AD Dave Dewey reflects on Hiring Trends for Insurance in 2022
To give enhanced context and insight to our 2022 Salary Survey, we asked our Associate Directors to give us their key take-outs and perspectives from the year in business, and to reflect on the hiring trends that they foresee continuing to impact the market in the year ahead. Read on for Dave Dewey’s take-outs from the Insurance sector.
Key Take-Outs
• Acquisitions and growth are creating exciting opportunities
• There are currently more positions than can be filled with skilled professionals
• Firms need to act quickly to recruit top talent
• Counter-offers are now more commonplace
• Companies that can offer clear career development paths along with competitive salary will attract the best candidates
As 2020 saw growth plans for many companies frozen as a result of the pandemic, in 2021 we saw double the amount of recruitment from most companies as a result of the backlog of new hires. There is a high demand for skilled professionals which many companies are struggling to find, and we are increasingly seeing counter-offers as a result of this shortage. Candidates are being snapped up by employers quickly, and companies must be flexible with their recruitment processes or they will miss out.
Insurance is an ageing profession, particularly within loss adjusting; part of the skills shortage is due to the lack of apprenticeship and entry-level roles on offer outside the large corporate insurance companies who can sustain in-house training and development programs. Consequentially, smaller insurance brokers have started to invest in training and development and apprenticeships to ensure the future of the profession.
There are always specific reasons for changing roles, but increasingly we are hearing that a lack of career development can be just as instrumental in the desire to change roles as wanting a higher salary. Companies that can offer a strong overall package, competitive salary and detailed career paths are the ones that will attract top talent. Gender imbalance in the workplace is more frequently raised by candidates but generally it doesn’t appear to be stopping people accepting positions. Discussions around bonus and pensions are more frequent than around leave allowances, while hybrid working and career development are the key drivers amongst successful recruitment.
Changes in the insurance market have resulted in expansion, with areas such as Cyber Insurance seeing continued growth both from revenue and in terms of interest from candidates to move into the class. It is an exciting time for insurance with many major acquisitions happening across the UK and US which is creating significant opportunity for growth and new positions within those businesses. This is also encouraging new emerging brands that value independence and whose USP is being able to offer a more tailored and bespoke service to their clients. These rapidly changing landscapes will ensure that there’s a lot to look forward to in 2022.
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Dave Dewey
Associate Director of Insurance
