For Kishan Mangat (pictured), lending her voice to the upcoming panel on the ‘Workforce of the Future’ at the Women in Insurance Summit 2024 is simply the latest link in the long chain connecting Insurance Business UK and iCAN (the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network) partnership.
Speaking ahead of the Summit, which will be held on November 7 at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, the iCAN co-chair and founding member highlighted how her involvement started years ago, and reflects the aligned ambition between the initiatives. “With our ambition to showcase so many of the amazing women in the market who are from an ethnic minority background, it seemed right that we partner with IBUK who, I think, have led the way in championing women in insurance.”
Fruitful early conversations meant that over the years iCAN has been able to put forward exceptional speakers for the annual summit, with Mangat herself hosting the 2019 iteration. It was there that she met Yasmin Carter-Esdale, she said, who later came to join iCAN’s committee. “I’ve met so many amazing women at the Summit,” she said. “And the reason why I think it’s so amazing is that it’s tailored to helping women in the market develop skills and take away knowledge that they can then implement in order to forge really successful careers in insurance.”
This year, her attention was drawn to the ‘Workforce of the Future’ panel as it closely aligns with so much of the work that iCAN is looking to do in the market in terms of helping its members develop skillsets fit for the future. Their focus is not just on the recruitment piece but also on the retention of people in the industry, which came out of feedback from members who were actively looking for career progression but couldn’t see the opportunity.
“We wanted to help them recognise that there is lots of opportunity but that the market’s just not doing a great job of showcasing that,” she said. “We created iCAN Apply, a jobs board which highlights some of the roles that we know our sponsor companies want to push out to a more diverse demographic in the market. That was why I was attracted to the panel because it really feeds into that ambition.”
Created in 2017, iCAN has created so many strong partnerships across the insurance ecosystem, she said, and it’s now in a position where it’s able to leverage its relationships and expertise. This is especially pertinent to the upcoming Gen Z generation, she said, which is a demographic that needs a lot of support, having gone through school, college or university during the COVID years. They didn’t necessarily get the chance to learn some of the softer skills required to thrive in insurance, such as building a network or taking advantage of a mentoring opportunity.
“We need to focus on the workforce of the future and on making sure that we can equip them with the skills that they need to forge really lasting and meaningful careers in the market,” she said. “To that end, we just announced our AI Conference, which will be held on Friday, November 22. The purpose is to help iCAN members understand more about the impact AI will have on the insurance market and to help them start thinking about the skills they’ll need to develop in order to take advantage of the opportunities that AI will bring to the market.”
iCAN sees it as its role to help the next generation of insurance talent build new skills and develop greater confidence in their abilities. Part of that is about equipping people with the skills needed for the future, she said, but, equally, it’s about helping people sharpen or showcase their existing, transferable skills which are still essential. That’s what the AI conference is tailored to do – to help people think more holistically about AI rather than saying they don’t know anything about it, and so refuse to engage with it.
“[AI] is going to be a big part of the corporate world going forward, it’s going to be a part of the insurance market,” she said. “It’s only a matter of time, so let’s get ahead of the curve and start thinking about the skills you’re going to need in three-to-five years time, and let’s start to develop those skills. Because it’s not AI that’s going to take your job, it’s the person who knows how to use AI that’s going to take your job. So, let’s try to figure out this new landscape together.”
There are so many questions being sparked by AI, Mangat said, not least whether it will have the capacity to level the playing field of opportunities in insurance for people from an ethnic minority background. The upcoming Summit’s panel will look to delve into many different aspects of that conversation, including how to blend new and existing skills to create meaningful careers, and she’s looking forward to being able to lend her insights to the conversation.
“Understanding and supporting the workforce of the future is a journey iCAN is going on as well,” she said. “And I think it’s a really important one, especially for women like myself, who can feel overlooked and often are overlooked. In an industry that is still very male-dominated, I think it’s really important that we focus on developing our skills, because that’s what will really set us apart.”
You can view the full agenda and sign up for the upcoming Women in Insurance Summit 2024 today.
