Insurtech: The secret weapon in the fight for talent

In the coming years, nearly 400,000 insurance professionals will retire, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Given this figure, it is perhaps unsurprising that the insurance world is facing a severe talent shortage. Why is it so difficult to replace these retiring professionals? Why is the war for insurance talent intensifying? And above all, how can companies compete to recruit the best recruits?

Let's start by diagnosing the problem. In addition to imminent retirements, other causes contribute to the labor shortage, including:

The great resignation

Between January 2021 and February 2022, nearly 57 million Americans left their jobs. The insurtech and insurance sectors were far from immune to this movement, and the fallout continues today. The shortage of qualified candidates to fill open positions has become so urgent that there are a growing number of online job boards dedicated exclusively to the insurance industry. iHireInsurance, for example, currently has more than 220,000 open jobs on its site.

Lack of awareness or interest

Too few emerging professionals are aware of the many opportunities offered by our sector. Insurance is also widely seen as a field lacking innovation, with jobs defined by bureaucracy and repetitive work, which can deter young people from generations looking for more exciting careers.

Misalignment of skills and knowledge

Despite this PR problem, our industry is actually changing. Accelerating technological advancements in areas such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and digitalization require skills and competencies that many existing talents are sorely lacking. Insurance executives need to find ways to attract tech-savvy employees in fields like data science or retrain their existing workforce.

Competition from other industries

Other sectors, from technology to finance to healthcare, are fighting to attract the same talent. To attract the right candidates, some companies offer higher salariesmore attractive benefits and opportunities for rapid career advancement, making competition increasingly difficult.

These factors won't disappear overnight, but one step insurance companies can take to put themselves ahead in the race for talent is to improve their insurtech.

How going digital can attract and retain talent

Although it has taken time to accelerate, the digital revolution in the insurance sector is well underway. Forward-thinking organizations are adopting cloud-born insurance management platforms that are transforming the way employees work and the way customers interact with their insurers, agents and brokers. These platforms offer many advantages in the fight for top talent.

Insurance companies that strategically invest in advanced technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analytics will be able to address the talent shortage by streamlining operations, improving overall efficiency and enhancing the employee experience. The goal here is to empower your employees and eliminate repetitive tasks that prevent them from accomplishing the aspects of their job that matter most to them: helping customers and solving complex problems.

Improved customer experiences

The best of new management platforms include self-service features, allowing customers to remotely access their own policies 24/7. This allows them to make adjustments, make payments, and file claims themselves. This not only increases customer satisfaction, but also reduces the workload on employees, who no longer have to manually manage all these needs.

Streamline processes through automation

The insurance industry's reputation for busy work is well established. Old ways of managing workflows, from quoting to binding, are bogged down by manual tasks that turn off emerging talent. An intelligent management platform will automate many of these tasks, eliminating tedious work and alerting the right team members when something is ready for their attention. This reduces processing times (happier customers) while allowing talent to focus on higher-skilled tasks (happier employees).

Optimized operational costs

Streamlined workflows and customer self-service features combine to improve operational efficiency. Legacy technology that fails to keep pace with an insurance organization's evolution also results in additional organizational cost. Investing in modern technology can help reduce IT and labor costs. By eliminating administrative overhead, or the time and resources required to maintain an outdated system, organizations can devote more resources to recruiting, hiring, and retaining the talent everyone is competing for.

More growth opportunities

The right management solutions will meet the needs of the insurance organization while providing a best-in-class customer experience. It will also remove barriers such as data silos that prevent an organization from making data-driven business decisions. Ideally, a technology solution should enable an organization to identify trends, assess risk profiles and create new products and services based on real data. This leads to opportunities for innovation and growth that top talent will seek.

The war for insurance talent will only intensify. By going digital now, you can position your organization as an attractive option for employees who want to work smart, learn quickly, and grow with you.