Globe Life

Yes, pensions still exist. And yes, you need to check out this company that still offers them!

In this episode, Jena chats with Globe Life's Chief Talent Officer, Rebecca Zorn, about living the company’s mission to Make Tomorrow Better, empowering tenacious team players, and strategic hiring.

What you'll learn:

• How Globe Life operates and evolves as a 125-year old company
• The service-oriented, collaborative, empowerment-driven culture that rewards tenacity and continuous improvement
• Why internal mobility thrives - with Rebecca's sharing her own unconventional path
• Details on the pension (vests after 5 years for lifetime income at 65), plus 401(k) match and more
• Leadership programs like Accelerate, Activate, Ignite (with SMU) and mentoring
• All of the upcoming hiring initiatives!

Globe Life highlights:

Founded: 1900

HQ: McKinney, TX

Team Size: ~4,000 employees + 16,500 independent agents

Work Model: Employees in 43 states; remote, hybrid, or on-site by role

Culture Values: Service-oriented, collaborative, empowerment-driven, accountable, integrity-focused, tenacious

Unique Perks & programs:

• Active pension plan 
• 401(k) 
• Employee life insurance
• Traditional health benefits
• Subsidized fitness memberships via WellHub
• Leadership development: Accelerate (new leaders), Activate (high-potentials), Ignite (senior leaders with Southern Methodist University courses)
• Skills-based internal mobility and emerging leader pipeline in development

To learn more about Globe Life:

Careers Page (They're hiring!)

LinkedIn Page

Rebecca's LinkedIn Profile

Transcript

Jena Dunay: Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of Culture Uncovered where we go behind the scenes of the coolest companies to work for in various industries, sizes, stage of organization. And today we have the distinct privilege of getting to spend time with Globe Life Chief Talent Officer, Rebecca Zorn. So Rebecca, thank you so much for joining us today!

Rebecca Zorn: Thank so much for having me. I'm really excited about being a part of this!

Jena Dunay: Yes. Well, you know what's so fun is I don't often get to share some of the video clips because most people don't like to do a video and you guys have a beautiful set behind you. This is also a rarity for me. Thank you for letting us join in to actually see like truly a behind the scenes look of your organization. So fun to have you here! But, you know, it's always most helpful for people when we're thinking about different organizations and wanting to work somewhere is what does your organization do? Let's start at the very basics. What does Globe Life do?

Rebecca Zorn: I actually like to say we live our mission, which our mission is make tomorrow better. So we are actually,  Globe Life is a parent company of five different affiliates. We sell affordable life insurance and health supplement products to an underserved middle market area across the entire United States.

Jena Dunay: Okay, and then where are you guys actually physically located?

Rebecca Zorn: So we are headquartered in McKinney, which is a suburb north of Dallas, Texas.

Jena Dunay: Okay, outside of Dallas, I've been to Dallas many times, it is a very expansive region, so I think it's helpful to give that. The headquarters is there now, is everybody, is it remote, is it in office, are we talking around the country? Talk to us about that.

Rebecca Zorn: We actually have employees in 43 different states. And we have other physical facilities. We have physical offices in Waco, Texas, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles, California, Cleveland, Ohio, and Syracuse, New York. We've got physical locations in those spaces and places. But we do have a large population of remote employees as well. We offer kind of a variety of different work experiences here at Globe. We've got roles that are remote, roles that are hybrid, and then roles that are permanently on site. So they're expected to be in the office Monday through Friday, depending upon what actual role they perform for the work.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I think that's good to point out that it depends on the role, right? Of some organizations, if we're talking to a healthcare company, they can't say all of my nurses, none of them are actually touching patients. So obviously there has to be some in-person component to it. So it really just depends on the organization and the role function.

Rebecca Zorn: Yes.

Jena Dunay: We talked a little bit about where your employees are located. Tell us a little bit about the history of the organization. I know you've been there for about 10 years, which is a great amount of time to probably see the evolution of the organization. But tell us a little bit about the founding story and just kind of how you got to where you got to today.

Rebecca Zorn: So our roots actually began in 1900 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Jena Dunay: Whoa! Which is not that far from me in Nashville, ironically enough. Yes, super close.

