It’s a people business, but in the war for talent, insurance doesn’t always win. As a recent session of Intelligent Insurer’s Re/insurance Lounge heard, many end up in the industry rather than actively choose it.

How can the industry change that, make sure it’s drawing from the widest possible pool of talent, and then ensure it keeps it? A group of experts joined our online platform for interviews, debates and panel discussions to look at the issues:

• Melissa Collett, professional standards director of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII);
• Sabrina Kruse, head of human resources (HR) for UK, Ireland and South Africa and global HR business partner at SCOR Global P&C;
• Charlotte Myers, head of technical training at Markel International; and
• Fiona Temple, HR & Academy director for the Lloyd’s Market Association.

A knowledge gap

As Collett said, the industry sometimes struggles to attract candidates. “So many people fall into insurance; it isn’t their first choice,” she said. “A lot of us are converts to insurance, but it’s not something they name when you ask your typical school leaver or graduate what they want to be when they grow up.”

In part, Collett argued, that’s because insurance is still not as well respected as some other careers—a problem the CII’s offer of chartered status aims to help address.

“For me, it’s about making insurance a profession people want to be part of, a profession that enjoys parity of esteem with others such as accountancy, law, medicine, surveying and engineering. All these professions attract talent into their sector, and insurance should be no different.”

It’s also simply a result of widespread ignorance about the industry. Temple, who was previously global head of talent at Aspen Insurance Group and Catlin, remarked that she still gets asked if she works for Lloyds—the UK bank.

Myers agreed that there’s still a lot of work to be done. “I’ve been hearing that question for nearly 30 years. Why are people still asking it?” she said. “So many people don’t know about the industry and what a great place it is to work in.”

Much of the task of addressing that falls to businesses themselves, according to Kruse, and they must work to boost the industry’s profile.

“We need to make the industry more visible,” she said. “The industry has started to create ties with schools, universities and communities, and we can then send our employees as ambassadors to represent the sector and to promote the wealth of opportunities and available roles.”

The last point is important because it contributes directly to the failure of insurance to attract a broader range of candidates.

“I don’t think people realise how many different roles there are,” said Temple. “You don’t have to be an underwriter to join our industry. We can encourage talent from so many different areas.”

Diversity and data

It’s not just about who looks at insurance as a potential career. It’s also about the people the sector regards as possible candidates. While the public may remain ignorant of the variety of roles on offer, insurers can also ignore the range of backgrounds they could draw talent from.

Too often, according to Kruse, there’s a fixation on industry experience.

“There is an emphasis on skills, knowledge and expertise that may be useful but are not necessarily essential,” she said. “Our hiring managers often insist on specific insurance experience for roles where it might not really be the core expertise required.”

Many of the valued skills during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as collaborative ability, change management expertise, adaptability and resilience, are highly transferable.

“We don’t need to be canvassing solely within the insurance sector to find those skills,” Kruse said.

“There is a big opportunity for us to cast the net much wider and start attracting from different sectors.” Doing so will help bring valuable innovation and creativity into the industry, too, she added.

Looking further afield will be key to meeting another urgent need the sector has, Myers noted.

“It’s all about data in the market now,” she said. “As an industry, we have to work hard to attract people with a technology background and also train up people who have an interest in this area and want to shift to that data mindset.

“Technology proficiency in the insurance industry isn’t something that we’ve historically been good at. We’ve got better over the last 15 months, but if we want people who have good data and technology skills, there needs to be a big shift to improve those skills and attract people.”

Collett agreed, pointing to the CII’s recently developed artificial intelligence and machine learning course, and work with Southampton Data Science Academy, as examples of its efforts to help address the need.

“We’ve all seen the rise of insurtech and how insurance is becoming almost totally data-driven, so that’s a vital skillset,” she said.

Finally, Kruse noted, the industry needs to work to retain the talent it has. Again, she urged businesses to think more broadly. Rather than just look at standard career progression, they should also give employees continuing opportunities for growth through a range of projects and initiatives.

“Career advancement is not just about promoting people to the next level up, which is what the conversation with managers is often about,” said Kruse.

“Asking employees to wait patiently for the next role to become available is probably one of the best ways to lose talent.”

To view the full Re/insurance Lounge session click here

Image courtesy of Shutterstock / Nitish Waila