How industry professionals are tackling talent recruitment

Canada’s P&C insurance industry is looking at everything from career fast-track programs to scholarships and student involvement programs to handle talent recruitment challenges.

Recruitment has long been an industry challenge. In late January, the Insurance Institute of Canada, the industry’s education arm, launched an industry-wide recruitment effort called Project Reframe. The public education campaign aims to portray the industry as an engaging, dynamic and interesting place to build a career.

Other industry players have taken complementary approaches. In the first quarter of 2023, independent adjusting firm Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. launched a career fast-track program to prepare new adjusters for claims handling. The firm has completed three cohorts to date, adding about 25 adjusters to its roster.

Another cohort is planned for May 2024. It will be based in Montreal to address talent needs and language requirements of the Quebec market.

Crawford is looking to attract individuals who are new to insurance to the program, says Kelly Stevens, the company’s senior vice president of loss adjusting. But it also wants to attract people looking for a second career in insurance who have a diverse background with expertise in adjacent industries.

By actively seeking candidates from different industries as well as those from various backgrounds who may be new Canadians, the program offers a unique perspective and skill set that traditional new grad programs may lack, Stevens says. “We believe this diversity leads to more innovation, greater problem-solving and a broader understanding of claims.”

The fast-track program involves cohorts who create a network amongst themselves to learn and grow together through mapped-out training plans. They are then anchored in different areas of loss adjusting or third-party administration and matched with a mentor. After a four- to six-month semester, people are moved onto another area for greater exposure to the adjusting field. After two rotations, employees are placed in their optimal environment of desk adjusting, field adjusting, or examining claims in third-party administration.

Related: How deliberate, diverse recruiting can fill brokers’ talent gaps

Crawford’s program teaches technical and system integration skills, along with soft skills like collaboration, communication, dealing with conflict, and defining and executing goals. The virtual and in-person program includes technical speakers, independent learning, subject matter experts and resident trainers.

There are immersive training experiences, such as simulated claims scenarios, but also on-the-job shadowing and real-world cases studies to give new adjusters a chance to apply their knowledge and analytical skills in a supportive environment. New adjusters are also paired with experienced mentors.

“Through this process, they’re building their knowledge of the industry, our company, and developing their hands on technical adjusting skills,” Stevens says.

Hiring for potential future career growth and advancement within Crawford is also front of mind, Stevens says. “This is a powerful incentive in attracting top new adjusting talent. Showcasing a clear path for professional development will attract ambition candidates to join our team.”

Another organization looking to address the industry’s talent crisis is the McGannon Foundation. The foundation is “laser-focused” on promoting the risk management and insurance profession in Canada through unique and distinct scholarships and student involvement programs, says board member Hobby Pardo.

“We will award scholarships, for instance, [or] award student involvement to loss control engineers, to claims adjusters, to future company risk managers, and I mean that quite broadly in the sense of whatever risks within those organizations are really critical to that organization,” says Pardo, who is also a senior vice president at NFP. “So, we do look at that much broader than just the insurance industry.”

The student involvement program involves funding participation in the annual RIMS Canada conference, including flights and accommodation, with the expectation students will register for educational content during the day and engage in networking opportunities in the evening.

“We purposely find seasoned underwriters, seasoned claims adjusters, seasoned brokers, and we connect those people with these students so that they can tell the students what their day-to-day looks like on the job site…” Pardo says. “And most people are blown away, they have no idea that working in insurance might involve regular trips to London, England, to Bermuda, to describe your company’s risk profile, to place insurance on projects that would never even happen if insurance didn’t exist.”

The McGannon Foundation has seen record high numbers this year for both scholarship awards and student involvement, Pardo reports. The foundation recently awarded 11 scholarships of $4000 each, with students attending schools in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. It also sent 12 students to the RIMS Canada conference in Ottawa last September.

Feature image by iStock.com/FG Trade