Securing the next generation of talent is a top-tier topic on the agenda of leaders across the entire insurance ecosystem. The loss adjusting sector is certainly no exception, according to Helena Evans (pictured), managing director of the high-net-worth (HNW) insurance specialist Criterion Adjusters, though it has the advantage that those who find their way into adjusting tend to remain there.
Highlighting the variety offered by a career in loss adjusting, where no two days are ever quite the same, she noted that what tends to go unsung about this career path, is the immense job satisfaction you get from supporting people in their darkest days and helping them see the light at the end of the tunnel after a disaster. As somebody who enjoys helping people, she said, she gets tremendous fulfilment from seeing somebody’s claims through from the beginning to a satisfactory end.
Loss adjusting - particularly in the context of major loss scenarios – requires a real breadth of both technical skills and interpersonal or ‘soft’ skills, Evans said. With having the right people the key to long-term success, she’s a firm advocate for taking a ‘hire for attitude, train for skill’ approach to creating a strong team. Because, while many interpersonal skills can be developed, that “gut feeling when you’re talking to somebody and you just know how to respond to them no matter the situation is a harder thing to teach.”
“The main skill required by an adjuster, especially on a first visit, is the ability to really listen to the customer and work out what’s important to them,” she said. “It’s about gauging their characteristics and establishing the best way to communicate with them through the lifecycle of the claim. Some people need a lot of handholding while others don’t. Often in a major loss, people are very vulnerable at the early stage of the claim and need quite a lot of looking after. Some people can be quite emotional, some can be quite angry at what’s happened to them.
“At the same time as you’re dealing with the technical aspects of the claim, you’re working out how to help somebody through their claims journey. So, when you’re on-site, you might be asking them one question but you’re constantly picking up on cues in their surroundings, and taking in lots of information, to work out how to help them or to establish if there are any underwriting issues to refer to insurers.”
Being a great adjuster requires a complex set of interpersonal skills, she said, and she leans into that angle when she goes out to schools and colleges to promote a career in the sector. For those who naturally have such skills and feel driven to help people, adjusting is a great consideration as it’s often described as the emergency service of insurance as adjusters are often the first on the scene in the event of an incident and providing care and support to those impacted.
Amid so many market discussions about technological innovation and the acceleration of generative AI, it’s worth emphasising the critical role the human touch still plays in loss adjusting. Looking at Criterion’s offering, Evans noted the rapid advancement of digital tools during COVID. Yet when the heat of the crisis started to abate, she said, it was clear that HNW clients wanted the team to return to face-to-face visits as this personal interaction was an important element of Criterion’s service proposition.
“In addition, you can pick up so much more on a site visit,” she said. “If you’re there in the house, you can see so much more of the property and have to check the sums insured are adequate. It’s harder to walk around the property on video calls, and fraud is also harder to pick up on a video call. Personal interaction is still the way to go, supported by those new digital tools which are helping to make the whole process a lot slicker.”
When she discusses career trajectories with prospective young talent, Evans said this personal touch element resonates clearly with them, especially in the context of human stories. Having claims examples, such as the Grenfell Tower tragedy, puts a human face to what adjusters do, she said, and helps bolster the idea that this is an exciting career path with tremendous opportunities for progression and fulfilment.
The fact that Criterion is also utilising modern technology to support and empower its adjusters, is also a point of differentiation for younger talent, she said, as it’s removing a lot of the administrative burden from the claims process, freeing up adjusters to use their bespoke skill sets to add real value to a client’s claims journey.
A key area of focus for Evans in her role as MD and during her tenure as president of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA), has been encouraging young professionals to become qualified loss adjusters – and she intends to continue to beat that particular drum.
“It’s a healthy marketplace and there’s still lots of people in the industry,” she said. “But we need to continue to encourage some of the younger generation to become qualified so that we’re continually replacing that talent pool of qualified adjusters. Overall, however, I am positive about the future of loss adjusting because it’s still a popular industry. I can see how it’s developed and how there are now more women in adjusting than when I joined the profession which is great to see and long may it continue.”
