TALENT ACQUISITION WILL DRIVE THE NEXT 50 YEARS

The captive insurance industry has experienced tremendous growth in the past 50 years of CICA’s existence. In this time, the number of captives has expanded from less than 100 in the 1970s to more than 7,000 captive insurance entities around the globe.

Understanding captive insurance takes a deeper understanding of financing your risk, innovation and accessing new markets not available in the traditional insurance marketplace. The past 50 years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of professionals who have entered the captive insurance industry, but it is a well-known issue that the insurance industry is vastly understaffed.

Perhaps the main challenge working against the insurance industry is that today’s talent has little knowledge about the benefits of working in the industry.

As ambassadors for the captives industry, it is our responsibility to change the recruitment process and bring fresh talent and ideas to this industry. We need to diversify and cast a wider net to attract professionals from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. When we look at where the next generation of professionals for the captive industry will come from, we need to consider Millennials and Generation Z.

A Tallo survey of Generation Z students in April 2021 found that only 37.6 percent are interested in the insurance industry as a career option. For comparison, 78 percent of students expressed interest in the arts, entertainment and recreation sectors, and 76.5 percent said they are attracted to technology careers.

If we are going to be successful in recruiting Generation Z, we need to shift the focus to making them aware of the benefits and opportunities created in the captives industry. This goes beyond Generation Z; we need to reach out to high schools and inform them of the captives sector and the types of courses and majors which would enhance and encourage knowledge about the general insurance industry and, specifically, captive insurance.

“Taking time each month to investigate new ways of recruitment and expansion of teams will pay off in the long term.”

Current roles

Captive insurance professionals go beyond some of the traditional roles of underwriting and broking. A captive professional today could range from an attorney, an accountant doing audit or tax work, consulting, captive management, or third-party administration of claims, to a captive owner, risk manager, investment advisor, an actuary, reinsurance intermediary or other support position.

The number of opportunities for a young professional could be endless. Being in the captives industry accelerates change which drives strategy, thus creating exciting opportunities for many professionals. In my career, I have seen in many professionals switch from one job to another within the industry and handle completely different roles.

The insurance industry faces uncharted risks. With the hard market and COVID-19, new liability risks are emerging across all markets, and climate change now seems more ominous and imminent than previously thought. Cyber risks continue to intensify, and clients are seeking alternative solutions.

The captive insurance industry continues to be a solution and source of creativity for many clients. While this creativity and new technology continue to evolve, clients are becoming more savvy than ever and demanding high quality interfaces as baselines for their digital communications. To manage these risks, implement trends and optimize the value of new technologies, the industry needs an infusion of technical skills, complemented by softer skills in areas such as customer engagement and empathy.

The next generation of captive insurance professionals are extremely tech-savvy and can interact quickly and with ease with clients and other professionals, as they have grown up using technology in their everyday lives.

It is incumbent upon every captive insurance professional today to constantly seek new talent and invest the time to recruit, train and educate new professionals in our industry. We have a tremendous talent base who are in their 50s and 60s and not far off from retirement, thus potentially creating a knowledge gap if they don’t invest their time in educating younger professionals in the captive insurance industry.

Initiatives

Several of the initiatives started by CICA several years ago include NEXTGen and Amplify Women, both extremely important to the captive insurance industry. Dedicated professionals stepped forward to participate and develop a knowledge exchange, educate one another on how to attract talent, mentor others, network and begin to build a large network of ideas and people to accelerate the recruitment of the next intake of professionals.

In a couple of short years, the success of the NEXTGen program certainly impacted me and others in our industry. This is putting a spotlight on the talent shortage and brainstorming ways we can be successful in spreading the word, educating and reaching young people in high school and college on the excitement of working in the captives industry.

I have invested a tremendous amount of time in seeking and developing younger talent in the captives industry. I am passionate about providing opportunities for young people to ask questions and network and encourage them to open their eyes to a different way of thinking within the insurance industry. Spending time recruiting, mentoring or teaching a class on captives at colleges and universities across the country is eye-opening for many students who haven’t heard from professionals in the industry, giving them the opportunity to understand the depth of opportunities they can avail themselves of.

Spending a day at a college or university campus and talking with students about their interests and listening to their questions and their ambitions is very important for us to connect them to the opportunity within the captive insurance industry.

Many younger people enjoy travel, care deeply about the climate and environment, are deeply rooted in technology and apps, and want a flexible work environment. The captive insurance industry can offer this next generation of professionals a tremendous amount of excitement with travel, especially with numerous domiciles around the world; opportunities to innovate with alternative solutions as the reinsurance capacity for difficult-to-place risks rises; and using technology to report and impact claims and prevention of claims all while working from home or other flexible areas to support careers and personal lives.

Taking the time

The time we spend with the younger generations in transferring our knowledge, mentoring them on the soft skills needed to excel in this industry and providing an opportunity to network with other professionals will have a tremendous impact on the future of our industry.

I get a lot of personal satisfaction in watching the younger professionals I have recruited and educated on the captives industry learn, network and become more knowledgeable, confident, and successful in their own right with each step they take.

If each one of us spent time each week with a newer individual to our industry and took the time to respond to questions, listen to their challenges and assist in any way possible, our industry would continue to grow and thrive. Taking time each month to investigate new ways of recruitment and expansion of teams will pay off in the long term.

We all need to do our part, whether it’s being a guest speaker at a high school finance class, visiting colleges and universities or spending time with experienced professionals who demonstrate an interest in learning more details about a career in the captive insurance industry.

The captive industry has a culture of friendliness, supporting one another and driving innovation, and this culture needs to be conveyed to the next generation of professionals. Everything we do today to enhance and drive a diverse recruitment strategy for the captive industry will payoff over the next 50 years and allow the successful continuation of CICA’s initiatives and other organizations to acquire key  talent.

Anne Marie Towle is the global captive solutions leader at Hylant. She can be contacted at: anne.marie.towle@hylant.com