If CIOs could put together their IT staffs like the NFL putstogether its football teams, IT managers would be drafting the topstudents from around the country to join their squads. Butinsurance is not football, and CIOs are not general managers. Thesuccess of their recruiting efforts depends on a combination offactors: challenging technology, a career path for young ITemployees, and often the ability to convince young people life inthe middle of Nebraska is not so bad after all.

COLLEGE RECRUITING

The Westfield Group, in northeastern Ohio, has a solidrecruiting relationship with several midwestern universities,according to Ed Largent, chief technology officer. From atechnology standpoint, Largent has developed personal affiliationswith many Ohio universities, visiting campuses to interact withstudents and faculty. “It's a great long-term strategy, but it'snot going to produce a 20-year software architect any time soon,”he says.

Largent serves on an advisory board at the University of Akronand the school's Center for Information Technology and E-Business,an extension of Akron's college of business. The university formedthis board with key IT executives from about 20 northeastern Ohiocompanies. The group meets regularly to discuss the curriculum,which Largent believes gives the business leaders a hook into whatskill sets are being developed in the university's undergraduateprogram. “We are interactive with the students,” he says. “We makeguest appearances in classes and lecture on various topics.”

Akron's advisory board has a curriculum committee on whichLargent sits. “We review the MIS curriculum and provide input tothe dean of the college and the faculty,” he says. “They take ourinput on it as well as anything else they might be looking at.”

One of the things the Akron advisory group is discussing is thetrend toward declining enrollment in MIS and the number of computerscience majors in the colleges. “The number is down significantly,”says Largent. “The university is looking to marketing programs totry to increase enrollment in those disciplines.”

Mutual of Omaha (MoA) also has built relationships with theacademic world near its headquarters in Nebraska, and thisinteraction has given the carrier access to some good talent.Because of the area of the country in which it is located, MoA hasaligned with the University of Nebraska and its honors program forstudents seeking simultaneous IT and business backgrounds. “Wemaintain a long history [with UN] from the inception of the[honors] program, and we've built a relationship with students asearly as their freshman and sophomore years as interns,” says JeffSchreiner, president of Omaha Information Services Co. (OISC), asubsidiary of MoA.

George Royse, vice president of strategic technology developmentfor Mutual of Omaha, reports the IT leaders at MoA provide input tothe universities in a number of ways. Royse has helped design someof UN's advanced DBA courses. “We got some of our databaseadministrators together with the folks at the University ofNebraska-Omaha,” he says. “We literally have laid out a curriculum[the school] eagerly has accepted. It is taught to all students whogo through there for DBA certification.”

In addition, Royse himself teaches graduate classes at both UN-Oand Creighton University. “There are a couple of advantages there,”he says. “When students have gone through some of those classes, Iget a chance to figure out exactly who is the cream of the crop.When students send their resume [to MoA], I go back to the grades.I have the inside story on that. That kind of partnership is whatmakes our recruiting program successful.”

FILLING KEY ROLES

Not all IT jobs are difficult to fill, but Largent assertsWestfield is starting to see challenges in finding talent for keyIT roles. “It's not an across-the-board issue,” he says. “Iwouldn't say we have difficulty recruiting and training ITprofessionals, but there are specific roles across the organizationwe've struggled with. If someone in one of those particular rolesleaves the company, it's a real challenge to fill thosepositions.”

Largent lists positions such as software enterprise architect,program manager, and project manager among the high-quality ITleadership roles that are becoming increasingly difficult to fill.There are multiple reasons for this phenomenon, he explains, butthey differ with each role. “In the architecture roles, ourperception is that's a very competitive market to begin with, sothere aren't hundreds of those folks running around,” says Largent.“We're competing with a smaller pool.”

Westfield's geographic location is part of the issue, Largentacknowledges. Although the company is approximately 30 miles fromthe Cleveland and Akron communities, he concedes the area, whencompared with other parts of the country, is not an attractive spotfor IT professionals with the skills needed for some of the roleson Largent's list. “It's not like we're completely in the middle ofnowhere, but if you look at the demographic and economic trends inthis area, it's not a good story,” he says.

The marketplace with respect to the demand for programmanagement and project management positions fluctuates in cycles,according to Largent. “Three to five years ago we had no troublehiring really good program or project managers, but that cycleturned, and it's a much more competitive market now,” he says.

Royse reports MoA is not worried about finding quality people tocome Omaha to work for the company. “We haven't had too muchdifficulty in attracting top talent within the midwestern region,”he says. “We're very competitive [in terms of salaries and otherbenefits] in this region and don't have significant issuesattracting that talent.”

