grow their careers.

“When Allianz talks about learning and development, it's not just limited to the courses related to job training and compliance,” she shares.

“Ownership is given to each employee to learn and develop skills they are interested in, to either be the best they can be in their current role or work toward their career aspiration.”

Our career framework provides a comprehensive set of development tools including planning templates, role profiles, divisional career maps and competency assessments to support our people to explore a wide range of possibilities across the organisation, both locally and internationally.

Chriss says these tools and support underpin Allianz’s culture, where everyone has a voice and the opportunity to contribute.

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    “Giving people ownership contributes to the culture because it shows trust, and when people feel they are trusted, they want to give their best. When people have that licence to sit in the driver's seat, they thrive.”

Continuous learning and growing

 

As for her own learning and development journey, Chriss is currently taking part in the Growth Mindset Ambassador program and looks forward to applying her skills as a Growth Mindset Coach to help unleash other people’s potential.

“I’m in such a fortunate position in that as I pick up new programs to deliver, and have opportunities to facilitate discussions, I get to learn more from others and share those learnings,” Chriss shares. “It's a continuous cycle that I'm grateful to be a part of. We’re always evolving, and I have no doubt there will be many opportunities for me to look forward to at Allianz that I haven't even dreamed of yet.”

“When people are supported through continuous learning and development, it builds a culture where everyone wants to do their best feels equipped with the tools to do so. Where everyone is invited to share views, ideas, failures and learnings. These are certainly the things that make me excited to come to work at Allianz every single day.”

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