The 6 key talent trends shaping the Insurance sector right now
The insurance sector has had a bumpy ride over the past decade but, even back in 2013, a global pandemic was identified by insurers around the world as the ‘most extreme event that could impact the industry’. The sector has been hit hard by valid claims during the current crisis, but the longer-term outlook is far more positive, with consumers and businesses increasingly seeing the value of insurance. (Google search volumes for insurance in the first few months of 2020 are up 25 to 50 percent compared to the past several years.) This complex market landscape provides both challenges and opportunities for Recruitment and HR leaders in insurance and InsurTech.
Here, I detail the key talent trends that will shape recruitment in the insurance sector over the coming 12 months.
Empathy, pace and curiosity – the new keys traits in insurance?
During the Covid-19 crisis, insurance has been the safety net that individuals and companies have relied upon to survive, with insurance claims agents often the first person a claimant speaks to after a loss or impactful event. Empathy has never been a more important (and vital) skill in the sector. Whilst an emotional empathetic response is essential, so is a speedy one, with the Financial Conduct Authority stepping in to ensure faster insurance payouts. This, in turn, has increased the importance of fast processes and fast, efficient staff. And curiosity? An insurance client summed it up best when she said, “I have never seen change happen in insurance at anything like the speed or scale as during Covid-19. The next year is going to be full of surprises”.
Reskilling, not redundancies
The insurance sector has been slow to transform digitally. As recently as 2018, senior insurance executives estimated that only one in every four employees were ready to interact with AI. The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the reskilling process as the benefits of automation become increasingly apparent. Key reskilling initiatives that we are already seeing within our insurance clients include developing ‘Trainers’ (to guide and assist the robots) and ‘Explainers’ (to remove the notion of ‘computer says no’ associated with automated decision-making). This talent already exists in your business; the skill is matchmaking your existing people with your emerging roles. The new breed of assessment technology can help, but you will need to ensure you are assessing for the skills you really need, such as curiosity, innovation and resilience. Take a look at our favourite assessment vendors here.
Get ready for the taps to be turned on fast (and then off again)
Hiring peaks and troughs are nothing new, but the current situation has created a new normal in hiring, with our insurance clients needing an increasingly flexible workforce that can scale up (and down) at short notice. This need for a flexible, agile workforce was not created by the Covid-19 situation but has undoubtedly accelerated this change. Find out how we can scale up your hiring with specialist recruiters in just 24 hours using our bespoke service, rapidsource.
An insurance ‘Brain Drain’ will impact Europe (particularly the UK)
The insurance industry faces a ‘perfect storm’ of highly skilled talent shortages in Europe, with two major pulls for talent away from the UK. The less said about Brexit the better perhaps, but the sector’s ability to recruit highly skilled talent could be seriously compromised if Brexit leads to the creation of significant barriers that exclude highly skilled professionals. A second, but equally significant ‘pull’ factor, is the range of opportunities in emerging and evolving markets. Whilst investments in Asia have declined in 2020, many of these new and well-funded market players are looking to London for experienced talent.
Get ready to hire your new robot colleagues
Insurance has always been a numbers game, and this gives the sector a prime opportunity to optimise profitability and minimise risk by leveraging the increased use of data and automation tools available. In auto insurance for example, the improved quantity (and quality) of road data has proven to be a game-changer. However, it is automated claims technology that is having the biggest impact on talent and recruitment. These robots will bring new role types for human colleagues too – insurance professionals who can monitor, train and teach the claims automation robots.
Insurance faces a battle with the technology sector for top talent
The Insurance sector faces many of the same challenges as other established industry sectors, such as financial services. There is fierce competition for top talent between pure-play tech companies and the major insurance players. Career opportunities from challenger insurance disruptors and branded insurance products have also upped the need for an authentic and engaging employer brand, now more than ever.
What do you think the future of insurance and InsurTech talent looks like? Comment below.
If your business needs to scale up fast then our quick-to-deploy, contactless, people-powered and tech-enabled solution rapidsource can help. It’s designed to help support organisations to find the best people, at scale and fast.