COMPETING FOR TALENT

Competition for the best workers is another challenge.Westfield's home office is located near Progressive's home officein the Cleveland area. Several large national financialinstitutions also are based in Cleveland and Akron, including KeyBank and National City. “I'd say for the largest 10 to 20 companiesin northeastern Ohio, it's not unusual to find someone who has been[interviewed by] a couple of those organizations,” saysLargent.

Most of the companies have their own respective IT needs, butLargent believes when all the industries join forces–as they havewith the University of Akron–they discover similar needs in hiringyoung IT professionals. “There are a lot more needs for ERP skills[with other industries] than what is normally found in theinsurance industry, but overall there are no vast differences,” hesays.

Westfield's strategy for attracting help isn't weighted towardhiring recent college grads. “We try to maintain a balancedstrategy of recruiting people out of college and interns as well asexperienced people where we need it,” says Largent. Traditionalrecruiting methods work well, with the exception of some of thestrategic positions Largent has found to be increasingly difficultto fill. “If we're looking for an experienced Java programmer, weput the posting on our Web site and some of the standard[recruiting resources], and we usually get a good response,” hesays.

Depending on the job, Walter Shaw, president of GrapevineTechnology, a personnel consulting service, believes most hiringmanagers within the insurance industry do look for some insurancebackground, but as with any job, the most talented people get thejob, whether they've worked in insurance or in a manufacturingbusiness. “If they have the skill set, [insurers] will bring themon,” he says. “Whereas with the older technologies, if [insurers]are looking for a COBOL program, I'm sure they would look for someinsurance background.”

KEEPING EVERYONE HAPPY

The financial success of Westfield over the years plays a hugepart in keeping good people with the company, according to Largent.Another factor in keeping a happy and loyal IT staff is theenvironment and the atmosphere within IT itself, he explains.Westfield has a little more than 300 employees in its IT operation,with 50 to 100 consultants working at any point in time. “One ofthe things we've done in recent years is to focus on thatenvironment, whether it's the physical work environment or theoverall things that are driving employee satisfaction andempowerment,” he says. “If we can trend those positively, we thinkthat will help us in the long run with retention.”

One strategy at MoA involves recruiting from a group of peoplewho want to live in the midwestern area. “We learned that longago,” says Royse. “We tried to recruit from different areas of thecountry. In many cases, they liked the company and the technology,but you have to make sure people want to live here and are up forthe long haul.”

By focusing on midwestern colleges, Royse believes the strategyis paying dividends for MoA, as opposed to recruiting employeesfrom other, more attractive areas and finding, a year or two later,the employee is not happy. “That's why we're trying to target themidwestern colleges,” he says.

John Patterson, senior vice president of operations and CIO atBaltimore Life Companies, claims his company's primary issue withIT staffing is retention and retraining the current staff ratherthan recruitment. “[The staff] has so much embedded businessknowledge–how this place works, relationships,” he says. “We'reworking hard to retain that knowledge, move it to new technologies,and give folks a career path with us and the new technologies.”

Most of Baltimore Life's 20 IT employees have been with thecompany for at least five years. “We're trying to save thatknowledge and move it to new platforms,” says Patterson.

LOOKING OFFSHORE

Insurers increasingly have focused on offshore alliances toserve their IT needs, but today some carriers are looking to importkey employees rather than export jobs.

There is a great deal of talent for insurers to recruit withinthe United States, Shaw believes, but an increasing amount of helpis coming from offshore. “I'm a big proponent of jobs in the U.S.,but when it comes to dealing with some of the technical, intensivelanguages out there now, a lot of people are coming [to the U.S.]from overseas,” he says. “The work has to get done, and we've got alot of folks from India who are qualified to work in this country.We've got some .NET openings right now, and sometimes it'simpossible to find that talent here in large numbers. However, ifyou reach out to some of your [offshore] resources, where you canfind talent from anywhere, they typically are coming fromoverseas.”

Going abroad, Westfield has developed relationships withIndia-based companies for more than 10 years, and the carrier'srate and product work for personal lines is done offshore, butLargent claims the company has yet to tap that avenue for some ofthe key roles. That could be changing, though. One of Largent'sassistants is headed to China this summer, joining a consortium ofpeople from other companies trying to investigate the potential ofleveraging international talent. “Brazil, India, China, and Russiaare potential opportunities, and we'll probably try to experimentthere,” says Largent.

OFFERING CHALLENGES

Mutual of Omaha has approximately 700 people within the ITorganization. In addition, the carrier's Omaha Insurance ServicesCo. subsidiary provides risk management and other services tocompanies inside and out of the insurance vertical. “The OISC iswhere we do unique things in terms of how we attract some of ourtalent here,” says Royse.

The subsidiary offers a number of the operational riskmanagement functions Mutual of Omaha began as commercial offeringsto other insurance companies, Schreiner explains. “Part of therationale was we had unique things we did for the company that hadmarket viability,” he says. “This was a way we could provideincentives to some of our top talent to come and work for us. Partof our strategy is to have them rotate and get an exposure to allkinds of different services.”

