Will The Baby Boom Go Bust For Insurers?

It's never been easy for the insurance industry to recruit young talent. Unless one has literally grown up in the business–perhaps as part of a family-owned independent agency–it takes a fairly creative sales job to convince new blood to try their hand as an underwriter, actuary, claims adjuster, CSR, broker or any one of a hundred careers in insurance. That quest will only get more challenging as the Baby Boom begins to go bust, warns CPCU Society President Betsey L. Brewer. Read on for her take, and post some of your ideas on how to draw the best and the brightest.

As Baby Boomers Retire, Who Will Take Their Place At Carriers, Agencies?

BY BETSEY L. BREWER

The insurance industry is going to face a veritable crisis in a few years unless we get more experienced newcomers. Young professionals need to consider getting formal training, a professional designation, or other industry credentials so they can be on par with their predecessors.

The simple fact is that the Baby Boomers are heading out. This is both good and bad.

A view from the most positive perspective would be that well have new people entering our industry, filled with fresh and innovative ideas.

On the negative side, there will be a tremendous loss of experience. In fact, 43 percent of respondents to a recent CPCU Society member poll said they have 30 or more years of experience in the insurance industry. More than 60 percent have had their CPCU designation for more than 10 years.

Employers will surely face difficulties when trying to replace seasoned insurance professionals, such as these poll respondents.

As the retirement of the Boomers looms closer, employers will have no choice but to replace these employees with less qualified or less experienced applicants.

About 75 percent of CPCU Society members polled expect that employers will encounter significant delays in their respective hiring processes, due to time spent either searching for or training these replacements.

The CPCU Societys members recommend a succession planning process for insurance companies that is reasonable, providing adequate time so the next wave of talent can be developed.

This idea of succession planning is just one part of the process. We need first to attract people to our industry.

If you mention a career in insurance to a young person today, he or she might roll their eyes at you or laugh. But if we tell these same people that our industry helps restore peoples lives, that insurance is a huge part of the economic structure of the world, and that it can yield a lucrative career, their gut reactions may change for the better.

Many jobs on both the distribution and underwriting sides, as well as with collateral service providers, have been parsed into smaller, bite-sized chunks.

This may make training and replacing people easy, but it also diminishes opportunities for those capable of seeing the bigger picture and tackling all these jobs.

Some of these potential recruits may already be working in the industry, but just need some more experience and education to make a transition to a position with greater responsibility.

For these folks and industry newcomers alike, the CPCU designation is a great solution. Why? The answer is simple.

The CPCU program is a comprehensive program covering most aspects of the property and casualty industry. It is an education in the p-c business. Many training programs are geared toward specific jobs, but none have the same in-depth all-around curriculum as the CPCU.

On the agency side, customers will appreciate the level of service they receive from someone who has this level of education.

Surveys have shown that consumers are primarily concerned with personalized service. Having a CPCU gives agency pros a jump start because they are simply more knowledgeable about the insurance mechanism and can transfer that knowledge onto their customers.

CPCU is made up of the three E'seducation, experience and ethicsand today, ethics is of foremost importance. It doesnt matter what their job description is, CPCUs are held to the highest ethical standards. These are enforceable, and CPCUs agree to abide by them from the start.

The CPCU Societys members have a network of nearly 28,000 professional associates worldwide. Members can connect with their Society colleagues to help them in their current jobs, thereby passing along that shared knowledge and expertise.

The Society also sponsors, through its local chapters and at semi-annual meetings, a multitude of leadership development courses that bring industry practitioners additional soft skills they can put to work immediately.

The CPCU curriculum is constantly updated to cover current issues and changes within the industry, but it lays the foundation industry practitioners need to achieve.

The CPCU Society is there to demonstrate to all employers, customers and the public that you are a professional, that you adhere to a code of ethics, and that you have resources to call on when you need them.

(Betsey L. Brewer, CPCU, is president of the CPCU Society for 2006-2007, as well as senior vice president and partner with the Rule Company in Pasadena, Calif. She can be reached at bbrewer@ruleco.com.)

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Do you folks have any ideas on how to recruit more talent into this industry?