Insurance Industry Risks Having Insufficient Workers In The Future

The insurance and risk underwriting workforce is baby boomer heavy, and in the next decade, many of those industry professionals will retire.

Millennials are not beating down doors to take over those jobs for a lot of reasons, said Tony Cañas, a 34-year-old self-described insurance nerd who writes for the blog InsNerds.com.

Cañas was one of the speakers Tuesday at a Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business Risk and Insurance Studies Center conference on the changing workforce.

The conference, which drew nearly 200 industry professionals to Snead Hall at VCU, looked at trends affecting the insurance and underwriting business and general workforce trends.

Millennials, a generation born between the early 1980s and 2000, have surpassed baby boomers as the largest living generation.

"Millennials are like a different culture," Cañas said, describing his own upbringing.

When as a kid he got a skateboard for Christmas, for instance, his mother made him promise to wear his helmet, knee pads and elbow pads every time he went skateboarding.

In contrast, baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, grew up in an era when seat belts in cars were optional and parents thought nothing of smoking around their kids, he said.

"We grew up in different worlds," Cañas said, explaining that those differences can cause misunderstandings in the workplace.

Millennials are tech dependent, he admitted, and prone to checking their smartphones during meetings, but they are not necessarily being inattentive. They might be sending themselves a reminder or note.

"Most of us don't know how the technology works, we just know we can't live without it. I can't code on the Twitter (application programming interface), but I can't live without Twitter," Cañas said.

"This technology dependence makes us think in very different ways than previous generations have."

Many millennials have the impression that the insurance and risk underwriting business is stale and boring. The industry sometimes fuels that perception by offering entry-level jobs that amount to claims call center work, he said.

"It's very hard to pay our dues in very, very specialized, very, very thin jobs, and it's very easy to get bored," Cañas said.

Industry research shows that young adults who work in the industry for two years and then burn out don't go to a competitor, they leave the insurance industry entirely, he said.

He offered suggestions on recruiting and retaining millennials, including providing them with business cards their first day on the job.

"Regardless of position, I don't care if they are a call center person who is never going to see a customer. Way too many of our young professionals in the industry don't get business cards. ... What the card shows them is that this is not just a job, it's a career," Cañas said.

Other suggestions include having the new employee's computer work station ready, arranging for them to meet with a senior executive in the company, having a clear and objective evaluation system, providing regular feedback and helping them see possible career paths.

Use different terminology to describe what the insurance industry is about, he added.

"We want to make sure they understand how (the industry) is good for society, how their position fits into what the company does and how we are not just making money, we are helping people get back on their feet, which is ultimately what you do with insurance," Cañas said.

The annual conference is in its 11th year, said Tim Cook, director for the Risk and Insurance Studies Center.

"What we are always trying to do is identify emerging risk in our industry so that all these insurance professionals who attend can get a sense of things that are coming down the pike and prepare for them," Cook said.

Other speakers Tuesday talked about other workplace risks, including hacking, stress and disgruntled employees.

Conference sponsors included insurance businesses Markel Corp., Willis Towers Watson, Allianz Global Assistance and Berkley Mid-Atlantic Group.