Content area
Full text
New approaches combined with existing best practices help with recruitment, retention
As individuals and an industry, we're always looking to grow, to expand our knowledge and reach in new ways, to broaden our perspectives, and explore fresh approaches to problems old and new. Today, our industry continues to be faced with a talent crisis. It's a crisis we've seen coming for more than a decade but now our industry's need for talent has been exacerbated. Economic turmoil, challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ensuing labor shortage have left employers desperate to hire.
Thought leaders from across the industry have opined on the subject, encouraging industry leaders to get creative and think outside the box to attract and retain this hard-to-find talent. While we should leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding the right ways to attract and retain the quality talent we need, it is also critical for us to remember that some of the more traditional ways we've engaged employees and prospects continue to hold value.
In this tight labor market, hiring for insurance has not been an easy feat. In fact, 48% of insurance companies surveyed by the Jacobson Group for its Insurance Labor Market Study noted that hiring talent was more difficult this year than the year before. At the same time, 68% of those companies surveyed said they planned to boost staff over the next year.
Today, employers are trying to get creative beyond bonuses, compensation and flexibility. They are looking to expand their candidate pools, looking to universities with insurance programs to recruit, looking to college graduates with other majors who may find their fit in insurance, rehiring the retired, and reconsidering job requirements to determine if a college degree is really necessary for certain positions.
Here are a few best practices for blending tried-and-true talent recruiting and retaining strategies with new ideas to keep your firm performing optimally with a challenged, happy and fulfilled team.
1. Start early. Many young people still view insurance as they did 10 years ago-uninteresting, stale and uninspiring. The industry is looking to change that by spreading the message that...