The best career you never considered

With graduation season behind us and the next wave of new talent preparing to wrap up their formal education, it’s important for employers to start thinking about how they can appeal to and recruit the very best talent for today and in the future.

There is a unique set of challenges in play when hiring in the insurance industry, most notably debunking misperceptions of what it’s like to work in insurance and positioning the industry as an attractive employment option for high school and college students.

Want to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward in the recruiting game/? Consider these three tips:

1. Define and highlight your company culture

When appealing to entry-level talent, it is incredibly important to highlight your company culture. Culture isn’t just a buzz word. Getting down to the nitty-gritty of what defines your unique culture is essential to successful recruitment and retainment for this group. You should be honest and realistic about your culture, including understanding who you are — and what you are not. Defining your core values can also be a great place to start.

To get a clear understanding of your culture, start by conducting a brand audit. This doesn’t have to be high tech. For example, check out reviews on Glassdoor and distribute employee surveys to see what makes your place of work unique and an ideal place to have a career. Looking inward and asking those who know the company best can help you begin to define your company culture. Are you a company that prioritizes flexibility and work-life balance/? Are you growing at a rapid pace? Do you offer cool benefits? Asking these questions and defining what you are can inform your recruitment plans and marketing tactics.

2. Understand what qualities are important to young recruits

While many people would not list ‘insurance agent’ among their dream jobs, the position actually offers many qualities younger generations are looking for in a career, including flexible schedules and reasonable work hours, reliability and stability, and solid salaries with room for growth. A stable industry with a variety of positions — from sales and service and claims adjusters to IT and analytical roles — provides a huge opportunity for new talent to enter the field and build a lasting career. It also enables prospects to experiment with job roles and take their career in a different direction as they grow professionally. According to U.S. News, the median salary for insurance agents in 2017 was $49,710 annually.

Once you have defined your company culture, you can create a narrative to inform what prospective employees can expect. Set expectations with candidates upfront about the job and work environment so they understand what their day to day will look like. For example, at Progressive, we see that flexibility — defined by employees as having the “autonomy to do my job” — is important to employees and external applicants. This flexibility and trust in our employees to do what’s right for our customers and agents is integral to our company culture.

Regardless of your recruitment strategy, recognizing what is important to the next generation of job seekers is critical in appealing to them.

3. Ensure you don’t lose sight of everyone else

While appealing to entry-level talent is important, it is essential that you strike a balance and not put all your recruiting “eggs” in one basket. At Progressive, we don’t work to attract younger talent at the expense or exclusion of appealing to more experienced talent. Chances are your workforce spans several generations, so it’s a good idea to ensure you do not neglect this group in the pursuit of young recruits.

A recent survey shows that 84% of organizations use social media for recruitment, yet employers should avoid blanket social media strategies. Be strategic about the channels with which you choose to engage. While Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans, a recent Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults also found that 71% of 18- to 24-year-olds report using Instagram. If you’re incorporating a social media strategy and digital marketing into your recruitment efforts, make sure you’re tailoring appropriately based on your target audience.

Whether you’re seeking out IT professionals, analysts or agents, recruiting and appealing to young talent comes from having a strong understanding of who you are as a company and your core values. Consider trends for young job seekers and what they consider to be most important. And while appealing to candidates, make sure your strategy and efforts don’t lose sight of or neglect experienced talent.

Erin Hendrick (Erin_G_Hendrick@Progressive.com) leads the talent marketing group at Progressive Insurance and is responsible for attracting quality talent to the company through branding, marketing and proactive sourcing.

For more articles on recruiting and fostering the next generation of insurance professionals, visit our Instant Insights page “Insurance Careers Month: Bridging the Talent Gap.”

Related: 

• How colleges, carriers are rising above the insurance talent gap
• Celebrating Insurance Careers Month 2020
• Millennials, swipe right for insurance careers

Have you joined our group ALM Young Professionals Network on LinkedIn? We’re having powerful conversations that tackle the challenges we all face early in our careers. Request to join here.