Kimberly Bowen was working for an insurance company in Cleveland, Ohio, when she became interested in a vice president’s post at Unum in Chattanooga in early 2019.
“Working in downtown Cleveland, we experienced the city coming back. It almost felt like a renaissance period,” she says. “Chattanooga had the same feeling.”
Bowen joined the Chattanooga-based disability and volunteer benefits insurer as VP of global talent management in June 2019, just nine months before the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down.
The pandemic set in motion for many people a reassessment of their priorities and relationships, including with employers, she says in a recent interview at Unum’s downtown headquarters.
“People wanted a reset as to how their working world and personal work collaborated,” says Bowen, who heads a group of about 160 people overseeing talent acquisition, learning and development and employee relations in the business.