19 Apr Hiring Challenges in the Insurance Industry in 2017
Hiring Challenges in the Insurance Industry in 2017
Last year was another year of growth in the insurance industry, with unemployment in the field hitting a ten year low at 2.3% according to a survey by Great Insurance Jobs . They found that companies surveyed were planning on increasing hiring over the course of the next year as well, meaning even further reduction of unemployment going forward.
That being said, there are a number of obstacles facing employers in the insurance field, especially a lack of interest by candidates entering the workforce. The Hartford found that only 4% of millennials are interested in a career in insurance . This lack of fresh blood, coupled with the “lump in the python” of baby boomers nearing retirement age, could mean a huge shortage in the available candidate pool.
In their annual hiring trends report, Jacobson reported that a whopping 25% of the current insurance workforce is set to retire by the end of 2017. With the low numbers of millennials entering the industry, would create a potential deficit of 400,000 skilled employees in the industry.
So the question becomes, how does employers handle this hiring problem?
First and foremost, employers need to invest in fresh talent. College graduates are still having a hard time finding gainful employment, and will often end up in insurance mostly by accident. They also will often end up in positions with high turnover rates, like captive agents. Captive agencies are more likely than larger brokers and carriers to hire completely unskilled talent, as their compensation packages are often commission heavy with low overhead, but their doing so can create a valuable source of fully licensed, semi-skilled candidates.
Recruiting, training, and retaining these candidates, as well as the smaller pool of college graduates who enter the insurance industry voluntarily, becomes the next big challenge. Often this means paying a higher salary than desired to “ideal” candidates so they are less likely to get scooped up by a competitor, even though they lack a lot of the knowledge and skills of their more experienced counterparts. However, other changes can be made to corporate policies to retain this next generation of employees that are less costly.
One such change is the ability to work from home. As a whole, insurance has lagged behind in this trend that is becoming more and more popular in other industries. Advances in technology are making it easier for employees to provide the same quality of work without leaving their house, and this option is high on just about every candidate’s wish list. Not only is it a good carrot to dangle when attempting to recruit new talent, but it also makes those employees less likely to leave for a competitor that may be able to offer higher compensation, but does not allow this flexible work option.
Finally, employers will have to, at times, accept that finding the right candidate for the job isn’t going to be something that happens overnight. Sometimes, it will take months to find the candidate for a role where settling for any less than the best isn’t an option. In cases like this, stopgaps such a contract employees can allow employers to search for as long as needed for that perfect employee, without any interruption in workflow. Contract employees have been long since been embraced by other industries, like the technology sector, and can help employers avoid any falloff in productivity during a search. While low unemployment does make these contract employees scarcer, there are skilled professionals that prefer either part-time or contract work who make exceptional temporary employees.
The Jonus Group is an insurance focused recruiting firm based out of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, placing candidates in both a permanent and contract basis across the continental United Sates.