Barriers to hiring diverse talent ‘not malicious’ but still damaging

Prohibitive first job requirements and a failure to communicate the value of a career in insurance have “harmed” the ability of employers in the sector to attract a wider talent base, delegates heard at the Intelligent Insurer’s  Re/insurance Outlook Europe 2023, in Zurich this week (June 19 and 20).

This was the view of Mark Lomas, head of culture, Lloyd’s, speaking as a panellist in a session titled ‘Win the war for talent and build an engaged, diverse workforce’.

Lomas and his fellow panellists, Dirk Herrenpoth, chief underwriting officer - property and casualty, New Re, and Barbara Zimmermann-Gerster, member of the extended management board and head of employer and education policy department, Swiss Insurance Association (SIA), discussed talent shortages across re/insurance and strategies that will help to plug the gaps, as well as the importance of challenging the misconceptions that deter more diverse talent pursuing careers in re/insurance.

“You have to understand where you’re starting from,” Lomas said. “That starting point is that the talent we’re trying to attract does not aspire to be in insurance. Why, because they don't understand the careers in insurance.”

He said that the industry had failed to express the value of a career in re/insurance in a way that people, young people particularly, can understand. For example, he emphasised that careers are global and are really interesting.

“When we look at entry level roles, something like a claims administrator, the job description is often the first barrier. So for the first role in insurance, you’ll often see ‘you have to have experience of insurance’, well that’s kind of difficult isn’t it.

“The way people have got around that in the Lloyd’s market for years is by recruiting people they know, family members, and that means you have a limited pool.”

He said that this was fine when the ecosystem is flourishing, but at Lloyd’s they can see that the average age, particularly in underwriting, is rising.

To remedy this, Lomas said that re/insurers needed to “adjust” what they’re doing.

“A lot of organisations get it wrong. They spend a lot of time trying to fix the people, whether it’s a women’s mentoring programme or this, that and the other. What they need to do is fix the evaluation, retention and recruitment, that works a lot faster. And that is how we have made progress over the last few years. This is how you create a bigger pool.”

Referring back to requirements for insurance experience for entry level roles, he said that 9 out of 10 people would say: ‘I don’t have that so I’m not going to apply’.

“But if your father or aunty works in insurance, they’ll say “don’t worry about that, that’s fine.” These things, they’re not malicious, but they harm our ability to attract wider talent.”

SIA’ Zimmermann-Gerster said that to really attract people into the industry, re/insurers have to work on “storytelling” to explain what insurers are doing and why society needs the sector. “We need to tell them about the diversity of jobs in the insurance industry and how meaningful these jobs are. It’s something we have to improve now,” she said.

A recent SIA study showed that 80% of the industry job profiles, such as analysts, IT, finance jobs, are suffering talent shortages.

She said that SIA has been working to educate young people about insurance. “It starts with mathematical skills, we should start with children at school. This is where we try, as an association, to help the industry and go into the schools with books , with ideas, to speak with teachers, to bring more young people, especially women, into these kinds of jobs.”

For New Re’s Herrenpoth, the way that candidates experience the recruitment process is crucial because it's the first experience someone has with the company.

“In the past you were never in contact with the people you were supposed to work with. The interview process was with HR or the hiring manager.

He said that by including people in the hiring process who would potentially be working with these candidates, it’s possible to offer a slightly more honest view of how the company is set up.

A second key element for attracting new talent into the industry is to create a work plan and culture where people can have fun, Herrenpoth said.

“That is very very important because people need to have fun when they go to work. It’s a bit of a cultural topic.”

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