The insurance industry’s recruitment challenges are well documented. When Insurance Business suggested to Gillian Davidson (pictured above) that the current situation could be described as a war on talent, she didn’t disagree.
“It’s an alarmist description but it's certainly a common term that's easily understood,” said Davidson, who is a senior commercial insurance partner with Sparke Helmore Lawyers in Sydney. Her insurance law work includes risk advising global insurers, corporations, governments and faith-based organisations.
Davidson is taking part in a career-focused panel at the upcoming Women in Insurance Summit Australia in Sydney on August 23.
In a recent interview with IB Talk, she discussed the insurance industry’s shortage of talent and what can be done about it. The challenges included an aging workforce and the need to find better ways to attract and train new recruits.
Davidson has just returned from London, where she was able to observe the talent shortage over there firsthand. She was particularly struck by the insurance industry’s aging workforce.
“I think it's a reality across a lot of markets,” she said. Davidson said Caroline Wagstaff, CEO of the London Market Group (LMG), shared some telling statistics with her.
“What her statistics showed was that there were more people in the London market over the age of 50 than there were under the age of 30,” she said. “This was something that she and her organization are committed to trying to rebalance.”
She said part of Wagstaff’s current strategic focus is to bring in fresh talent. One way her firm is trying to do this, said Davidson, is by presenting potential recruits with a good “story.”
“They’re recognising that they need to have a story, they need to have a narrative, around what participating in a career in the insurance industry means,” she said.
Davidson said Wagstaff is looking into engaging with local schools to get issues like risk and insurance explained in curriculum.
“That approach went through to university engagement and looking at ways in which they could include into the market a much younger cohort from the beginning of their thinking about what their future professional lives might look like,” she said.
Davidson said in Australia, the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) is making similar efforts through education programs to lift the profile of the insurance industry among school and university students. Her firm, Sparke Helmore, is also taking steps.
“We're trying to do a lot of things,” said Davidson. “We're trying [to] develop relationships and sponsorship opportunities with universities and to educate students as they go through their degrees about the [insurance industry] opportunities available for them.”
Davidson said this includes supporting insurance related subjects. Another method, she said, is podcasts. Davidson took part in a podcast at the University of Technology (UTS) to discuss what it means to be an insurance professional.
Another initiative by her firm is exploding insurance industry myths.
“We've come up with what I think is pretty exciting and certainly a lot of fun: the Sparke Helmore Insurance Academy, which is intended to shine a light on what we describe as the extraordinary world of insurance,” said Davidson.
She said the program provides education and training on key insurance topics, both technical and legal, for graduates, junior lawyers and clients.
“The central tenet of the program is to bust a number of those myths around insurance,” she said. “For example, we start with myth number one: insurance is boring and simple.”
Davidson said her firm has created a program around explaining the wide-ranging challenges and opportunities in the sector to “bust” this myth.
Davidson’s panel at the Women in Insurance Summit is: “Fighting fatigue – How to remain on top of your game.” The session will discuss strategies to fight fatigue, boost resilience, and focus on self-care and mental wellbeing.
Sparke Helmore is a Gold Sponsor of the summit. Other sponsors include Innovation Group, Flynn Builders, Brooklyn Underwriting and AAMC. Marsh is the Event Partner.
The 2023 Women in Insurance Summit will take place at Sydney’s Fullerton Hotel on Aug. 23. The summit will feature a range of powerful keynote sessions, workshops, networking activities, presentations and panel discussions led by influential leaders from the industry on the industry’s top issues. You can register for the summit here.