Rebecca Zorn: So we started in Birmingham, Alabama in 1900 with our Liberty National Life Insurance Division and have been then accommodating or acquiring multiple different divisions from other spaces and places. So Globe Life actually began its roots shortly thereafter in Oklahoma City.

And then we have an American income life division, is founded in Waco, Texas. So we've got a variety. We've got United American, which is our health supplement product place. And they actually were in Dallas. So we're kind of a variety of different companies that came together to provide these products and services to make tomorrow better.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, that's really cool. So as I mentioned, you've been there for about a decade or so. So how did you come across the organization? And tell us a little bit about, because I also noticed that a little bit of digging on you, Rebecca, as I like to do before I prepare for these, you've had quite the career progression there, which I also just think is a great signaling factor to somebody who's maybe never heard of your organization before or just can see, wow, she was promoted from within. Like you've had you've held a variety of different roles. So how did you come across the organization and what keeps you?

Rebecca Zorn: I always say I'm actually an accidental HR professional. I am an attorney by trade. I was actually a trial lawyer for many years.

Jena Dunay: Yeah. Wow! That's crazy that that turned.  Okay. Keep going. Okay, not far from me.

Rebecca Zorn: I did labor and employment law, so it's not completely out of the realm of possibility But moved to the Dallas area from Louisville, Kentucky, so not too far from Nashville. And when we did, I decided to take a pivot. I said, you know what, I'd really like to see if I could find employment in-house counsel versus going back to a big firm and doing trial law at that point. I had a child who was in kindergarten, and my life was just a little bit different. I thought, let's see if I can find something in-house. I actually came to from a personal referral. So, an employee at Globe and I were talking. I didn't even know she was an employee at Globe, but we were talking. I kind of said, “Hey, have you heard anything? Is there anything in the Dallas area? Anybody looking for in-house counsel?"  And she was actually like, "Yeah, we are!"  and it's Globe Life! In my practice, I've worked with insurance companies, represented insurance companies. I did some research and I thought, this looks like a good fit. So then interviewed within the legal department and that's really how I started at Globe Life, was in in-house counsel for the organization.

Jena Dunay: Wow! And then tell us how did you transfer then, obviously started in the legal section of the organization and then kind of pivoted, which there are obviously some connections overlaps between HR and legal and often in many different instances. How did that transition happen internally?

Rebecca Zorn: So as working inside, you know, in the legal department, I am, with my labor and employment experience, took on handling a lot of the human resource type matters and kind of became that go-to lawyer for HR. And really got to work with the HR team. At that point in time, the head of HR was looking to retire. They asked me if I would be interested in stepping in. I was like, "You know what? Sure, this would be a new thing for me!" I always love a good challenge. And one of the things that I do love about our company is that there is lots of internal mobility. It's not necessarily the career path that you think. It's not necessarily an underwriter one to an underwriter two, which we do have and which we do do. But obviously, when skills present themselves, may not have, I may never have thought of, hey, let's go over to HR. But because I had that compliance background and those skills, they saw that and looked at me as a successor for that role. So, it was exciting!

Jena Dunay: That's really cool. I love internal mobility conversations. I think it gives employees, talent, like it makes it an attractive place to work just because the option to potentially explore other things internally without having to go through all of the extras to go find something externally and convince somebody that you're right for that role and the whole piece of it. I think that internal mobility is such a necessary part of the workforce, but also just in general for organizations to be able to retain talent. I feel like it’s going to be a huge strategy for your team as well.

Rebecca Zorn: It absolutely is. I am just one of many stories throughout the organization like that. Currently, our Senior Vice President over claims, she's been in multiple different departments. And as she's gained certain skills, they've moved her around the organization to where it has ended up today.

Jena Dunay: When we’re thinking about this podcast, this podcast is called Culture Uncovered. We want to know what the culture like at your organization. We're thinking about people listening to this podcast that maybe are not from your area of Texas. I know that you guys are very prominent obviously in the community within the McKinney area and Dallas-Fort Worth. Or maybe someone who never heard of Globe Life before. How would you describe the culture in maybe three words or three different phrases or however many you want to describe it? We'd love to hear how you would talk about culture at Globe Life.

