Insurance employers: are you struggling to recruit for your early careers?
Last year, we partnered with London Market Group – a market-wide body that brings together the specialty commercial insurance and re-insurance communities in London. Deliberately targeting disadvantaged schools in outer-London and outside the M25 to reach talent the insurance industry hadn’t historically acknowledged (because they’re not on The City’s doorstep), we reached 1,200 students, with 50% registering their interest in LMG’s programme and 280 applying. In 2024 the programme will be back, even bigger, and we’re seeing huge interest in what specialty insurance has to offer.
Here are our five top tips for making insurance a destination of choice for school-leavers:
1. Link insurance to young people’s passions
Deloitte found “Gen Z prefers to work in industries that they interact with in their personal lives as opposed to industries they aren’t frequent consumers of.” Can you blame them?
But most young people associate ‘insurance’ with cars or (if you’re lucky) holidays. To them, it might not be something to get excited about. But in reality, we know the world of specialty insurance is huge and can relate to almost anything – from fine art to rocket ships, car collections to huge buildings… Now, that’s a far more interesting prospect!
So, what is it about your business young people should be excited about? What makes what you do unique? And, most importantly, why should young people care? To capture young people’s attention, take a different view and demonstrate how what you do links to their passions.
2. Ditch the jargon and tell a story
When you’re deeply embedded in an industry it can be hard to see things from an outside perspective, which (if you’re not careful) can result in outreach presentations and demonstrations that are, quite frankly, boring.
Resist the urge to ‘impress’ young people the way you might talk to your leadership team or board members. They don’t know enough to understand the technicalities (at least, not yet) and insurance-specific jargon won’t mean much to them, either.
Instead, talk about how insurance helps the world to function. How it empowers businesses to trade. How it enables us to go on holiday (and not just thanks to travel insurance, but because the plane is insured, too). How it means you can buy a phone, even… Believe us: young people find it far more inspiring – mind blowing, even – to hear how insurance helps us to do all the things we want to do in life. And inspiring young people is the first step towards engaging and then hiring top talent.
3. Demonstrate the range of career options
To young people, ‘insurance’ might sound maths-y, or tech-y. In our experience, right-brained or creative students can be inclined to dismiss the idea of a career in insurance, simply because they don’t believe it’s relevant to their skills and interests.
But, like you, we know ‘insurance’ is a diverse, vibrant industry that covers a huge range of roles and career pathways – from brokers, underwriters and actuaries to marketing, HR, IT, and legal – all requiring different soft and hard skills and appealing to different strengths and interests.
So, make sure you communicate that! When going into schools, find out what each group of students is interested in and tailor your presentation. Bring in colleagues from different parts of your business to talk about their roles. Make it your mission to show school-leavers that they can achieve their career ambitions with your company and you’ll be on to a winner.
4. Focus on the lifestyle a career in insurance offers
Why should school-leavers choose to start a career in insurance over, say, banking or law? While some young people are money-motivated (72% say a high starting salary makes them more likely to apply to a job), we’re also seeing an increase in young people looking for careers that offer more work-life balance – in fact, 78% say having a sustainable work-life balance is essential to their definition of career success.
So, show how working in insurance offers that by dialling up the experience of working in your industry compared to other, more 24-hour City-based sectors. Letting a school-leaver know that, for example, they could be an underwriter by their late 20s with a salary over £100K and work-life balance will help them see insurance differently.
Another unique thing about insurance is the industry’s sense of community, both literally – the London market, for example, is based mostly around a couple of City blocks – and figuratively – in the support network it boasts. For a school-leaver entering the world of work for the first time, the benefits this offers for building their network and accelerating their learning can’t be underestimated. So make the most of it!
5. Uncover an untapped talent pool
Does it feel like you’re reaching the same talent year after year? Then maybe it’s time to look elsewhere. Take it from us: with London Market Group we’ve inspired students to consider insurance as a destination career in more than 50 schools outside London – proof that when you look beyond your immediate communities there’s a host of underrepresented talent you probably aren’t reaching, who might not realise what a great opportunity a career in insurance offers.
Our results with London Market Group prove venturing further and reaching out to young people who might not previously have considered an insurance career is effective: our Insurance Futures Academy resulted in 70% of students saying they had a good understanding of specialty insurance post-programme, up from 4% pre-programme. All it takes is a bit of strategic planning and outreach to inspire new talent to start their career with you.
Want to expand your talent pool and contribute to making early careers in insurance more equal? Get in touch to find out how we can help.
