At Horace Mann, we’re committed to nurturing an inclusive corporate culture where every employee feels valued, respected and empowered to grow.
Horace Mann's mission of helping educators achieve lifelong financial success resonates strongly with our more than 1,700 employees. In every interaction, we aim to reflect the core values that define us: compassionate, trustworthy, straightforward, approachable, respectful and knowledgeable. We believe that an engaged employee base is critical to deliver on our commitment to educators and achieve our business objectives.
We design our policies and practices to attract, develop and retain top talent while creating a positive and engaging employee experience.
Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits
Our Total Rewards strategy is designed to attract and retain talent by offering competitive compensation and benefits. Employees are eligible for base pay, performance-based incentive compensation and merit increases aligned with individual and company performance. We regularly evaluate highly skilled and hard-to-fill positions to ensure market competitiveness to both attract and retain employees.
All full and part-time employees and employee agents who work a minimum of 20 hours per week have immediate access to a comprehensive benefits package, including:
- Medical, dental and vision coverage
- Group life and disability insurance
- Up to $1,000 in employer contributions to health savings accounts (HSA) annually
- 401(k) contributions:
- 3% automatic employer contribution of eligible earnings
- Up to 5% additional employer match based on employee contributions
- Paid time off (PTO) program designed to support work-life balance, offering:
- New employees receive four weeks annually which increases with years of service, as well as ten recognized holidays and an additional ‘floating holiday’ annually.
For more details, see our Total Rewards Program overview.
Work/life flexibility
At Horace Mann, we recognize that employees perform their best when they have the flexibility and support to manage both their professional and personal lives.
In addition to our generous paid time off program, new parents receive up to four weeks of paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child.
Our employee assistance program provides confidential support and resources, including:
- Counseling services for major life changes, grief, stress and more
- Smoking cessation programs
- Annual wellness cost reimbursement of up to $250 for fitness or weight-loss programs
Employee training and development
At Horace Mann, we’re committed to helping our employees grow and build meaningful careers. Our approach includes:
- Comprehensive employee training and development program consisting of instructor-led classes
- Peer-to-peer learning opportunities
- Self-directed learning, such as access to an eLearning library
Employees and leaders have access to the Development Hub, which offers both live and on-demand courses focused on skill building and leadership development. In 2025, employees averaged more than 23 hours of training.
Select employees also have access to our Emerging Leaders program, an intensive, five-month experience that brings together employees from across the organization. Participants build skills in communication, emotional intelligence, influence and cross-functional collaboration, culminating with a capstone project contributing to lasting organizational change.
In addition to career-advancement learning, Horace Mann offers job-specific training and technical skill development opportunities to ensure our employees stay current with the latest practices, techniques and skills needed to continue delivering high-quality service. To support these trainings, Horace Mann partners with The Institutes, LOMA and The American College to provide industry-specific programs that broaden our employees’ insurance operations knowledge and skills.
Performance & Leadership Development
We support our talent pipeline strategy through an integrated approach to performance management, talent reviews, succession planning and leadership development. HR partners with leaders across the business to regularly assess workforce needs and identify high-potential employees through structured talent reviews.
Employees and leaders have ongoing performance discussions to benchmark progress and identify developmental opportunities, including potential career paths. In 2025, 100% of employees received at least one formal performance review.
We’ve also created multi-level succession plans to support business continuity and help prepare employees for future leadership roles. In 2025, we promoted 187 employees internally, reflecting our commitment to career growth and development.
Our Leadership Pathways program further supports this effort by providing a flexible, continuous learning experience for leaders. Through a combination of interactive live workshops, on-demand courses and structured learning journeys, leaders develop the skills needed to strengthen teams, enhance performance and drive engagement.
Inclusivity at Horace Mann
At Horace Mann, we believe that embracing diverse perspectives strengthens our culture, enhances our decision making and improves how we show up for and serve educators.
Key initiatives include:
- Inclusion and Engagement Committee: Focused on actionable steps to build a more inclusive culture
- Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Creating opportunities for connection, mentorship, education and community engagement
- Educational Programming:
- Unconscious bias training (35-minute required annual module with real-world examples)
- ConnectEd corporate-wide educational program that utilizes curated books, podcasts and other media to broaden perspectives and awareness on meaningful topics and issues.
These experiences are open to all employees at all levels of the organization to support a culture of belonging.
Employee Demographics (as of Dec. 31, 2025)
In 2025, Horace Mann hired 392 employees, including:
- Gender representation: 230 women (59%) and 159 men (41%); 3 not declared (1%)
- Ethnic diversity:
- Caucasian/White: 217 (55.4%)
- African American/Black: 94 (24.0%)
- Hispanic/Latino: 18 (4.6%)
- Asian: 20 (5.1%)
- American Indian/Alaska Native: 1 (0.3%)
- Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander: 0 (0.0%)
- Two or More Races: 25 (6.4%)
- Chose not to self-identify: 17(4.3%)
For 2025, our total employee turnover was 19.2%, including 12.4% voluntary turnover. Our 2025 voluntary turnover of employees who had been with Horace Mann for less than 12 months was 15.9%. See our most recent EEO-1 report for additional demographic details.
Employee Experience and Engagement
We’re committed to fostering a workplace culture built on meaningful connections, productive collaboration and open communication. Through intentional engagement and active listening strategies, we continuously work to strengthen our culture and employee experience.
Horace Mann conducts biennial employee experience surveys, complemented by pulse surveys throughout the year, to gather feedback on our total rewards, culture, inclusion, wellness and organizational priorities.
In 2025, we completed two pulse surveys focused on strategic priorities, recognition, efficiency and pay-for-performance. Participation increased from 55% in the spring to 63% in the fall, with results showing positive trends compared to internal and external benchmarks. Notably, 85% of employees reported a clear connection to our strategic priorities, a 13-point increase from our 2024 biennial survey.
Through our 2025 survey process, employees identified manager trust and support, flexibility and inclusion as key strengths. Opportunities for continued focus include enhancing total rewards, strengthening communication, improving IT resources and providing clearer career pathways. Leaders are encouraged to partner with their teams to develop targeted action plans aligned to these focus areas.
In 2026, we plan to launch a spring pulse survey and a mid-year full, biennial employee experience survey as part of our ongoing listening strategy.
Supporting causes important to employees
Our mission-driven culture extends beyond the workplace. Many Horace Mann employees are actively engaged in their communities and committed to charitable causes. To support these efforts, the Horace Mann Educators Foundation matches employee donations up to $1,000 annually to qualified nonprofits.