Rebecca Zorn: We are definitely an organization that lives our values. We foster a collaborative inclusive environment. We pursue superior results. We seek accountability and integrity in all that we do. Because of that, I would say if I had to boil it down to three words, we're a service oriented, collaborative, empowerment driven organization. So, I think someone who is interested in serving others and working with others and has the ability and enjoys being empowered to take the next step in their career, the next step in customer service, whatever that action may be, I think would really find a home here at Globe.

Jena Dunay: It sounds like that the organization, the word service just kind of kept on populated in my brain when you were talking. So, somebody that really has that service mindedness in the way that they approach their career, approach their work. Do you guys screen for that up front? Like, how do you do? I mean, sometimes I feel like some of these words that we use in culture ,teams, and just sometimes feels like not tangible for people that are potentially listening. Like, how would you describe what it really looks like if somebody is a service oriented person within your...

Rebecca Zorn: I think it comes through not necessarily in the words that are used in an interview, but it comes through in an attitude, right? And the types of questions that I'd say our candidates ask us that really help us get to whether or not someone is interested in serving others. Because you have to really dig in and understand and have a desire to be collaborative, to want to do better. That concept of continuous improvement for the betterment of our customers is really what we're looking for.

Jena Dunay: Tell me, also when candidates are thinking about would Globe Life potentially be a good place for me to call home, what are some unique perks or benefits? We love this portion of the episode because it really helps us. I've gotten some really interesting ideas from this portion of just learning what different companies do. I know you guys have some unique benefits and perks that I hadn't heard of before when we did kind of a pre-screen with your team.

So I'd love to hear from you. What do you feel like are some of those unique benefits that employees get to receive as being a part of global life that could be, you know, a differentiation factor?

Rebecca Zorn: I actually think our most unique benefit that we offer is actually something that I would say is probably old school. And it's a pension plan. And to me, and it's still active. You join us today. You are eligible to be vested in the pension. And for me, it really embodies our commitment to our employees to really invest in our employees and their financial future.

Jena Dunay: Which is nuts and I love!

Rebecca Zorn: A pension plan is unlike a defined contribution plan or a 401(k), which we also offer by the way, so we not only have a pension but we also have the 401(k). But a pension plan does not require market conditions. It doesn't require personal investment choices to be made by our employees. But rather it's a commitment by the organization to provide for their future upon retirement.

And so to me it's just so very exciting and unusual. I think the most recent statistic is less than 15 percent of non-government workers in the entire United States receive a pension. And so for me, I'm so proud that that's something we can offer our employees because it really does alleviate stress by providing that financial wellness, by providing that comfort that they know, hey, they're going to have a guaranteed income for life when they retire.

Jena Dunay: Yeah. So is that a new initiative? Is that an old initiative? Like, tell us a little bit about it. Because I do feel like this is when your team told me this, I was like, I don't think I've ever met anybody, any companies that are really doing that right now. I know my husband's grandmother has a pension because she was a part of a big university and she still gets her pension and it's wonderful. But I don't hear about people talking about this benefit at all. So I just would love to double click on that a little bit for you and just hear, this a new thing or tell us about that?

Rebecca Zorn: No, the pension has been around well before I joined the organization. And it's really been a strategy of ours almost since the very beginning. Our mission, again, is to make tomorrow better. But this is our way of making tomorrow better for our employees. And so it's really a strategic element of what we do and a really core factor of who we are by providing that financial security and stability for our employees.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I love that! And so that's obviously the most unique one. But what are some other kind of benefits or perks that the organization offers to employees that might be interesting to people? I mean, that to me is such a win because it is very rare and maybe if you're really young, you don't really realize the benefit of it. But as somebody who has been contributing to retirement for her whole life, I'm like, that would be nice to have that in addition to.

Rebecca Zorn: Absolutely. And so and I'll just double down a little bit into the pension a little more before I go there. If you work for us for five years, then you are vested, right? So, you just have to work for the organization for five years. And then when you retire at the age of 65, you are eligible to get a guaranteed set income for life. Now, that income is based on time and tenure, your salary at the time that you left the organization. So there's a lot of factors that go into it. But essentially, it's the organization investing 9 % of your annual income every year to pay you out later on.  

