RM Hiring Reaches Record Highs in 3rd Quarter

Only time will tell if the trend will continue into the fourth quarter, he noted. "The fourth quarter is historically the best quarter. Is my phone ringing off the hook? It did in the third quarter, so youd like to think the fourth quarter will be the same way."

Mr. Perry said the good news for risk managers, as well as for the insurance industry in general, is that third-quarter hires have been "across the board," as well as across the country, from directors of risk management to claims staff.

But the risk management hires, he cautioned, dont mean companies are yet in a hiring mode. Instead, theyre just overextended in some cases.

"The basic corporate structure is tight today," he said. "I dont think there is any overriding master hiring plan. The need is that somebody leaves a job and they need to refill the position," he said, adding that, a year ago, firms would have gone forward without refilling the position.

Even though its still a "buyers market" for employers, in which many risk managers seek employment, Mr. Perry added that, "once [employers] find what they want, they are very quick to hire."

Mr. Perry advised risk managers looking for work to remember that competition is fierce. "The better the skill set, academic credentials and designationsCPCU and ARMthe better the chances of finding quality employment," he said.

Even some risk managers with jobs should rethink their strategies, he advises.

For example, a risk manager in a number-two position at a major international manufacturing or pharmaceutical firm is in a better position for rehire than the number-one position at a second-tier organization such as not-for-profit, he said.

"If something happens" to put these risk managers out of work, the first type of risk manager "would stand a better chance of getting a position versus the risk manager working for a company that is service oriented, a municipality, academia or not-for-profit," he noted. "The skill sets of [risk managers] coming out of a major industry group makes them much more viable for employment.

"So my advice would be that a risk management professional working for a second- or third-tier company should try to get into a first-tier industry corporation," he continued. "Sooner or later, if they are working for a second- or third-tier company and they face getting laid off, they are not as employable in the for-profit industries; the skill set isnt there. And that is what keeps some of them out of work."

Mr. Perry added that risk managers of second- or third-tier companies are also more likely to be out of work because their risk management programs are not as critical as those in for-profit companies.

He added that he has placed a number of directors of risk management, the number-one position, into number-two positions in bigger and better corporations "for exactly what were taking about–because they are developing a better skill set."

"Down the road," he said, "it will look much better on their r?sum? to be coming out of a major Fortune 5000 company, say, than a second- or third-tier entity." That fact, he said, is "truer in todays market place than ever before."

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, October 10, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.