Four years ago, I started digging into the issue of attracting new talent to the insurance industry. Two things became clear early on. First, a lot of great initiatives have been formed around this issue from every sector of the industry. Second, it's not working.
This issue is crucial to the success of our industry. According to a Deloitte study, the majority of underwriters, adjusters and sales agents are 40 or older. Also, between 2004 and 2014, the property-casualty industry will need to fill almost 25,000 underwriting jobs and 85,000 claims positions.
We have great risk management and insurance college programs around the country. If you haven't visited a Gamma Iota Sigma meeting, you are missing out. The students in our RMI programs are the "best and brightest" that I keep hearing the industry talk about. Yet despite placement rates of nearly 100 percent, the annual yield of graduates from these programs only account for 10 percent to 15 percent of industry needs. Those figures are sobering.
The time to act is now. The recruitment issue cannot be solved quickly and without some pain, but it can be done.
First, it helps to understand the generation we must target and recruit. If this blog can't be found online, via a computer or smart phone, chances are a member of Generation Y will never read this content. That is the biggest difference between workers exiting the insurance industry versus the talent we need entering it.
When it comes to the workplace, a 2009 Nielsen study shed light on three core elements that drive Gen Y ambitions:
- Impact—making a difference
- Communication—instant communication and feedback
- Flexibility—division between work and life growing narrower
The insurance industry could offer all those elements to Millennials, but several issues are standing in the way. The first issue is the industry's poor reputation. Surveys show that fewer than 2 in 5 adults feel positive about the industry. There is also an inadequate understanding of the vast career opportunities available among high school and college students. Many look at the insurance industry as boring and rigid.
According to a report from Deloitte, "Decoding Generation Differences," young people pass through four very distinct stages of career decision making:
- Contemplation (age 10 to 11)
- Diversification (age 12 to 14)
- Canalization (age 15 to 16)
- Activation (age 17 to 18)
If you take a look at this and consider the implications, it's quite shocking. First, by age 10, students are seriously thinking about different careers, and we're not talking about wanting to be a fireman or astronaut. They are evaluating everything—from their parents' careers to other adults they know, and everything they see and hear—whether that includes TV, the Internet or overhearing a parent's conversation.
The second thing it tells me is that they are open to the widest set of career opportunities early on and begin to narrow those choices by ages 12 to 14. We are talking middle school here! So how do we use this to help attract young, bright people to the industry? I would say we have to start young, much younger than we have in the past.
I'm not a big fan of setting out a bunch of problems and not doing anything about it. Unfortunately, I think we are missing one key thing with this issue. We need the industry to work together. The students we need to attract don't seek the industry out, and can't wade through the noise all of the competing initiatives are making.
At the Griffith Foundation, we decided that now is the time to bring together thought leaders from across the insurance industry. Our plan is to create an industry-wide program that leverages the great resources that currently exist. Everyone wins because everyone gets more exposure, creating a larger pool of bright young people.
The first Insurance Education and Career Summit will take place September 26 to 28 in Atlanta. We've designed it as an open forum for attendees to brainstorm and create a common strategy to attract young talent to the industry. Information, including registration, can be found at www.griffithfoundation.org/summit. At the very least, groups will have a better idea of what everyone else is doing. At the very best, we are going to change our industry.
I have been told multiple times that it can't be done, that the entire industry never comes together. I have to tell you, in my heart I know that unless it does, it is going to be a really difficult road ahead. The industry will survive, but not in a form that I want to be a part of.
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