UK insurance professionals outline 2022 challenges

14 February 2022

Three out of 10 insurance professionals say gaining the right skills and knowledge to best serve customers is the biggest challenge they face in the year ahead, according to a survey by the UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).

And 280 out of the 975 CII member respondents believe getting to grips with emerging risks, such as cyber and climate change, plus Covid and Brexit causing business interruption, is the greatest hurdle they face at work this year.

One in five feel regulation, such as changes to product pricing practices, will be the most significant obstacle, while roughly a quarter identified getting used to hybrid working as the biggest challenge.

“We are aware of the swift pace of change in the insurance profession and have already worked with partners to produce qualifications and learning material for data science, climate risk and product simplification in the last 12 months based on what our members have identified as a knowledge gap,” CII Chief Customer Officer Gill White said.

“We are committed to making it easier for insurance professionals to identify the learning pathway best suited for them and sought their feedback on our plans to make our qualifications, CPD and support tools more relevant and effective via our ‘shaping the future together’ consultation.

“We have proposed a combination of educational best practice, learner feedback and application of the Professional Map; which details the knowledge skills and behaviours needed for different roles at different experience levels.

“I look forward to sharing more information about how we will assist professionals to target their sector-specific skills and develop the behaviours they need to best serve customers as well as apply technical knowledge in the months ahead.”

The “shaping the future together” consultation encourages members to share their views on proposals for how the CII will work.

The CII will share the findings of the consultation and how it will help shape the group’s strategy this year.