NU Online News Service, Aug. 23, 3:01 p.m.EDT

NEW YORK—The insurance industry suffers from an image problemwhen it comes to recruiting the best and brightest, and Marsh &McLennan Cos. says it is working to galvanize the industry tochange that.

Kathryn Komsa, chief diversity officer for Marsh & McLennan,says the firm is encouraging carriers and insurance brokers togather at diversity roundtable discussions to examine the issue ofhow to entice the younger generation into insurance careers.

The firm, which is the parent company of insurance broker Marshand reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, engaged at least 35 carriersalong with a number of its insurance-broker competitors to discusshow to face the challenge of bringing bright and talented youngpeople into an industry that is often overlooked as a careerchoice.

Next month, the group of carriers and brokers will hold anotherdiversity roundtable discussion to work on who else they need topartner with, including insurance associations and educationalinstitutions.

Orlando Ashford, Marsh & McLennan's chief human resource andcommunications officer, says the aim of these discussions is todiversify and expand the pool of candidates to make more talentavailable, “then fight over who gets it.”

Expanding the talent pool is only one aspect of the company'sCorporate Citizenship Report for 2010 that it released today,giving an overview of the firm's strategy in the areas ofsustainability, diversity and corporate social responsibility.

In a press briefing at the firm's corporate headquarters, Komsaexplains that working on diversity issues to bring in new talenthas been a major part of the company's workings for more than 25years, but until recently, it lacked an “enterprise-widestrategy”

Recently, Marsh & McLennan has instituted a number ofprograms aimed at inclusion of people from various aspects ofsociety to “create a more visibly inclusive culture.”

Other aspects of the company's Corporate Citizenship Reportinclude sustainability and social responsibility.

Elizabeth Barry, chief sustainability officer for the firm,explains that the firm has developed several programs to deal withthe use of resources from power usage to real-estate expansion.

But the crux of any true sustainability program lies in changingpeople's behavior and thinking about ways to reduce the use ofresources.

“It is not about today, but about the future,” she says.