The 2018 Insurance Industry Employment and Hiring Outlook Survey released May 9 by GreatInsuranceJobs.com showcases record hiring in the insurance industry, but a slew of challenges insurance employers are facing to fill positions like underwriters, actuaries, claims, account managers and sales.
“Insurance employers were very clear this year. They are having a difficult time finding experienced talent not only to keep up with new job requisitions but to replace retirees and short-term millennial workers who are only staying 12-18 months,” said Scott Kotroba, president and co-founder of GreatInsuranceJobs.com. “With record employment and a huge push for younger workers, talent acquisition in the insurance industry is being forced to change strategies so they can connect their message to this group.”
The key findings from the 2018 Insurance Industry Employment and Hiring Outlook Survey include:
- Combined, this survey found 8,454 jobs currently open in the 64 surveyed companies.
- 95% of companies in the survey currently have open jobs. Everyone is hiring.
- 56% of companies are planning on hiring 51 or more employees in 2018 (compared to 35.5% in 2017).
- More than 13,300 more jobs will come open in the last three quarters of this year.
- 36% of surveyed companies are forecasting better hiring in 2018 than 2017.
- The top five top positions insurance companies are looking to fill are: sales, underwriting, customer service/administration, technology and claims.
- The top hiring challenges include lack of skilled talent, uncompetitive salaries, lack of training programs and small recruiting budgets.
“One of the biggest things is the fact that employers stated recruiting strategies have not changed since the recession,” said co-founder Roger Lear. “For most, this leaves them in the dust to companies who can get a targeted recruiting message delivered on multiple platforms. Most of our surveyed employers have not even considered new recruiting technology yet.”
Overcoming recruiting challenges
This survey also asks employers directly how they would recruit more people to an industry that is losing employees to retirement.
Here is a sample of actual responses:
- Rethink traditional work environment guidelines and perception/interpretation of “presentable” or “professional” (body art, piercings). Insurance companies must embrace diversity. Rethink/Revamp/Reinvent compensation and benefit packages for the mindset of the next generation of leaders.
- Create more work-at-home positions with perks and benefits for performance.
- Change job descriptions to tell a better story about the nature of our roles.
- Focus on stability, long-term career opportunities, advancement opportunities, excellent benefits packages and rising salaries.
- Develop more mentorship situations where young people can shadow, tour and explore the industry.
- Start talking to college students. Enlist our young insurance professionals to engage with their social networks about insurance and what they do. Change the misconception of what insurance is and how insurance professionals spend their day.
- We have to get marketing involved internally to get the word out about our jobs and how satisfying they are long term. Posting jobs is not enough. We have to be able to tell a story (maybe visual) to attract young and others to our industry. We just don’t do a great job of this.
Of the 64 companies participating in the survey, 25 were P&C, 19 were broker/agent, 8 were life/health and 3 were MGAs. The findings of the report are based on phone interviews with 64 insurance entities employing a total of 323,377 employees, which represents 12.4% of the total insurance industry workforce.
The full 2018 Insurance Industry Employment and Hiring Outlook Survey can be downloaded for free at this link: www.GreatInsuranceJobs.com/jobreport
About GreatInsuranceJobs.com: GreatInsuranceJobs.com, founded in 2001, is the nation’s preeminent insurance employment network, and the only digital job board in the insurance industry optimized for mobile, on-the-go usage by jobseekers. The company boasts more than 120,500 visitors per month, and says every major insurance company posts open positions on the site.