And you don't have to do anything. You don't have to invest that money. You don't have to worry about that money. You have that certainty that that will be there for you when you're ready to retire. So like your grandmother, you'll have that guaranteed income coming in, which provides a lot of relief to our employees. We constantly get, and I'm actually working on it with my team, to get testimonials. We'll have former employees call in and say, "Wait a second. You mean I really, every month I'm going to get this check?" I'm like, "Every month you're going to get that check until you pass away." And so depending upon, you know, how you've structured it, your beneficiaries may get it, you know, there's lots of different ways to structure that payment for you when you retire. So it's really an exciting benefit that we can provide. You just have to work with us for five years, and then it's yours. 

Jena Dunay: Yeah, that's that is such a great,  I mean, maybe I should quit all of this that I'm doing and come work for you, Rebecca, because that is a perk. I'm like thinking about it because I actually I'm going to do some research on my own and see like what companies even offer this nowadays because I do not feel like again, to your point, unless it's not government entity, like it's very rare to hear about it.

Thank you for sharing that and explaining it too, because I feel like sometimes it can feel like a black box for a lot of people. Like, what does that really mean? We don't hear about it as often, especially for newer folks that are coming into the workforce, right? It can feel a little confusing and feel like smarter people should handle it, but I think it's helpful. The way you broke it down was very simple. So thank you for that. 

Rebecca Zorn: Thanks. Good, good, good. I mean, in addition to the pension, we do offer 401(k) with matching just like a lot of the other organizations out there, right? So we're allowing our folks to save for their financial futures in a couple of ways, one with that guaranteed steady income stream, as long as they stay with us for five years, and then participating in that 401(k) and that matching capability as well. We also offer life insurance for our employees. So I think for us, it really speaks to the core of who we are and even the products that we offer, right?

Our goal is to help families in a time of need, help families in their future. And so we want to make sure that we're doing the same for our employees here at Globe as well. So really excited to be able to say we do those things for our employees, along with our traditional health care benefits and wellness offerings. we have fit. We're members of Wellness Hub. So we have fitness memberships that we provide, subsidized for our employees as well. So lots of things to secure the well-being of our employees. 

Jena Dunay: Well, it makes sense too that the financial wellbeing of your employees is a priority because of what the nature is of the work that you do, which I honestly think in 2025, when recording this, is a prime thing that people care about right now. And so it is quite a value add for your organization. So we talked a little bit about some of those perks and benefits. I'd love to hear, cause we had talked about this with you kind of rising up for the ranks, mobility, internal mobility.

Talk to us about what professional development could look like for somebody. Obviously, it's different in every department, I'm sure, in every type of role. But generally speaking, is there an ethos around professional development for your employees?

Rebecca Zorn: Absolutely. In fact, we offer a variety of different opportunities for our employees to develop. We have a really great leadership development program that we start out with. It's got a couple different layers to it. One is Accelerate. One is, so for those leaders that are new in their roles, we have a whole training program to help them accelerate their leadership skills and move through the organization. 

We also have one that's called Activate. So for brand new leaders, somebody that's just been promoted or identified as a high potential looking to be promoted, that we're able to offer a whole different training program for those folks as well to get them acclimated to what being a leader in the organization looks like and what being a leader in general looks like. 

We also have one called Ignite, which is for our higher level leaders, right? And we actually partner with Southern Methodist University here in Dallas, you know, and take them through courses at SMU to really help hone in and build even more leadership skills. 

We offer a mentoring program that we're getting ready to, we've done it in a couple of different clicks and now we're taking it up in action in 2026 as well and we're looking forward to that launch of a mentoring program as well, and that's available to anyone in the organization to participate in. So we've got a couple of different opportunities there, as well as we provide a lot of just-in-time learning and training throughout the organization. So it's not just about leadership skills. It's also about whether it's technical skills, whether it's capability skills. We've got a lot of different opportunities that we offer all employees.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, which I love. Well, one, I love when anytime that there's like a branding around any type of programming, because that makes me nerd out and geek out. So I love that you guys have these like ignite, accelerate all those different names. I think it's really helpful also just for people internally to take advantage of those opportunities too, I would imagine. And then Just-in-Time (JIT) Learning, it's like everybody, everybody within an organization has different ways that they learn. Everyone within the organization has different goals, you know, dreams within their own career. And so it sounds like you're touching on a variety of different opportunities for someone to want to be staying at your organization beyond the obvious five year mark, right? And to stay there for longer than that, which I love. But one question I love to ask people on this podcast is we talked about all the wonderful things about your organization. And I know that every organization has some really great qualities. Every organization also has things that they're growing in. So as you would reflect on Globe Life and the things that maybe you're looking to get incrementally better in, what would some of those areas be?

