by Chris Davies
Insurance is facing a millennial recruitment crisis. According to a recent study from
Hartford, only a mere 4% of millennials are interested in pursuing a career within the sector. Whether you’re an industry veteran or a fresh-faced insurance millennial yourself, one thing is clear: something has to be done.
Luckily, we’ve put together 10 ideas that might help you out.
1. Attract, engage and retain
This is the holy trinity of millennial recruitment. Everything you do has to be underpinned by this credo. Think about it: if you can’t tempt someone into a career … and you can’t keep them interested once they’re working for you … and ultimately you can’t keep them onboard as part of your team … then everything else is just a case of rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Prioritise these three things and the rest will follow.
2. Go platform to platform
Part of the millennial experience is to live one’s life over a spectrum of outlets. With so many media platforms and communication methods vying for attention, many prospective employers must keep pace in order to be seen – and the insurance business is no different. Find the platforms and find the message you want to send. It’s vital.
3. Make way for leaders
Whether you’ve just hired a great millennial employee or you are that great millennial employee … what next? What are the paths to leadership, and how can insurance companies ensure that those paths stay wide open for aspiring millennial go-getters? Developing a way for prospective leaders to rise and shine will help employees, employers, and the wider industry alike.
4. Listen to millennials themselves
What’s the best way to engage with millennials? The best way to engage with anyone, of course is by talking to them! Lines of communication are hugely important to every workplace relationship, and making sure they span generational and cultural differences is equally important to creating a successful consensus. Whether you’re on the older or younger side of the millennial divide, it’s imperative to make sure you’re communicating well.
5. Recognize and reward
In a world in which only 28% of millennials feel that their current organization is making full use of their skills (according to a recent survey by Deloitte), it’s hardly a surprise that incentivization is a big issue. And this isn’t just something that’s exclusive to millennials by any stretch – who among us, young or old, doesn’t work better when there’s tangible reward and recognition for our hard graft? Investing in talent is something that will always be important.
6. Celebrate and utilize differences
Everyone has something to offer – and, more than anywhere, this is often worth remembering in the workplace. Generational differences between employees in insurance can function as either a help or a hindrance – but with the right amount of integration and communication, businesses can strive to make sure that former outweighs the latter.
7. Bring sexy back!
No matter what your industry, image is important. Hard work and long hours might be a part of the insurance world but – in terms of appealing to prospective employees or retaining existing ones – a sheen of glitz and glamour always helps. Don’t be afraid to highlight the ‘sexy’ perks and privileges – travel, big industry events, big paydays – that a career in insurance can offer.
8. New era, new jobs
The world is changing – faster than most of us would like, perhaps, but there’s nothing we can do about that! With such constant change comes new variety in both job roles and business structure … and there’s no-one more well-suited to taking on these fresh challenges than millennials. New skills can often be just as important as long-established ones.
9. Use millennial skills to the fullest
One thing guaranteed to act as a disincentive to millennial employees is for the skills they have crafted – either through education, previous work or just good old-fashioned life experience – to be underused or even ignored. It might take a bit of imagination in some cases, but strategizing new ways in which millennials can contribute their skillset will prove both a huge boost both to companies and the wider insurance industry alike.
10. Attend the MII Forum
And finally we reach the most important nugget of advice!
For further thinking from experts and contemporaries on all the above topics and more, be sure to attend the Millennials In Insurance Forum in New York City on February 08, 2018. Expect great ideas and even greater solutions at the first conference wholly dedicated to solving the millennial insurance crisis.
