An innovative approach to recruiting young talent into the insurance industry has won a ringing endorsement.
At the recent Seek Annual Recruitment Awards (SARAs) in Melbourne, Blake Oliver Consulting won the Innovation in Recruitment prize (firm’s winning team pictured below). This is one of the rare times a company specialising in insurance has won a Seek award.
The multinational firm Seek is one of the biggest online employment marketplaces.
For the last two years, Blake Oliver has spearheaded a unique recruitment drive, together with the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and Insurtech Australia.
The initiative involves hosting roundtable lunches where university students can meet senior insurance professionals who showcase industry career options. The students attend for free after an application process.
“The event is targeted at students to bridge the gap between university and a career in insurance,” says the Blake Oliver information pack.
“It’s fantastic,” said Daniel Marsh (pictured top), when Insurance Business asked the recruitment firm’s managing director for his reaction to this major pat on the back.
“When we were first pitching this idea to the market we wanted to do something different,” he said. “We also figured that the insurance industry needs to do something different to start attracting people to it.”
He said the Seek award is recognition for both his firm’s work and the industry at large.
“The insurance industry has a reputation for maybe not being as dynamic as other industries,” said Marsh. “The fact that insurance has been recognized for winning an award for innovation can only help insurance companies attract staff.”
The last roundtable event was in September, in Melbourne, and the next one, he said, will be in Sydney, in May.
“We’ve [also] been attending careers fairs and liaised quite closely with [university] lecturers,” said Marsh.
He said in recent months, new clients – including a wide range of universities, schools and insurance firms have come on board to support the initiative.
“Name a university and we’re probably speaking to them,” he said.
The list includes the University of Melbourne, RMIT, Monash University and La Trobe. Geelong Grammar School and Xavier College are among the participating schools.
However, he said while the roundtables started two years ago, the growing interest from educational institutions and insurers is the result of nearly eight years of work.
“Forging those long-standing relationships with the universities has really been key,” said Marsh. “Now that insurance companies and broking firms are starting to realize the benefits of being a partner of this event, they’re starting to get on board as well.”
He said their first event in Melbourne in 2022 was successful but also demonstrated the caution of the insurance industry. Several industry players expressed interest in the idea but said “We’ll come to the next one.”
Now, insurance firms including QBE, Zurich, HDI Global and Crawford are all taking part in the events.
“It’s not just about having the large global brokers and insurers,” said Marsh. “We are trying to showcase some of the smaller broking firms and agencies as well because we want to show that the insurance industry is diverse and broad and you don’t need to work for a big global company because you can be very successful working for a regional independent broker.”
He said the whole idea is to show students the many different industry career possibilities.
The number of students applying to attend these events is a promising sign of interest.
Marsh said more than 1,500 have applied for the roundtables with about 200 students winning places.
“That application process isn’t just sending a CV in, we actually conduct video interviews with them,” said Marsh. “1,500 students are now more aware of what the insurance industry is about than they were prior to going through this process.”
Even those who don’t make the roundtables, he said, can still attend follow-up webinars.
Showcasing the industry is one thing but what about students who have actually progressed to work in the industry?
“We’ve made a number of placements with underwriting firms so far with some of those students,” said Marsh. “It’s definitely working, we can be confident of that.”
He expects the numbers to go up soon, partly because the initiative is not just focusing on those about to graduate, but also students early in their university courses.
“What we’re trying to do is educate those students during their time at university so they start thinking about insurance as a career,” said Marsh. “We anticipate that the success rate of students coming into the industry will start to become quite evident in the next year or two.”
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STORY UPDATE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Blake Oliver is the only insurance focused recruitment firm to ever win a Seek Sara award. Ensure Recruitment, an insurance focused agency headquartered in Sydney, won the Seek award for Best Specialist Agency in 2013.
