Within the span of a week,
Zurich announced that it was slashing 440 jobs from its UK general insurance business, including about 50 broker-facing positions, and
AIG told its staff to ‘expect fewer lifetime jobs’ as the company shifts toward retaining candidates for shorter terms of employment.
While it’s easy to speculate that these events indicate that certain roles, such as that of the P&C broker, may be dwindling, industry insiders emphasize that this is not necessarily the case.
On the contrary, a partner at Canada’s top insurance executive recruitment firm, DGA Careers, believes that the P&C job market is simply responding to ordinary ebbs and flow of the business cycle – similar to the tech bust that occurred in the late 1990s, followed by its resurgence in the early 2000s.
“One of the things we’re seeing is that as acquisitions continue and the industry keeps consolidating, there’s usually a transitionary period and then restructuring happens where certain patterns present themselves,” said Nadia Khan.
While Khan remains optimistic about opportunities within the insurance sector, she reiterates that they are unlikely to remain static. For this reason, insurance professionals can expect a lifelong career in the industry – although their role will likely fluctuate over time.
“Diversifying your skillset is key,” she said. “Although clients will often come to us for specialized roles, they are open to exploring candidates or individuals who have other experience, even if they only offer part of what was originally sought. So you probably won’t stay in the same role for 10 years, but move within the organization to different areas, making that diverse skillset so important.”
Khan points to her own career trajectory to demonstrate this. She’s worked in the industry for more than a decade, and after serving in such positions as broker, funding specialist, and business development manager, now oversees executive search and recruitment.
“We come across a lot of people who study a certain area and end up working in a completely different sector, so you have to be flexible and open,” she said. “Conversely, the roles that we’re looking for three years from now may not even exist as we know it today.”
A director at the recruitment agency Hays echoed this sentiment, and said that many insurance entities are working to adapt to market changes with the hopes that they can “future proof” their business and its future employment prospects.
“One industry leader told Hays that the potential exists for one of their biggest future competitors to be companies like Google,” Hays Director Travis O’Rourke said.
For this reason, the best recommendation that Khan can give to Canadian brokers is to follow along with developments in the industry, and try to gain the best knowledge and training possible to remain viable when new job responsibilities emerge in their wake.
“The world is changing and you have to change with it,” she said.
