Can the insurance industry overcome a poor reputation, a scattering of resources and the lack of a compelling, unified message to dramatically improve the recruitment and retention of young talent?

That was the gauntlet thrown down before a wide array of insurance professionals and eager risk management students at the recent “Insurance Education and Career Summit.”

The three-day event in Atlanta, billed as “a collaborative effort to engage the next generation,” felt a bit like a 110-person-strong focus group at first. A facilitator led a lively debate over the crux of the challenge and how the industry might work together to overcome it. We were divided into diverse teams, tackled individual issues, shared our observations and recommendations with the full group, and then came to a consensus.

But the efforts by delegates (including yours truly) wasn't all talk, as some concrete actions were taken as well. The late-September summit thus also served as a sort of ad hoc industry congress, with attendees ultimately recommending actionable steps to more effectively attract the best and the brightest from the high school, college and post-graduate ranks.

When it was all over, attendees representing insurance companies, brokers, industry associations, universities and consulting firms—along with more than a dozen very impressive insurance and risk management students—had identified three of the biggest obstacles to attracting the next generation into insurance, three initiatives the industry might launch to overcome these obstacles, and determined who would take the lead to coordinate implementation of these initiatives, at least in the effort's formative stage.

Three of the top obstacles cited by attendees were:

The industry's reputation and image, including a lack of awareness of the wide array of career opportunities available within the insurance business.
Uncoordinated resources, with many individual organizations doing excellent work in this area, but little in the way of an industry-wide, centralized effort on recruitment.
The lack of a compelling, catchy message to better communicate career potential within insurance when recruiting, and a coordinated way to deliver such information to students.

As for the three initiatives to overcome the above obstacles, attendees came up with the following ideas:

Research, both in terms of gathering any work that's already been done in this area, along with exploring the potential for new surveys to determine awareness, attitude, reservations and other factors when it comes to judging insurance as a career among both students and their parents.
Craft a catchy, unified message to capture the imagination of students and prompt them to further explore career opportunities in insurance, to be publicized in traditional and non-traditional media. (Market research and professional marketing support would likely come into play here as well.)
Establish a communications hub for students, including explanations of what types of careers are available, as well as information about university and designation programs, scholarships, internships and actual jobs, delivered via the web, social media and mobile technology.

Last but not least, it didn't take much convincing for attendees to rally around the conference organizer (the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation) and its Titanium Sponsor (The Institutes, which handle a slew of insurance designation programs) as the logical parties to lead the way towards executing these goals—at least in the effort's formative stages. Summit attendees and sponsors (including Deloitte) will be involved as well in an advisory capacity to get the effort off the ground.

Of course, there is much, much more work to be done to make these lofty initiatives a reality. But this Summit was a terrific first step, at least in terms of analyzing the problem and identifying possible solutions. In my next blog, I'll discuss some of the challenges facing those dedicated to implementing the recommendations of Summit attendees.

But for now, I'll leave you with the following highlight of the week's events for me: If the students who joined our discussion are representative of the young talent already sold on a career in insurance, this industry's brightest days may yet be ahead—that is, if we can only find the will and the way to swell their ranks.

Sam J. Friedman is an insurance leader Deloitte Research. He may be reached at samfriedman@deloitte.com.

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