We spoke to Paul Davey, Managing Director about the state of the Insurance Company and MGA markets. Paul shares his thoughts on current market trends, factors affecting hiring, in-demand roles and skills. A big factor, as Paul mentions, is a company’s ability to differentiate themselves through their unique employee value proposition. "The winners throughout 2024 and beyond will be the ones who are able to articulate their story best to attract the highest performing individuals. Part of that will derive from the financial rewards on offer, but as we know from our salary surveys in the past, a large part of the way to ‘win hearts and minds' is around the career opportunities and ‘story’ you can offer to prospective employees joining”, says Paul.
For advice on the market, support with your hiring and retention strategy or guidance on finding a new role, contact Paul.
What specific trends have you seen in your market?
2023 saw a calming in the waters when it came to talent hiring, that’s not to say it’s been quiet; but more a returning to ‘normal’ levels of attrition and hiring, after what was by all measures a supernormal 2022. A year which saw attrition rates soar, in some insurers to north of 30%.
Service levels for brokers continues to be a pain point in the broker, client and insurer relationship. We expect this to be a huge focus of attention and interest for insurers throughout 2024 as they look to capitalise on gains made during the hard market and translate these into significant land grabs by either geography or speciality, or both.
What factors have affected talent attraction and retention in the past 12 months?
The prior two years saw the biggest single brain drain in the history of the market, as large numbers of highly knowledgeable people chose to retire early or flip to another employer for more money.
Insurers in particular, due to their complexity, have been slow to respond to this seismic change and are still remedying that loss of knowledge, particularly in the technical arenas of underwriting, claims and actuarial. Internal promotions have filled some of those gaps but a lot has been driven by external hiring and re-firing up their graduate schemes, which have been at best on a low heat for the prior decade.
The third area of brain drain from the insurers is the broker market, as that sector continues to overheat with an excess of demand vs supply, it has increasingly turned to poaching experienced leaders from the insurers.
Which roles are most likely to be in demand in 2024 and why?
As insurers and MGAs continue to drive scale in 2024, we expect to see higher numbers of sales and development orientated roles across both the distribution and underwriting channels. This is driven by two main factors. Firstly, insurers looking to capitalise on solid COR numbers by driving higher revenues with increased confidence in their underwriting decisions, and secondly by consistent (and persistent) poor ratings from brokers when it comes to connectivity with underwriters (and more widely decision makers) at insurers.
What skills are in-demand for professionals wanting to work in this market?
The most in-demand skill for insurer-based professionals will be sales and development. In underwriting that will be those who can ‘trade’ at underwriter level through to leadership roles that can drive (profitable) revenue from strong broker market relationships.
In the distribution space we expect to see an upturn in demand for Business Development Managers, across the board, both by insurers looking to bolster existing teams and insurers/MGA’s exploring new territories (geographic or by specialty).
What do clients and professionals need to be aware of throughout the rest of the year?
All insurers and MGA’s want the holy grail of great technical, sales and underwriting skills in all of their market facing personnel. The winners throughout 2024 and beyond will be the ones who are able to articulate their story best to attract the highest performing individuals. Part of that will derive from the financial rewards on offer, but as we know from our salary surveys in the past, a large part of the way to ‘win hearts and minds' is around the career opportunities and ‘story’ you can offer to prospective employees joining.
Think more of what your role will offer an individual’s life and career, than the immediate functional purpose of hiring the person to fulfil a role.
About Paul
Paul’s experience ranges from running large scale talent attraction campaigns for global insurers and brokers; to bespoke retained assignments, targeting senior appointments across the Broking and Underwriting markets. Paul enjoys working in partnership with people to deliver the results that allow them both to achieve the success they strive for.
For advice on the market, support with your hiring strategy or guidance on finding a new role, contact Paul.
