Guy Carpenter Chair in Talent Attraction and Retention in the Re/Insurance Sector | Insurance business America
Why it’s time for the industry to do a better job of promoting itself
reinsurance
By Mia Wallace
During a keynote address at the 2024 Zywave Cyber Risk Insights Conference, Vicky Carter (pictured left), Chair of Global Capital Solutions International at reinsurance brokerage giant Guy Carpenter, met with Rachel Turk (pictured right), Chief Underwriting Office at Lloyd’s of London to discuss the key challenges facing the re/insurance market – including in terms of attracting and retaining talent.
What’s clear, Carter says, is that the industry isn’t doing a good enough job of promoting its fantastic diversity and the role it plays in creating the world as we know it. It’s only when you get into the industry that you start to understand this, and it’s the responsibility of the people in the industry to share this message with the next generation of talent.
How the re/insurance sector has developed
“When I came into the industry it was very, very different than it is now,” she said. “[…] And after seeing how the industry has developed, I wanted to create a platform that would bring young people together to give them a vision of the diversity of this industry. That’s why I created a two-day forum that brings together world-class speakers on all important topics in the industry. And suddenly it turned into a pretty big event, now with 1,000 participants.”
With the next edition of the event taking place in June, it is an insurance event like no other, she said, and it is exciting to see the re/insurance market come together in this way. From politicians to astronauts to leading voices on important issues such as GenAI, cyber and geopolitical risks, the event aims to familiarize the younger generation with the opportunities that a career in the industry offers and the fact that it really is for everyone offers something.
“Despite all the technology entering the industry and the vast amounts of data we are seeing as we move to more digitalized systems, we must not forget how important that personal contact is [aspect] is in building relationships,” she said. “It’s great to see Lloyd’s getting going again…It’s such a far cry from what it was a year ago…It’s coming back and you can see that our young talent wants to come back and want to be out there for this “To build faces.” personal relationships.”
Find the right work-life balance
For Turk, finding the right balance between remote and in-person work remains critical to ensuring the re/insurance market does not lose the benefits that hybrid work has brought to the industry and its employees. As she assessed what was happening at Lloyd’s, she found that more people than ever are returning to the trading floor.
“As an underwriter, I have benefited tremendously from personal trading and relationships with brokers,” she said. “I was [recently] I met with a few brokers I’ve worked with over the last decade, and some of them I hadn’t seen in four or five years since I stopped underwriting. And it was nice to sit together at the box and remember old times when we learned so much about each other’s lives. This is a fantastic thing that the London market offers and we don’t necessarily want to give it away.
“The flip side, of course, is that when we talk about attracting and retaining talent, being able to work more flexibly brings huge benefits. So it’s quite difficult to chart a course at the moment – how do you encourage people to come back? How do you create an environment that people enjoy coming into? I think that’s the key: you need people who want to come to London. And I’m not a big supporter of pushing the issue.”
The reality of most people’s lives is that they require a certain level of flexibility, she said, and the re/insurance market needs to take this into account if it wants to attract and, more importantly, retain the best talent.
“For the younger generation, a balanced lifestyle is certainly a really important thing,” agreed Carter. “When we interview people, one of the things they interview us about is: What are your policies regarding working from home? I’m a big believer in the principle: work hard and play harder. I think it’s really important that we admit young people [flexibility].”
Rethink how re/insurers think about labor
The re/insurance market needs to rethink its approach to work, she said. Traditionally there is a belief that it is important for people to come to the office five days a week. But Corona has actually proven that it is possible to work from home very effectively.
“If you had told this industry a month before the first lockdown that virtually the whole world was going into lockdown, it would have seemed ridiculous and people would have said it would never work,” she said. “But guess what? Overnight we went into a virtual world. And it worked really well, we did mergers and acquisitions, we raised capital, set up disaster programs, etc. Everyone did their job and everything worked.”
When people are under extreme pressure, they prove they can change and adapt, and this applies to the industry too. From Carter’s perspective, there is a need for the industry to become much better at listening to the younger generation and listening to their ideas. They have so much information at their fingertips today, she said, and they use it to come up with great ideas.
“I am a big supporter of the integration of young people [the industry] and let them speak their minds,” she said. “Because that opens up new ideas and brings new tools and new skills – and that’s what innovation is all about. For me, D&I is not about men and women, but about bringing in really good ideas and different skills. And that’s so important to ensure the industry continues to evolve and innovate, which will help us increase the resilience of our societies.”
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2024-05-30 13:40:00
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