The struggle to overcome the insurance industry’s well-known recruitment challenges don’t just involve finding better ways to attract new talent. In recent years insurance firms have invested in strategies that also retain staff. Those efforts include flexible work conditions, more career pathways, mental health and wellness initiatives and team building exercises.
However, apart from work perks and work culture, many of the reasons driving an individual’s career decisions are very personal. The Women in Insurance Summit on August 21 in Sydney will give industry professionals an opportunity to get personal and ask their pressing career questions to gain insights from senior insurance leaders.
The panel session: “Off the record: Career advice from insurance trailblazers”, involves an interactive Q&A covering practical advice about how to maintain drive, embrace new challenges and advocate for career goals.
Laura Thomas (pictured above) is one of the four panellists fielding the questions. Thomas is a senior advocate in Bellrock Advisory’s Knowledge Team. She agreed to provide an on the record sneak preview of strategies she’s learned during her legal and insurance career.
“Dedication is what gets you out of bed in the morning when you'd rather hit the snooze button on your phone and gives you the perseverance to keep driving forward,” said Thomas.
She said if you stay dedicated, you won’t need to find the motivation to pursue a goal.
“You'll naturally have the resilience to keep trying, even when you fail,” said Thomas. “Failure isn't something to fear, you learn from failure.”
“Networking is something I still find difficult and can be tricky, especially if there are large groups of people who seemingly know each other very well,” said Thomas.
However, she said practice makes perfect and networking does get easier the more you do it.
“I've made some amazing long-term connections this way,” she said. “It's actually how I ended up in my role at Bellrock.”
“Don't be afraid to be yourself,” said Thomas.
She said being your “genuine self” means you will appear more confident and more personable.
“People are drawn to that kind of energy naturally,” said Thomas. “I can pinpoint when my career started to make rapid progress, this being once I embraced being a vulnerable leader and sharing my experiences around my mental health and leaning into my love of colour via my wardrobe.”
Thomas said the earlier in her career she was told it would be career suicide to talk about her personal mental health at work.
“But the reality was, the sick leave for the team I was leading reduced by over 70% in the year I was leader so I must have been doing something right,” she said.
One focus of this year’s Summit is talent and recruitment issues. Many stakeholders agree that mentorship programs are an important way of combatting these challenges.
“One of the most effective steps the insurance industry and its stakeholders can take to address the growing skills gap is to invest in structured, cross-generational talent development that combines mentorship with modern capability building,” said Ricarda Simon, senior partner with global insurance recruitment firm, Eliot Partnership.
Simon is taking part in a panel, “Level Up – Closing Insurance’s Growing Skills Gap.”
In an interview with Insurance Business, Simon discussed the industry’s “dual challenge”.
“The retirement of experienced professionals is accelerating, while demand for digital, analytical, and customer-focused skills continues to rise,” she said.
A recent report by Davies Group, the insurance industry focused professional services firm, detailed the top hiring challenges facing insurers.
The challenges include the salary and benefit expectations of recruits, struggles to balance hybrid work demands and increasing pressure to provide employees with transparency around their career pathway.
Perceptions of the industry, the report found, are also hindering progress towards solutions.
“Our research revealed that 61% of professionals believe insurance still suffers from an outdated image, which makes it harder to attract young, diverse talent,” said the authors.
The survey also found that while 85% of employers believe professional apprenticeships foster loyalty and long-term career development, under 60% currently run these programs.
What’s something you’ve learned during your career? Please tell us a few of your tips below.
