Whether we like it or not, change is coming to the insurance industry.
It could be in the form of improved technology, systems and processes or in the shape of a changing and evolving customer base, but businesses need to think long and hard about how they manage the shifts making their way through the sector.
So, what is the best way to manage change within an organisation?
According to David Hosking, chief general manager broker and agency at Allianz Australia, one of the most important first steps on the way to change is to be open with staff members about the reasons for evolution.
“I think it starts by making people understand there is a grander picture in place and it is not a company led initiative,” Hosking told attendees at the Insurance Business Insurtech Summit. “The world is changing the market is changing, everything is evolving and people know it. The work environment is just an extension of personal circumstances.
“The conversation we like to have is whether we are just trying to keep pace, and indeed lead, what is happening out there.”
Hosking noted that it is important to stress that while change may be difficult for some, it is important to underline that the reason for change is not to make their day-to-day working life more difficult, but to improve processes for both staff and customers.
“It is important to make them aware in that bigger story - that anything that improves customer experience has got to be good for us as an organisation and you as an individual,” Hosking continued.
Hosking said that technological change doesn’t remove intuition from the industry but rather heightens it on a new scale.
“You do have to have a conversation where you say there are elements of this that can be automated, elements that we can access the data a lot quicker. With your intuition, do that on a data set and we can get that [quicker],” Hosking continued.
“The punch line of the story tends be that, and I’ve had this conversation many times, my best guess is the process you as an underwriter are doing now won’t be the same as in 50 years’ time and they say ‘of course not’. Well, that journey is going to start today.”
