How do brokers strengthen their proposition as an attractive employer?

Insurance Age brought together a group of brokers, and representatives from RSA, during Broker Expo to discuss talent and accessibility. Saxon East reports some of the most notable talking points from the conversation. 

Attendees 

• Angela Irvine, sales director, The Bletchley Group 
• Karen Weir, managing director, Weir Insurance Brokers 
• Ajay Mistry, founder, Gambit Insurance Solutions 
• Manu Gill, director, G11 Financial 
• Angie Lemkes, Total Talent Delivery, RSA 
• Clare Connor, Professional Development Consultant, RSA 

A company’s most precious resource is its people. Attracting and retaining the right blend of talent is critical to a company’s future.  

A McKinsey Diversity Matters report, released at the end of last year, revealed that those companies committed to diversity performed best.  

Businesses had a 39% likelihood of outperformance if they were in the top quartile of ethnic representation compared to those in the bottom quartile.  

Understanding this, both insurers and brokers are heavily invested in the battle for talent.

RSA aims to be the number one commercial lines insurer in the UK by the end of 2025. To fulfil its ambitions, attracting the best people will be key.  

The firm has multiple outreach initiatives to find talent; attractive and flexible working conditions; and a proactive diversity and inclusion recruitment agenda.

It also wants its brokers to emerge as winners in the battle for talent.  

RSA carries out a number of initiatives to help brokers including a broker leader program, Chartered Institute of Insurers training and claims learning labs, and funding of CII qualifications.   

In this roundtable discussion, RSA representatives and brokers shared insights and advice on attracting and retaining the right people in what is clearly a competitive and challenging marketplace. 

Getting active with schools and students is key

To recruit talent and shape a company’s workforce for the future, it is essential to reach out to the younger generation.

RSA has an active school and university outreach programme. It spreads the message of a career in insurance from schoolchildren right through to university students.

Internships help feed the graduate programme, and schools create a good talent pipeline for apprenticeships. 

Those that came through the early years’ recruitment program were ‘loyal’. They bring a positive energy.

An RSA representative said: “They are bringing outside thinking, and really challenging us. They’ve given us a young person’s Generation Z perspective. They’re really changing the game for us in terms of the make-up of our business.”

However, brokers told the roundtable that the insurance industry had to break through and change the perception of insurance with the young. 

One broker said that when she asked the younger generation of their impression of insurance, it was ‘the mobile phone insurance, meerkats and the opera singer.’ 

It wasn’t just children, even adults studying at university are not given information on insurance as a career option.

One broker explained that during his university business degree in Manchester, insurance did not come up once.

He said: “I hear people say that we are as serious as legal and accountancy. They are qualified and talk about the things the whole way through.

“Because we don’t, that’s why I believe insurance is never treated until later.”

It’s a career in business, not just insurance 

Another key takeaway was that the industry should emphasise insurance as covering a wide business spectrum, potentially making it an interesting and appealing career choice. 

Despite the appealing features of insurance, some careers paths are seen as more attractive, the roundtable heard.

University students are leaning more towards public relations, marketing, and human resources. 

In recent years, human resources has become popular with the younger generation who are more aware of health and wellbeing issues and see people as a company’s greatest resource. 

We have got to start thinking about [the next generation’s] wants and needs... what they’re going to want from an employer.

This begged the question as to why insurance wasn’t seen as favourably. The group felt the answer is to push the positive insurance message as hard as possible.

Participants agreed with one broker who passionately described how insurance encompasses a variety of skills and roles, making it a rich and varied career. 

Explaining a trip to a business school to recruit talent, she described how a CII stand and its representatives were advertising all the great qualities insurance had as a career choice. 

She said: “Insurance has HR, sales and marketing, [it has] journalists. [It has] all of these things.” 

Another broker described insurance as the beating heart of the City of London, offering an abundance of opportunity. 

“We own the City of London. We’re very desirable,” he said. “I think we are more attractive than we think we are. We just need to open ourselves up more so people know there are opportunities.” 

Start early and think outside the box

To recruit the right talent, the insurance industry must start early. A recent report from the CII found that only 4% of younger people considered insurance to be an attractive career.

The roundtable attendees agreed that if you leave it too late, talent can slip away during the teenage years.  

An RSA representative explained how they were reaching out to children as young as 11 years old. 

She said: “I am very akin to the next generation that’s coming through. They’ll be in the workplace in two years’ time. The oldest being 14. 

“We have got to start thinking about their wants and needs. What they’re going to want from an employer. 

“But also getting in with the year 7s, those 11-year-olds, because if you leave it to 15, you’re almost too late.”

The conversation turned to innovative ways to attract talent, regardless of age.

One broker reported how they had targeted people with experience in the military in order to plug a particular skills gap. 

“We are now recruiting a lot of people who have come out of the armed forces, or they’re semi-retired, and they are in that aged-55 bracket. 

“They’re going into IT, which we struggle with. They’re going into our security information, CISO (chief information security officer) type roles because they’ve got the highest clearance in the country. 

“That’s really helping to fill the skills gap in those areas.” 

Another participant explained how they had also found success in targeting and retraining people from related industries, with banking being a go-to spot.  

“We had some success around banking retrains. The banking industry did have quite a lot of talent that was disillusioned,” she said. “Remember, during Covid, they didn’t have any branches.” 

Age is no barrier

While a swathe of over-50s left the insurance industry during the Covid era, there are multiple benefits to bringing older workers into employment, brokers agreed. 

The group heard that people aged 50 and above had important life skills. Their maturity and experience were frequently beneficial to the office environment.  

One broker said: “A lot of them want to mentor our younger ones. They want to give back, helping apprentices. 

“They’ve got x amount of life experience, so they want to give back as well. That works really well for us.” 

The best way to attract people who are aged 50 and above, is through having a flexible working policy.  

The session heard that RSA is pro-flexible working, which is key to attracting experienced workers.  

An RSA representative said: “It helps in attracting all those kinds of underrepresented potentially by being able to offer that flexibility.”

Embracing ESG is important for recruitment

The role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) in helping attract talent created some energetic debate.

One broker wondered whether ESG was a “misnomer” and “not as important as people make it out to be” .

It just simply did not register with potential employees, who were more concerned with other things when it came to working with a business, they said.

However, this received an emphatic rejection from other members of the roundtable.

When it comes to ESG, an RSA representative said that when candidates apply for a job, “you can tell the amount of research they’ve done”.

She stressed that in future years ESG “will be even more prevalent in our space” with ESG issues rising up the news agenda.

A good example was the UK’s plan for reducing carbon emissions. The UK aims to reduce domestic emissions to at least 68% below 1990 levels, which should be sufficient to contain global warming to a maximum of 1.5C, if other countries followed suit.

It is one of the only countries with a legally binding target. It plans to phase out petrol, diesel, and hybrid cars by 2035. 

These issues are significant and grab the interest of the younger generation, who are keen on tackling global warming, the group heard. They are also enthusiastic for office-friendly policies around flexible working and having a diverse workforce.

One broker concluded that ignoring ESG risked putting off younger applicants, a sentiment that the CII also highlighted in its April report on talent shortage.

“They will just not apply,” she said. “They will say, ‘you don’t align with my values. You are not doing enough for what I want from my future’.”  

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