Tips for Insurance Industry Hiring Managers To Find Talent

The North American insurance industry is aging. Baby Boomers are disappearing from the job market, and insurance companies can't hire fast enough to replace the people who are leaving. My company places insurance talent in the United States and Canada, and our experience is that many fresh graduates find insurance boring and dry. Moreover, they may even have some unconscious bias toward brokers and agents. Working for more than a decade in the business, I can say that no industry is exempt from bad apples. Still, most insurance professionals genuinely want to provide solutions for people. Insurance professionals may even be considered "financial first responders" who serve their communities during a crisis.

That said, hiring for insurance companies is more challenging than ever, and companies need a solid strategy to be able to fill those empty seats. Here are a few tips for hiring managers to attract top new talent in 2023.

Hire for Attitude

Many insurance leaders want candidates ready to hit the ground running from the first day. But the reality is that there are significantly more open insurance roles than experienced people looking. In other words, it is time to start considering individuals who can and want to learn insurance while they already have some transferable skills from different industries — for example, salespeople who have sold services before, bankers, etc. Veterans can also excel in this business. They presumably already have the drive to help, and discipline and determination can set them up for success. Insurance can be taught, and basic licensing courses can be finished in a few weeks.

Start Mentorship Programs

It is a common joke in the insurance industry that nobody chose it as a profession; they somehow just ended up in the business. Maybe a family member helped them out when they needed a job, or they just befriended somebody who works as a broker, and they got interested. Regardless, our responsibility is to help younger generations make educated decisions about their future and show them that insurance can be exciting and very rewarding (not just financially speaking). How would they know otherwise? I remember the faces of some college students when they heard my story about a commercial insurance broker candidate I interviewed who arranged coverage for Abraham Lincoln's Bible during President Obama's inauguration. Another example is when insurance provides new homes for people who lost everything during natural disasters. Starting a mentorship program can be an excellent opportunity to tell these stories and meet with young professionals who may end up in the business later.

Create or Support College and University Programs

There needs to be programs of study for those interested in pursuing a career in this field. Some institutions have already started insurance law, actuary science and general licensing courses for life/health and property/casualty insurance. We need more of these. Some progressive-minded players have already started sponsoring these; some have even signed partnership agreements and created their own tailor-made curriculum to cover their future talent needs. I had the pleasure of personally hearing the feedback from some of the graduates of such a program; they all agreed that without the program, they would never have considered insurance as a career in the first place.

Pursue Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

In 2022, I attended multiple insurance conferences and annual industry conventions in the United States. In my estimation, most of the participants were middle-aged or older white men. I did see some female executives as well, but, for example, people of color, immigrants, or men and women living with disabilities made up only a very small amount of the whole audience. This certainly does not reflect the current structure of the United States population. We need to do better! These under-represented groups can be sources of tremendous knowledge and experience and bring much value to many organizations. Many companies are already making a lot of DEI efforts, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Invest in Exploring Hidden Job Markets

Many already-experienced candidates in the insurance industry are often not visible to corporate recruitment teams. There is still a huge group of professionals who are not utilizing LinkedIn to promote themselves, for example. Others may have had bad experiences with recruiters or may be afraid of going to job interviews because of their current toxic work environment. To get in touch with these individuals, I recommend in-house recruitment teams and hiring managers put their egos aside and seek external help. Well-networked recruiters from reputable agencies spend a lot of time researching hidden gems, and it will likely cost less time and money to let them do the legwork, tell the company's story, and fill those empty seats fast.

The conclusion is that the insurance industry needs fresh blood and needs it fast. Many companies are already overutilizing their workforce by expecting them to work very long hours to finish everything on time. Just imagine 2023 without being able to renew our home or business insurance policies because our provider doesn't have the bandwidth for that. Exactly. We don't want to go there.