The insurance industry stands amid an increasingly fast-paced, ever-changing business world. Insurance companies are now face-to-face with constantly evolving marketplace conditions — including climate concerns, technology risks, compliance demands and globalization. Organizations that fail to keep up with today’s rapid innovations risk falling behind.
As a result, insurers have embraced an “innovate or die” business mantra. In order to support this emerging reality, organizations are increasingly focused on developing a company culture that promotes and embraces evolution and innovation. Creating a culture that fosters creative thought and adapts to change not only ensures future success, but also plays a key role in recruiting talent.
Building an Innovative Culture
A key element of a truly innovative culture is the promotion of creativity. An organization’s human capital provides a unique source of ideas that should be utilized. A truly innovative culture continually fosters these ideas and insights. No input is too big or too small.
Organizations should encourage their employees to present new ideas — to use their own intuition and creativity to brainstorm ways to improve the company, product line or services. This can include everything from suggestion boxes to think tanks and opportunities for individuals to collaborate and be creative.
Develop a workspace that fosters brainstorming and idea sharing. Promote an “open door” policy for employees to share their ideas with management. At The Jacobson Group, our casual dress code, flexible scheduling, open floor plan, internship program and emerging talent service offering have all stemmed from employee provided insights.
Establishing a culture of innovation must go beyond just window dressing. The key is to truly live and believe in the culture.
This means the ideas and insights shared by employees must be addressed. Feedback and input is critical to ensuring employees continue to share their ideas. If they feel their ideas aren’t being acknowledged or reviewed, professionals become less and less likely to share.
A culture of innovation must be embraced from the top down.
This doesn’t necessarily mean all ideas need to be implemented, but rather that management should provide some feedback to acknowledge their consideration. Inaction and lack of input can stifle creativity and make employees feel unappreciated.
A culture of innovation must be embraced from the top down. It requires alignment across all levels and departments. It needs to permeate throughout an organization’s core values and mission in order to succeed.
Innovation in Recruitment
Today’s top-level talent wants to work at organizations that are involved with emerging trends. Fortunately, growing disruption and advancements have put the industry at the forefront of change. Attracting and retaining talented professionals requires companies to highlight and promote their innovative cultures.
Organizations need to position themselves as thought leaders and innovators. They should advance their acceptance and encouragement of new thoughts and ideas.
Showcase employee contributions and insights. Highlight the ways the company is “walking the innovative talk” by valuing the ideas and input from employees. This can be a critical factor in setting an organization apart from its competition.
Faced with a rapidly evolving business world, today’s cutting-edge insurance organizations understand that innovation is key. At the core of this need for innovation is the development and promotion of a creative culture.
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