Back to School is a blog that puts P&C insuranceprofessionals back in the classroom with Jim Jones, Director of theKatie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois StateUniversity. Read his insights each week to learn how to connectwith the next generation of insurance professionals and developeffective leadership skills for the future.

A lot has been said about the impending talent crunch facing the insurance industry. As theDirector of the Katie School of Insurance at Illinois StateUniversity, I keep track of these trends and work with insuranceindustry partners to make sure that the skills and knowledge ourRisk Management and Insurance majors learn match those needed tosucceed in the industry.

One of the hallmarks of the Katie School is its relationshipwith the industry. I often do presentations and meet with industryleaders to discuss how they can better interact with colleges toattract the best talent. I also work with universities outside ofIllinois to discuss how they can develop programs to foster their relationships with the insurance industry.

One of the things I tell our industry partners is to notunderestimate the value of having a presence on campus. In an eraof budget cuts for recruiters and online applications, thispresence is often overlooked. The organizations that have the mostsuccess in attracting the top talent are visible. This can besupplemented by online and virtual presences, but there is nosubstitute for being there in person. I realize that companiescan't go to every campus but I would challenge them to considerwhich campuses they do visit.

There are a host of reasons why the on-campus experience leadsto attracting better talent, finding hidden talent, and, perhapsmost importantly, hiring talented graduates that like insurance andwill stay once they are hired. These reasons are important tounderstand but I'll save that discussion for another time. For now,let me just give you some ideas on how you can interact withuniversities. I will be talking more about each of these ideas inthe coming weeks, but for now I will just give an overview.

First, it's important to build a brand as an employer.Organizations often assume that their strong consumer brand imageautomatically transfers to employment prospects. It may help withgeneral awareness, but they need to be doing more to build a brandas an employer. The good thing is that a smaller employer cancompete with the larger well-known national brands when it comes tobrand awareness of prospective college hires.

Some of the things organizations can do is to find connectionswith student organizations and events, especially social events,that they can sponsor. For a few hundred dollars, an organizationcan host an event for a student organization that attracts the beststudents. Student organizations have some real overachievers andthese are the people you want to court.

You can really beef up that presence with a scholarship. A lotof times, organizations think that they have to contribute tens ofthousands of dollars when, in fact, it is perfectly acceptable toprovide a $1,000 scholarship. In following blog posts, I will talkabout how to establish criteria for a scholarship.

Look for champions in the university that interact withstudents, and make sure that you seek their advice on how tocommunicate to students. There are usually career centers oncampus, and these should not be overlooked. However, they usuallydon't have the strong relationship with students that faculty,internship coordinators, academic advisors, and others might have.There may not be an equivalent to a Katie School on campus, butthere are always people who have strong relationships with studentsand want what is best for them. Cultivate those people and makesure that they know the benefits your organization can provide tostudents, either as interns or new hires.

Another great strategy is to offer internship possibilities tostudents, especially in the summer months. You get to see how theyperform, and they get to test drive your organization. To becompetitive, they usually need to be paid internships, unless theyare unusually interesting. The tasks interns perform should givethem a good feel for the kind of work they would be doing if theyworked for your organization after graduation.

After you have met your campus champion, you will know where youcan plug into campus. These might be classroom presentations onspecific industry topics, company/student golf outings, pizzalunch-and-learns, or meet-the-company socials at athletic events.Make sure to have a mix of young recent hires along with moresenior people. This mix not only gives them an idea of the kind ofyoung people they will be working with but also sends a signal thatmanagement cares about investing in the next generation.

So if you want to get the best and the brightest, get out of theoffice and get back to school.