Addressing the talent shortage in captive insurance

There is a yawning talent shortage ahead for the captive insurance industry—and companies need to act now if they are to meet the challenge ahead. Captive International investigates.

The insurance industry, and particularly the captive insurance sector, faces a growing challenge in attracting and retaining talent. With an ageing workforce and fewer young professionals considering careers in insurance, the industry is at a crossroads. The next decade will see significant retirements, potentially leading to an even deeper talent gap if steps are not taken to ensure effective succession planning.

“The solution lies in expanding recruitment efforts beyond traditional insurance pools.” Anne Marie Towle

This issue is compounded by the need to shift perceptions about insurance as a career, particularly among younger generations.

To tackle this multifaceted problem, leaders from within the industry are stressing the importance of proactive measures in recruitment, training, and branding to build a sustainable workforce. Anne Marie Towle, chief executive of Global Risk & Captive Solutions at Hylant, and Lorraine Jeckells, managing partner at Free Partners, provide unique insights into how the industry can attract the next generation of insurance professionals and close the widening talent gap.

“While the industry offers meaningful, fulfilling work, this message isn’t reaching young people.” Lorraine Jeckells

The looming retirement wave

A key factor contributing to the talent shortage is the approaching retirement of many seasoned professionals. As Towle points out, the insurance sector is “not far off from a significant number of retirements”. This underscores the need for effective succession planning—something Towle believes many firms are neglecting.

“When you tailor the growth into this industry, it has a huge impact on companies and even my colleagues and my competitors in the industry,” Towle explained. “We all talk about trying to get talent, where can we find talent, and how can we continue to grow?

“We get calls every single day about opportunities for captives, and we don’t have enough people. No-one has enough people.”

The lack of available talent poses a major threat to the continued success of captive insurance firms. As the older generation of professionals retires, companies must ensure that younger, well-trained individuals are ready to step into these roles. However, this cannot happen if businesses don’t invest time and resources into training and developing their future leaders.

Towle is emphatic about the need for training. “The industry must be setting itself for succession planning. It’s very important. I’ve been fortunate and have been able to recruit interns and then keep that talent once they graduate. But if we don’t take the time to train people, it’s a detriment to ourselves,” she said.

For Towle, the notion that firms are too busy to train young talent is a short-sighted approach. “If we don’t start replacing these positions, we’re going to be in a world of hurt,” she warned.

Away from the traditional pool

Attracting talent is a challenge that requires innovative approaches, particularly in an industry that is not typically viewed as exciting or glamorous by younger generations. Towle believes the solution lies in expanding recruitment efforts beyond traditional insurance pools and considering candidates from other industries.

“We need to start thinking differently,” Towle says. “Can we attract people from other industries and use their skillsets, whether as a captive manager, in accounting, an attorney, or an actuarial field? Are there areas we can leverage that would be instrumental in recruitment?”

Towle points out that transferable skills, eg, those gained in project management from industries such as manufacturing, could be invaluable in the captives space. By casting a wider net and considering talent from sectors undergoing redundancies or economic downturns, captive insurance firms could find a wealth of skilled individuals who can adapt to the needs of the insurance industry.

A major component of attracting new talent involves educating young people about the opportunities that the captive insurance sector offers. Towle stresses the importance of reaching out to students at colleges and universities, both virtually and in person, to introduce them to the industry and show them potential career paths.

It’s not just about speaking to students. Towle advocates engaging professionals in adjacent fields, such as banking or law, who may not be aware of the opportunities in insurance. “We need to be out there giving education on career paths and opportunities, and how people work from a day-to-day perspective, to be able to attract additional people,” she says.

A perception problem

While the industry can implement training and education programmes, the deeper issue lies in the perception of insurance as a career. “In the captives space, it’s probably even more difficult because trying to explain what a captive is to anybody, even if they work in insurance, is complicated enough, let alone to young talent thinking about a career in insurance,” Jeckells said.

She noted that this perception problem extends across the entire insurance industry, contributing to a crisis in recruitment. “One of the things that became clear to us is that it’s a perception problem,” she said. “The US is looking at more than 400,000 unfilled positions within the insurance industry over the next 10 years. In the UK, we’re looking at 25 percent of the workforce in the industry retiring.”

Jeckells highlighted how surprising this is to industry insiders, who understand the breadth of opportunities in insurance. “While the industry offers meaningful, fulfilling work, this message isn’t reaching young people,” she said. A survey conducted by Jeckells’ firm found that younger generations are seeking careers that offer ethical fulfilment, personal growth, work-life balance, and social connectivity—all of which are present in insurance, although these ideas are often overshadowed by stereotypes.

Bridging the gap: branding and purpose

The disconnect between what young people want in a career and their perception of insurance creates a significant challenge for recruitment. Jeckells suggests that businesses in the insurance sector need to engage in “brand building” to shift these outdated perceptions.

“Businesses which aren’t building their brands are putting their heads in the sand,” she says. “If you’re a great business that everybody knows about, you’re going to grow faster.”

Jeckells emphasised that the insurance industry needs to focus on communicating its core values and purpose to attract younger workers. “Young people are looking for connectivity with something bigger than themselves, where they’re playing a part in a business that is making a difference,” she said. “It has to start at the core, and it has to be true and authentic.”

For Jeckells, branding isn’t just about slick marketing campaigns or catchy slogans. It’s about showcasing the real, impactful work that insurance professionals do. She highlights examples of how insurance enables industries such as pharmaceuticals to thrive, giving back to society in ways that often go unnoticed.

“We don’t chat about them, because it’s just the day-to-day,” she said, “but if you’re not in the industry, you don’t know.”

Leveraging communications

Branding efforts must be directed not only at the external world, but also internally. Jeckells stressed the importance of aligning a company’s internal culture with its external messaging. “It’s very much the case of walking the walk,” she explained. Internal communications should reinforce the values and purpose that are being promoted to potential recruits, creating a cohesive and authentic brand image.

Jeckells recommends collaboration between marketing, HR, and the C-suite to create a unified strategy that fosters a strong company culture. “Making sure that internal communications are as strong and as true, as authentic as its external communication” is key to building a workplace that attracts and retains talent, she says.

Aligning strategy with action

Towle and Jeckells agree that solving the talent shortage in the captive insurance industry will require a multifaceted approach. Companies must invest in succession planning, training, and recruitment to ensure they are preparing for the future. Simultaneously, they must work to reshape perceptions of the industry through strategic branding and authentic communication.

With geopolitical instability and climate change issues placing increased pressure on the insurance sector, the need for fresh talent is greater than ever. As Jeckells noted: “We have to be thinking in the broader sense of these turbulent times. How do we make sure that we ensure clients are protected if we don’t have that throughput of diverse thought, innovative thinking, and people who are coming at things from a fresh perspective?”

The time to act is now. By embracing such strategies, the captive insurance sector can address its talent shortage and ensure its continued growth and success in an increasingly complex world.

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.