PHILADELPHIA—The insurance industry is facing a talentcrisis.

The baby boomer generation is aging, and by the end of thisdecade there will be a serious deficit in qualified and experiencedindividuals to fill the ranks of executives shuffling off toretirement, say experts.

Facing this dilemma, a panel of insurance executives andeducators gathered here at the Philly I-Day conference last week todiscuss why this has become such an issue and what some are doingto solve it.

Illustrating the point, President and CEO Peter L. Miller of TheInstitutes says studies of the industry find the number ofemployees age 55 and over is 30 percent higher than any otherindustry.

With retirements, the industry will need to fill 400,000positions by 2020.

Despite this deficit, and the employment opportunities, amongthe future job pool—high school students—over 40 percent say theyare not interested in pursuing insurance as a career.

The industry is not ignoring the issue, and the panelists onFriday discussed strategies in use today to try and raise theprofile of the industry to a younger generation, and fillthose future job vacancies.

The most discussed tool among the panelist was internships.Michael E. Angelina, executive director, Academy of Risk Management& Insurance at St. Joseph's University notes that at onetime insurance companies developed the industry's executives, butthose education programs have been long abandoned.

“We see a growing recognition of the problem and need to gettogether to take care of it,” says Angelina.

In Ohio, state officials working with the state's insurers havedeveloped educational and internship programs to fill the growingjob vacancies, says John Bishop, CEO of Motorists Mutual InsuranceGroup in Columbus, Ohio. He says the program aims to tell theindustry's story about the variety of careers available within theindustry. The program includes “an impressive number ofinternships” available throughout the state's insuranceindustry.

Philadelphia Insurance Cos. President and CEO Robert D. O'Learycalls internships a test drive for both the employer and student.Executives can quickly learn about an individual's work habits andif they fit in with the company. Internees not only gain practicalskills but also gain experience to decide if insurance is a careerfor them.

To successfully recruit a younger generation of executives itneeds to develop a relationship with future employees at ayoung age, says Jason Terrell, program director for The GriffithInsurance Education Foundation. Individual companies spend too muchtime “doing their own thing around this topic” and need to “stopfighting against each other.”

“They are not getting ahead and are wasting resources,” saysTerrell, adding the industry will only become successful atrecruiting when it pulls together and works for a commoncause.

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