Property Casualty 360 published “Talent Crisis Will Drive Change in Insurance” by John Rodgers and Brian Nordyke looking at ways insurers can embrace cultural shifts and position themselves to attract, nurture, and keep the talent they need to sustain their business.

“According to the results of a self-assessment designed to evaluate companies’ digital maturity, the included 42 insurance companies (out of 700 cross-sector survey participants) lagged behind other industries on metrics related to culture, agility, testing and learning, collaboration, and external orientation.

This surely doesn’t bode well for the insurance industry, with its reputation for the traditional and conventional. But some carriers are evolving to meet today’s myriad challenges with a workforce that’s shifted to online, a talent market that favors “cool” factors and startup culture, and new sources of competition.

Tech is the game changer

Technology and digital enablement are shifting not only the internal processes and people required to run a leading carrier but also the customer interaction models and experience. At every step of the way, new InsurTech entrants are challenging existing business models. Increasingly, firms are focusing on their front office differentiation and value to customers while employing partner networks for non-core activities, ultimately forming how they will choose to act and react to the changing market. But the talent crisis currently facing the insurance industry should not be understated as a major driver of change.

As an active response to the emerging talent crisis in the insurance industry, carriers are beginning to tap into non-traditional talent pools and are rebranding to attract millennials, digital natives, and undergraduates at a rapid rate. Coupled with the acceleration to a flexible/hybrid workforce that will require realignment of resources, policies, and infrastructure to accommodate employees in new working environments, a massive shift within insurance in recruiting, talent management, and digital adoption techniques is needed.

In this quickly changing world, the most effective organizations will be the ones that are quick to adapt and communicate actively and coordinate consistently across different teams, geographies, and business units as well as focus their recruiting and development efforts on the skills that will be necessary in the new world.”

Read the full article here.