Rebecca Zorn: Sure. I think for me, it's about continuous improvement. So it's less about maybe one particular area. It's really about how can we get better in all areas, right? So, you know, learning we were just talking about, we are working to develop right now an emerging leader program. So it's for those folks that, hey, are thinking about becoming a leader or those that have a manager that says, hey, I see something in that individual and I'd like to get them started. But they may not qualify for one of the other official programs that we have.

We are looking to develop that emerging leader program. How can we get folks in the pipeline even earlier than we had originally planned for? That is just one example. Another is we’re  building out our, I say, not just our skills but our capability catalog. That way, that internal mobility concept that we were talking about, my team will have the ability to spot something based off of some skills that we have documented or a library that we have going on our employees so we can say, hey, wait a second, you're looking for this talent. But rather than going outside, we really think you need to be looking over here to an individual they may have never been exposed to at all. So we're really looking to capitalize on that capability and build that out even better. So for me, it's not just one thing. It's how do we just continue to get better and better in everything that we do?

Jena Dunay: Yeah, and remind me, I should have asked this at the beginning, but how many employees are you around right now?

Rebecca Zorn: So we are just shy of 4,000 employees. And then we have almost 16,500 independent agents that sell life insurance for us.

Jena Dunay: That makes sense. that balloons that number quite a bit to be under your purview. So I totally get that. What type of employees? Now, we'd mentioned before, obviously, talking about a service-minded person is somebody who really succeeds because that's a core value of the organization. But beyond that, if somebody is thinking, Okay Rebecca, you've piqued my interest. I'm going to go to your careers website. I'm potentially interested in maybe applying to a role that you have. What type of people do really well at Globe Life? And what type of people maybe don't do as well at Globe Life. From a fit culture, fit perspective we're talking about.

Rebecca Zorn: So, yeah. There's one kind of common trait that's probably unusual. But when I look at who succeeds at Globe, someone who's tenacious. And by that, mean somebody who cares, right? They're service minded. They want to do better for our customers, for their fellow colleagues, for the broader good. But when I look at what really makes someone succeed up through the ranks, it's someone who digs in and gets it done. Someone who has that extra drive. So I say tenacious is a core competency at Globe Life. It really just is.

Jena Dunay: Now I'm going to ask this for my people, people in the room that are listening. How do you screen for that? Like what questions are you asking to help determine if somebody is going to be tenacious enough? Because I feel like that's really hard sometimes when you are on the hiring committee or you are kind of in that hiring process, hiring seat, should I say. Like what do you look for in that interview process?

Rebecca Zorn: So I think it's a different question, dependent upon the department and dependent upon the role. But the crux of it is essentially, hey, give me an example of when you have dug in. How did you address a problem? How did you seek resolution in a particular area? And the way an individual answers that tells me, hey, are they willing to go that extra mile? Are they willing to dig in? Do they have the tenacity that will make them successful here at Globe?

Jena Dunay: Yeah, yeah, that's really good. I like that word tenacity. I don't think I've had anybody else use that word. I like the word gumption. That's like kind of my version of tenacity is like we have one of our core values of our organization is gumption. And it's like that ability to dig in to stick-to-itiveness, if you will. It sounds like that's which also kind of makes sense when you are a part of an insurance, you're selling insurance by a large portion of your product, right? A lot of those people have that tenacious energy about them in order to be successful.

