How the insurance industry can attract and retain new talent
Retiring baby boomers have left a gap in the insurance industry, and firms are struggling to attract suitable talent to fill it.
To bring in the brightest and best talent into the insurance industry, a white paper says that firms need to act decisively not only to find and hire workers, but to keep them as well.
The paper, “How to Attract the Brightest and the Best to the Insurance Industry,“ published by Questback.com addresses the gaps created in the insurance industry by retiring baby boomers and how firms are struggling to attract suitable talent to replace them. Even more, they’re struggling to hang on to that talent once they find it, since millennials in particular have different work goals in mind than their elders did: they want “personal fulfillment and purpose of work,” not “a job for life;” they don’t want to spend all their time working and also expect to have a better work-life balance than their elders did.
In addition, the workforce is going through its own changes as it struggles to assimilate greater diversity, rather than remaining stuck with a “homogeneous workforce” drawn predominantly from “white, privileged and mostly male talent.”
Insurance industry fails to promote itself
The industry fails to promote itself and its advantages and benefits adequately, the paper says, and using social media to “tell … good news stories” could help with that. In addition, becoming more familiar with tools used by the younger generation to find work — such as Glassdoor — can help to attract potential candidates. Companies must also learn to embrace millennial workers in a way that helps them to grow and appreciate career opportunities without job-hopping.
Related: 4 ways the insurance industry can win the war for talent
Being open to apprenticeships as well as hiring graduates is another way companies can bring in much-needed new talent while at the same time diversifying their workforce. And being willing to accommodate such policies as flexible working — something senior management has to adapt to — can not only help companies retain female workers juggling multiple responsibilities, but also be more welcoming to millennials.
More training and mentoring can help transition younger workers into positions held by senior staff preparing for retirement mode — and without it, gaps will grow wider as the oldest workers depart and their subordinates take over. The youngest workers will leave, too, if they see no clear path to advancement and are not made to feel accepted as they move up in the ranks.