Insurance industry's multifaceted recruitment challenges

Aging workforce a major issue

Insurance industry's multifaceted recruitment challenges

Insurance News

By Daniel Wood

Insurance industry stakeholders in Australia see recruitment as one of the biggest challenges in 2025. This multifaceted obstacle, impacting brokerages and insurers, includes talent acquisition hurdles and upskilling issues. The industry’s aging workforce is compounding the problem. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) expects nearly 30% of the current workforce to be at retirement age by 2030.

Senior broker turned insurance trainer, Oren Jacobi (pictured above, left), pointed to concerning implications from this looming uptick in retirements.

“With more ‘old heads’ retiring or leaving the industry, their wealth of knowledge and wisdom is unfortunately lost with them,” said Melbourne-based Jacobi, founder of Insurance Training Australia.

He said this leaves less experienced professionals trying to manage complex situations and client renewals without the necessary guidance.

“This leads to mental health issues, staff retention issues, industry retention issues, customer dissatisfaction, and in some situations, errors and omissions,” said Jacobi.

Other industry professionals have also raised the issue of an aging workforce. In an interview with Insurance Business, Gillian Davidson, senior commercial insurance partner with Sparke Helmore Lawyers, explained how this challenge exists across numerous insurance sectors around the world.

Davidson said data shared with her on a trip to Lloyd’s of London showed that there were more people in the London market over the age of 50 than there were under the age of 30.

The ICA has acknowledged that the industry’s proportion of older workers is “significantly higher” than the general workforce.

“This highlights the importance of supporting mature workers to remain in the industry, as well as ensuring a robust pipeline of early career professionals entering insurance, with mechanisms in place to transfer the skills and experience of senior colleagues to a new cohort of employees,” said The Insurance Industry Talent Roadmap, released in September.

Upskilling: “a critical priority”

Upskilling is an important related concern. Some insurance leaders have told IB that this part of the recruitment effort is key and see it as the industry’s most difficult hurdle in the years ahead.

IB asked Daniel Marsh (pictured above, right) for his view. Marsh is managing director of insurance industry recruitment specialist Blake Oliver Consulting.

“Upskilling has always been a critical priority for insurance firms, but the shift to remote and hybrid work has introduced new challenges,” he said. “Especially in a market where perceived talent is hard to come by.”

Sydney-based Marsh said the lack of in-person interaction can limit opportunities for informal mentoring, job shadowing and collaborative problem-solving.

“All of which play a significant role in skills development,” he said.

However, he said remote working can also open the door to innovative approaches to learning if managers are engaged to support this effort with their teams. This requires, he said, leveraging a combination of technology, structured programmes and cultural factors.

Marsh recommended three ways to advance upskilling efforts.

Virtual workshops and webinars

“Regular live sessions with internal leaders or industry experts can foster interaction and encourage shared learning experiences, even in remote settings,” he said.

Cross-department training

Marsh said one of his “most impactful learning experiences” came when he was working as an underwriter at Chubb where he participated in training sessions with the claims teams.

“These sessions focused on real-life claims examples, detailing the processes, causes and outcomes,” he said. “Gaining this exposure gave me invaluable insights into underwriting from an exposure perspective, not just pricing within guidelines.”

Mentorships

More insurance firms are investing time and effort into developing substantial mentorship programs. Marsh said these programs can foster engagement, even with remote workers. They can also help mentees have a broader understanding of business operations, develop their strategic thinking and foster a firm’s future leaders.

He referred to the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) mentorship program that his colleague, Raphael De Silva, helped to implement. This involved structured one-on-one sessions over six months, focusing on the mentee’s professional development.

“Additionally, by pairing mentees with leaders from outside their own business unit, the program promoted diverse perspectives and insights, enriching the overall learning experience,” said Marsh.

How do you see the insurance industry’s recruitment challenges? Please tell us below.

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