CASE STUDY DIRECT LINE GROUP
DIRECT ACTION
The Direct Line Group property team partnered with Ascot Services and Mainstay
Group to deliver an award-winning FM service across the DLG estate. We fi nd out
how the unusual three-way model was developed
The Direct Line Group (DLG) property team won
the 2019 IWFM award for innovation in supplier
relationships, in recognition of its successful
working partnership with smaller FM providers Ascot
Services (hard services) and Mainstay Group (so services).
The win marked the latest milestone in DLG’s journey of
creating employee experiences that engage its people
while developing sustainable and mutually beneficial
supplier-client relationships. The e ects are showcased
at the company’s Bristol o ices, where Ascot Services and
Mainstay Group first took on the FM services mantle (since
extended to the whole group).
DLG is a leading motor, home and small business insurer
which boasts well-known brands such as Direct Line, Churchill,
Privilege, Green Flag and NIG Direct Line Group. The present
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company was formed in 2012 when the Royal Bank of Scotland
Group began to divest itself of its insurance division. Mark
Lennon helped set up the standalone DLG property team
and was Head of Property before later moving on to become
Operations Director at Ascot Services.
He explains: “Our original brief was to ‘keep lights on, keep
us safe and don’t get in the way of the IPO’, but we started to
explore how the workplace environment could have a material
impact on employee engagement. We began to sell that story
internally as part of our capital investment programme, and as
we began refurbishing the estate we looked at how we could
provide enhanced environments that could help improve
engagement and productivity.”
The first major opportunity to achieve this on a large scale
was in 2016 in Leeds, where flooding led to an urgent move to