Royse indicates it's a real draw for Mutual of Omaha when thecompany can tell prospective employees not only are they workingfor an insurance company, but they also are working for a companyon the edge–performing risk management and other work that OISC isdoing.

The rotation practice is an important part of what the companydoes with IT personnel, affirms Royse. “We've rotated folks whohave diverse backgrounds–folks in security, mainframe support, andother areas,” he says. “That rotation keeps our talented employeeshere. In addition, it also attracts the college students.”

The company started the rotation system a couple of years back,Schreiner reports. When the company hires employees who are more onthe entry-level side of the IT organization, the company allowsthem to spend six months of their first two years going from onepart of the IT organization to another. “They get a little exposureto the applications area, the infrastructure side, to my operation(the commercial side of things), and strategic development,” saysSchreiner. “We feel the desire for most college grads is to get asmuch experience as they possibly can as quickly as they can. Thisgives them an opportunity to do that without jumping around fromcompany to company.”

The rotation system also gives the company a chance to judgeemployees' strengths and weaknesses while offering them theopportunity to understand how these strengths and weaknessestranslate to value for each of the operations they get to workfor.

The rotation program is specifically targeted toward top talent,Schreiner adds. “That's an aspect almost all of the top recruitingcandidates are looking for,” he says. “It gives them enoughexposure and responsibility so they can gauge where they are in thebusiness world. It helps them to see that firsthand in a shortperiod of time and then to translate that to where the individualbest fits. It gives them an 'in' on their own career growth.”Mutual of Omaha currently is rotating nine people in itsoperations.

CUTTING EDGE

To attract top employees, Royse believes a company must offerexciting technology possibilities. MoA is moving toward aservice-oriented architecture and uses .NET and Java technology fordevelopment. “Since I teach some of that at UN-O, [students] kindof get the message we're moving in that direction.”

The carrier has not abandoned older technology such as COBOL,but MoA is using some of the advanced technology students want towork with professionally, explains Royse.

Because of OISC's role, Mutual of Omaha has less of a reputationas a traditional insurance operation because the subsidiary sellsto other markets. That allows IT staffers who work at OISC both totackle some cutting-edge technologies and to exercise their skillswith different types of client relationships, notes Schreiner.“That's one of the aspects of the company that helps build andmaintain our partnership with the top talent,” he says. “It's notjust the students who get exposure to it; we also are attractingpeople with some level of experience. It gives us insight intopeople who would rather be more on the cutting edge.”

New technology has transformed Baltimore Life into whatPatterson calls a “125-year-old startup company.” The companydeveloped a formal business plan and, on top of that, laid abusiness technology strategy that specifies where the company isheaded over the next few years regarding the technologyinfrastructure–particularly the Internet infrastructure, portals,imaging, and workflow. “We have a three-year plan they can seeplotted out,” he says. “That's their career path.”

Baltimore Life went through a major decision last year to selectits platform from among open source, J2EE, or Microsoft .NET. “Forany number of reasons, we surprised ourselves and chose theMicrosoft environment,” says Patterson. Since then, Baltimore Lifedevelopers have undergone a three-week boot camp with the Microsofttechnology. “Some of them were ASP programmers, and some were DBprogrammers,” he says. “We are bringing them up from the bottom inthe .NET world.”

After the training sessions, the developers have been working onsome training projects, and the company had a Microsoft coach atthe home office full time for about six weeks to help build thestandards and coach the staff on trial projects. “It's seven oreight folks, so everything is on a small scale,” says Patterson.“It makes for a cohesive group. [The developers] own theenvironment, so it's up to them to develop the standards and themigration paths.”

Marketing themselves to potential employees with the latesttechnology can aid an insurer's recruiting efforts, but Shaw pointsout the reality is the client/server environment is just amicrocosm of the big mainframe environment. “IBM still sells tonsof mainframe computers to insurance companies primarily because theapplications they have been running for years continue to be run onmainframes,” he says. “Insurance companies have big client/serverenvironments, but they live and breathe with the mainframes.”

Finding the top talent to work for a company never has been easyand will remain a challenge for the insurance industry, but bytargeting specific areas of the country, working with universitiesto help develop the skills they need, and investing in newertechnology, insurers can find success.

Largent understands the insurance industry is not a targetcareer path for most college graduates, but by establishing localaffiliations with young people who actually do want to stay in thearea, many will take notice of Westfield because the company is oneof the most successful organizations in northeastern Ohio. “If wecan get [job candidates] out here in some way, shape, orform–whether it's for a visit or an internship–they see the qualityof the organization, the stability, and the potential,” hecontends. TD