For years, insurers have operated around a familiar rhythm: a claim occurs, a policy responds, and the insurer puts things right.
It’s a model that has served the industry well for decades. But today, that rhythm is being disrupted. The world insurers operate in has become more volatile, more interconnected and more unforgiving of downtime. In this environment, the greatest value insurers can offer is not simply to put things right after an incident but to help ensure the incident never becomes a loss in the first place. This shift is redefining the very nature of insurance.
The industry is shifting from a response mindset to a resilience mindset. And at the centre of this shift sits technology, particularly platforms like Zinc, by Zinc Systems, built to detect incidents earlier, coordinate a rapid response and provide the operational intelligence needed to prevent repeat events.
Why resilience has become a board-level issue
Across the UK property and commercial landscape, the demand for resilience is accelerating. Workers increasingly expect safe, well-managed environments; more than 70% say workplace safety is a key factor in their satisfaction. Commercial tenants now rank resilience among their top considerations when choosing space, with over 65% citing it as a priority.
At the same time, rising incident costs are putting real pressure on insurers and insureds alike. Escape of Water (EoW) alone now costs the UK insurance market between £1.8 million and £2.5 million per day, with the average incident at around £9,500 and rising. For large commercial buildings, a single event can easily exceed £1 million. It is no longer possible to view resilience as a luxury or a specialist add-on. Market expectations, financial demands and regulatory scrutiny have made it fundamental.
The Governance shift: From good practice to regulatory expectation
This evolution towards resilience is being reinforced by governance and regulation. Under UK corporate governance principles, directors have a clear duty to identify, manage and mitigate foreseeable risks to people, assets and operations. The UK Corporate Governance Code, alongside directors’ responsibilities under the Companies Act 2006, increasingly frames resilience as a matter of oversight rather than operational detail. That expectation is becoming more explicit through legislation such as Martyn’s Law (the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill). Once enacted, it will impose a statutory duty on owners and operators of publicly accessible premises to assess terrorism risk, implement proportionate mitigations, and demonstrate preparedness.
While not an insurance regulation, its impact on insurers is unavoidable. Poor preparedness will directly lead to increased exposure, claims volatility, and liability risk. Also, the Workers Protection Bill encompasses several key pieces of legislation aimed at enhancing worker safety and rights:
Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010):
Effective from October 2024, this bill strengthens protections against sexual harassment by placing a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent such harassment.
Liability for Harassment:
The Worker Protection Bill also introduces provisions that make employers liable for harassment of their employees by clients and third parties, creating a positive duty to prevent such incidents.
These bills reflect ongoing efforts to improve workplace safety and protect workers’ rights. For insurers, this represents a structural change. Governance, compliance and operational resilience are converging, and technology is the connective tissue. Why incidents still escalate But while the drivers are clear, the challenge remains: most incidents follow the same avoidable pattern. They aren’t detected early enough. Communication between teams is slow or fragmented.
The response is delayed because roles and responsibilities are unclear. And when the incident is over, there is little insight into what went wrong, why it escalated or how to prevent it next time. Eventually, whether it’s a claim for property damage, business interruption, or liability exposure, the consequences fall on insurers.
As Rob Dakin, Head of Business Resilience for AXA Commercial points out, “risk prevention and risk mitigation are essential components for loss avoidance or loss control. Often these are piecemeal solutions with variable success so a connected holistic approach to identify, manage and learn from incidents whatever form they take is becoming increasing vital in a customers’ resilience locker”.
How Zinc changes the risk equation
This is where platforms like Zinc are transforming the picture. Zinc is an integrated incident, emergency communication and compliance system that connects people, processes and systems in real time. When something happens, a leak, a fire alarm, a security breach, the platform quickly detects and reports it, brings the right people together instantly, and ensures the response is coordinated and consistent. What once took minutes or hours now takes seconds.
For governance teams, this also creates a clear audit trail: who was alerted, when action was taken, and how procedures were followed. That evidence is increasingly critical in a regulatory environment shaped by Martyn’s Law, health and safety enforcement and post-incident scrutiny. Measurable impact on claims and operations
The results from organisations using Zinc are compelling. In commercial buildings, operational downtime has been reduced by more than 55%. Incident response times have improved by over 60%. And because losses are being contained early, the system has frequently paid for itself through avoided claims within six months. These are not incremental efficiencies; they are fundamental changes in how risk is managed.
What this means for Insurers
For insurers, the benefits are far-reaching. Reducing the frequency and severity of claims especially for high-cost perils like EoW immediately improves portfolio performance. When responses are faster and damage is limited, insurers face less volatility and more predictable loss patterns. Beyond this, Zinc provides a window into risk that insurers have previously lacked. It offers an operational view of risk behaviour. Underwriters gain a clearer understanding of how a client manages their environment day-to-day. Risk engineers can target interventions more effectively. Pricing can be more accurately aligned to real resilience capability rather than theoretical assumptions.
Rob Dakin also adds, “Customers can also struggle to fully explain their solution, its capabilities or its limitations to enable us to support through wider loss data and experience”.
Strengthening the insurer–client relationship
Perhaps the most transformative impact is on the insurer-client relationship. Insurance has long been perceived as something that steps in after the event – essential, but distant from day-to-day operations. Resilience technology changes that dynamic. By enabling insurers to support clients with prevention, foresight and control, it positions them as strategic partners rather than transactional providers. Clients see tangible value: safer buildings, smoother operations, less downtime and fewer surprises. Insurers see deeper engagement, stronger loyalty and opportunities to innovate with resilience-linked products, services and terms.
Resilience as the future of insurance
In a world where risks are no longer isolated or predictable, resilience is becoming the defining measure of organisational strength and the defining opportunity for insurers. Platforms like Zinc are not simply tools for managing incidents; they are infrastructure that underpins modern risk strategy. They reduce claims. They protect people and property. They provide clarity in moments of crisis and insight long after the crisis has passed.
Insurance will always play a vital role in putting things right. But the future of the industry lies in helping clients stay operational, safe, and confident before issues arise. That future is built on resilience, and resilience is built on technology. Insurers who embrace this shift will not only reduce losses; they will lead the industry into a new era of intelligent, preventive, value-driven risk management.
“The most valuable claim is the one that never occurs. Resilience is how insurers protect people, portfolios and profitability simultaneously. When technology connects detection, response and evidence, risk becomes visible, measurable and controllable.” Sophie Malone, Chief Commercial Officer, Zinc
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