I remember floppy bow ties for women. I'm proud to say I never wore one, but those hideous emblems of the corporate world of 20 years ago–along with stiff three-piece suits, huge shoulder pads and, of course, pantyhose–were once de rigeur if you were a woman in business who wanted to be taken seriously.

Today's young workers–known as Gen Ys or millennials–are far more likely to be wearing jeans and carrying backpacks instead of briefcases–a fashion reflection of their laissez-faire attitude toward conforming to the demands of the business world.

This month, we take a look at what agencies can do to recruit, hire and retain talent. We spoke with agency principals, associations and young people about their career paths (see our Web site at agentandbroker.com for more articles and podcasts on the subject).

We also asked almost 300 AA&B readers how they address the talent challenge (view the survey here). Our findings show that even in today's poor economy, more than one-fourth of respondents plan to increase employees, particularly producers. However, only a small percentage has half of their staffs comprised of people under age 30.

To counter our graying workforce, we need to attract young people–a challenge considering ours has long been considered one of the most buttoned-down of businesses. According to the Insurity/Microsoft Millennials in Insurance Survey 2008, two-thirds of respondents said the insurance industry has a poor public image, and that the industry is old in general. Luckily, more than half of these same Insurity respondents said they would consider insurance as a career or are already working in the industry.

And this poses another challenge. A 2007 "60 Minutes" report found that baby boomers may have trouble managing and motivating millennials, who are more interested in working in a flexible and challenging workplace than struggling up the corporate ladder.

While your kneejerk reaction may be, "Why should we be so accommodating to them? We had to pay our dues," the workplace has changed more than the type of young workers coming into it. Corporate cost cutting, outsourcing and incessant layoffs have made it pretty unlikely that anyone will build up enough sweat equity at one company to make ladder-climbing worthwhile. Little wonder that millennials–and employees in general–are looking for a different business model.
It's up to us to ditch our industry's floppy-tie mentality and explain to the young how insurance careers can be vibrant, interesting and lucrative alternatives to what is out there.

Laura M. Toops,
Editor

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