Rebecca Zorn: Well, and I think part of it is for us is we're providing products to our customers and it could be 90 years before we ever hear from them again, right? And so we have to really be in it for the long haul and you have to really want to succeed and want to pursue that next level for those customers in order to ensure that we're going to be around and fulfill those promises that we're making today.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, that's such an interesting point too, Rebecca, because I think most organizations that we interview, or just in general, are very next quarter focused, but you're very lifetime focused, right? You have to be. The nature of your work has to think that way, which I would imagine also as a candidate who's deciding what type of organization they want to work for is maybe not just the one that's going to hire me, but the one that's going to potentially be around the longest. And so that you guys are thinking with that long term mindset, which is such, again, a value add in this marketplace where we have so many people that are just looking to the next quarter, which is important. We need to have those goals, too. But to have that longevity, I was under some leadership of a leader who thought in 100 year increments, which was such a mind blowing concept to me where I was like, I'm just trying to figure out what's going to happen tomorrow. But he was 100 years in the future. And but that is a very secure leader to work for, a very secure organization to work for. I love that you talked about that and I don't think that we hear that enough. Yeah.

Rebecca Zorn: I think it's just in our bones. mean, we've been around since 1900 and we've got to be there for another hundred years, right? So, you know, we've got to make this work.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, so as we're looking to the future of Globe Life, we're talking about that. Tell me where what growth looks like for your organization or where you might be hiring over the next, say, 12 months to 18 months.

Rebecca Zorn: You know, obviously I talked about continuous improvement several times. One of our strategic initiatives is always how can we do what we're doing better? And how can we do it with the new technology that's coming into play, right? Some of the areas that we are doing some hiring in because of that kind of strategic mindset of, hey, how can we do this better in the future, right? Is our IT area, along with, one of the things that we're interested in looking into and we're developing new ways of working is how we transfer leads and we're looking at live lead transfer. And so we're really looking to hire in our contact center space, right? Individuals that are interested in working with our customers that have a lead, bring them in, transfer them over directly to one of our independent sales agents. So that's an area that we're building out. And then something that's always important to us as a life insurance organization is compliance, right? As a lawyer, you're speaking to heart, right, compliance, know, risk mitigation. Are we doing the things that we need to do to ensure that we're going to be around in 100 years to make good on our promises, right? That compliance field is also another space that we'll be doing some additional hiring in.

Jena Dunay: Okay, so if somebody has listened to this podcast and they're like, I like Rebecca, I like what she has to say, her organization seems interesting. I'm assuming obviously one of the best places to find out what opportunities are available is on your careers page. Where else would somebody go to look?

Rebecca Zorn: Absolutely. Our careers website, for sure, number one, right? Everything will be there right for you. It'll all be spelled out. And that's careers.globelifeinsurance.com. 

Jena Dunay: Awesome! We'll have that in the show notes.

Rebecca Zorn: Okay, good. Beautiful. We also do a lot of hiring on LinkedIn. So be on the lookout for SOSs and, we're looking for out on LinkedIn as well. We also post some ads on Indeed. So there's a multitude of different ways to get to us. And even our Globe Life page on the internet, right, in general can give you guys a lot of information about where to find, you know, what jobs we're hiring for and who we are and what we stand for.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, so I'm going to ask this question on behalf of the job seeker because I get this question a lot. How do I get my resume seen in the midst of all the other resumes? So do you have any advice for that job seeker who is just like beating their head against the wall? I'm so tired of applying online. I feel like no one ever reads my resume. What advice would you give that person to make sure the resume is seen to the best, obviously, of their ability? But yeah, what advice would you give the job seeker?

Rebecca Zorn: I think for me, it's be who you are in your resume. Talk about the skills that you have, because a lot of the things that we look for, it isn't your past jobs. It's actually the skills that you exhibit that you can tell us examples of things you've done in your resume that demonstrate to me and to my team and to others, right, hey, they have this skill to take on this action and it may actually not even be the job you're applying for, but wow, that will work really well over here. I think it's be who you are. Share your skills, not just your experience with us in your resume. And that'll help us, you know, kind of sort through things and pick out folks that I think might be great, even if it's not necessarily the job that they've applied for.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, awesome! Well, this was super helpful, Rebecca! If somebody wants to find out more information about you, LinkedIn is probably the best place to do that. But in general, I would imagine that the best place to find out more information is, as you mentioned, on the career site, on your LinkedIn page, as well as just your website in general. 

Rebecca Zorn: Perfect!

Jena Dunay: Awesome! Well, thank you so much for joining, and we will see you all next week on another episode of Culture Uncovered. 

Rebecca Zorn: Thanks, Jena!