Recruitment Challenges for the Insurance Industry

Chris Sharp:
00:04
Welcome to the A.I.M. Mutual podcast. I'm Chris Sharp- in an effort to shed some light and insight on the massive and often misunderstood insurance industry, today we'll be discussing some of the growing challenges around recruitment and employment retention in this very healthy but undervalued job market. In the hopes of finding out where things are headed, how our industry is changing and what we can do to capitalize on those changes, we're talking with Mark Millett, Recruiter and Learning and Development Specialist for A.I.M. Mutual. Hi Mark. Welcome.
 
Mark Millett:
00:34
Hey Chris.  Thanks for having me. 
 
Chris Sharp:
00:36
So, let's jump right in. Trends- what are new challenges that employers face today in terms of finding good quality candidates? And is this something that you think is unique to insurance? 
 
Mark Millett:
00:50
Well, finding quality talent is certainly a challenge. I don't know that it's unique to insurance, but it's something that we definitely struggle with here at A.I.M. Mutual. You know we tend to find a lot of candidates but it's the quality part that is often lacking. Really I think the way to overcome that challenge, it's all about how you present your company. You have to present it in a way that people want to come work for you and I think that's the biggest first step. Like how and what does your company do and how does it impact the world? I think that's really what a lot of the candidates want to know and how are they going to contribute to that. And I think if you can express that message, that's going to help go a long way in helping find quality candidates. 
 
Chris Sharp:
01:43
Okay. And I imagine a lot of those candidates are probably coming from, you know the big, often discussed massive generation of the millennials. What are they, you know, kind of specifically looking for in their first job experience or either a second job experience and how do we keep people of that age range engaged and on board? 
 
Mark Millett: 
02:11
Man, if I knew that I'd, if I knew the answer to that, I'd be a millionaire. 
 
Chris Sharp:
02:16
It's the magic question. 
 
Mark Millett: 
02:18
But I think from what I understand, not being a millennial and just kind of going on what I've read and talking to some of them and what I understand is they really just, they want to make an impact. That's the big thing. They want to make an impact in the world. They want to make an impact with the company. And I think that, again, going back to what does your company do and how does it make that impact, I think that goes a long way into recruiting that generation. They're very into work life balance or they like having flexible work schedules. I think the neat thing about insurance is those are a couple of things that we can really offer. You know, we have folks that have jobs that are out on the road. They kind of make their own schedules. We have flexible schedules here in our headquarters. So we try and focus on that, not only for the millennials, but for anybody. We just think that's an important thing to focus on for our employees in general.
 
Chris Sharp:
03:19
Yeah. No, I mean I do feel like that is something that started with millennials maybe in terms of, being a discussion piece where you worked, but now it's something for everyone.
 
Mark Millett:
03:29
I think that got people talking about it.  Yeah, absolutely. 
 
Chris Sharp:
03:32
It may be long overdue and I mean, when I think of insurance, it tends to come with an unnecessarily negative image in some ways; it seems to have an image problem. But what surprises people the most in terms of perception versus reality for workers’ compensation? What are people missing? 
 
Mark Millett:
03:56
Sure. So it's interesting you asked earlier if this, if finding quality talent is unique to the insurance industry. And I think part of the challenge is that people don't understand what it's like to work in insurance. And because of that perception of here's a company that just takes my money and doesn't give me anything unless I really need it. Right. I mean, that's what people think of insurance and it's the big bad insurance companies and they don't care about anybody or anything like that. But really, and I've only been in the insurance industry for a couple of years, I can tell you there's nothing further from the truth. Our employees care about not only our policyholders and our brokers, but also about our policyholders' employees. They are some of the most caring people here, you know, and workers' compensation, we deal with people that get injured. It's probably one of the most difficult times in their lives and they're worried where the next paycheck is going to come from or how they're going to put food on the table, pay their mortgage. All of our employees understand that and are compassionate about that and do whatever they can for our policyholders and their employees. So that perception, that big, bad take my money and don't do anything for it perception I think is way off. The other thing is that's great about the insurance industry is there's a million different ways you can go. There's so many different directions you can take a career in and people don't understand that. They think it's either sales or claims and that's it. But that's not the case. There's a lot of other different areas in the insurance industry that are available to people. And I think promoting that is another way, another thing you can do. 
 
Chris Sharp:
05:34
Okay. Thank you so much for your insight and time, Mark and listeners out there please be sure to continue with Part Two of our podcast concerning recruitment in the insurance industry. In our next section, we're going to be covering topics around technology, culture, and strategies for your business clients. Thanks for listening, and we hope you've enjoyed our talk.