The Insurance Industry Wants You!

American-born poet, T.S. Eliot, did little to further the cause of attracting people into the insurance business. As far back as 1922, in his famous work, “The Wasteland,” the sometime bank employee created a repulsive character and described him as “one of the low on whom assurance sits.” Not exactly a rallying recruitment call to the nation’s youth.

More recently Betsy Brewer, as president of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society and writing in this column about recruiting talent, framed the problem of appealing to young people: “They do not think this is the glamorous picture they had in mind for their future.”

Yet against that challenging backdrop, we have embarked on a major campaign in the United Kingdom to persuade prospective trainees that working in insurance is not what they may think. This involved building links with schools and universities as never before, while bringing in employers, educating career advisers and getting people interested in the sector.

Walk the Walk

The Chartered Insurance Institute, the U.K.-based professional body responsible for setting industry standards for more than a century — and with 94,000 members across 150 countries — has said much about the need for professionalism in our sector. But, if we are going to walk the walk, we need the brightest people coming through the doors. And to do that we need to portray an image of an interesting and dynamic profession, which goes beyond the TV advertisements people see for cheaper home, motor and travel insurance.

The award-winning career initiatives we launched several years ago were aimed squarely at universities. Now, in the past year, we have been working with high schools to help educate children about risk and insurance from a younger age.

Much of the communication is via social networking sites. It has also involved events and office placements for high school graduates across the country, in which we find a way of speaking their language and getting them interested in joining a profession rather than boring them senseless with jargon.

And this means relating insurance to the things they’re interested in, such as learning to drive for the first time, or understanding about how insurance relates to sports, entertainment or the environment.

Footballer, David Beckham, insuring his legs, Bruce Springsteen his voice, and a coffee taster insuring his tongue, gives insurance an otherwise inconceivable glamour. And in a more serious vein, discussion of weather-related disasters also brings the role of protecting against risk into focus.

What’s Next?

So what is planned for 2010? We are producing materials for learners and also for career advisers so they can understand the type of person the profession is looking for. The plan is to help them recognize the softer skills required in the sector, such as communicating and negotiating.

There will be a lot more activity in over 2,000 schools, making the message more inclusive and building a more interactive experience online, so giving people the chance to sample the insurance world rather than being told about it.

Equally, we are liaising with industry employers to offer young people the chance to spend time getting work experience at the front line of insurance.

In one example, a graduate, Raz Jahid, was struggling to find a job in financial services. But through taking a CII Certificate course at a London college, he was able to obtain a work placement at Lloyd’s of London. Now holding down a full-time job in exposure management with Lloyd’s insurance company, he says that the insurance profession has got him “hooked for life.”

Providing an entry point to the industry through work placements is a great way of tackling ingrained impressions people might have and the traditional image problems about insurance; instead they begin to recognize its variety, its importance and career potential.

Our campaign in the U.K. is a long-term commitment to supporting the sector’s talent search for many years to come. We have an opportunity to make some noise, tell people what the sector is about and, in turn, get the right people to join us. To paraphrase the famous Uncle Sam recruitment poster, if you are ready for the challenge, the insurance industry wants you!

Topics Market Uk