Attracting millennials to insurance jobs
April 25, 2016 by Joe Gardyasz
Insurers are focusing more attention to attracting millennials to their workforce, and the results are paying off.
Holmes Murphy & Associates, for instance, has ramped up recruitment for top insurance talent by creating The Brainery, an intensive, annual 12-week program to prepare high-potential millennials for positions within the company.
“It’s a deep dive into the nature of commercial insurance, but along the way we also help work with the young people to help them grow personally,” said Cameron Burt, a vice president and shareholder with the West Des Moines-based insurance brokerage. Thirty-one millennials will begin the second class that starts on June 1. Half the class trains at the West Des Moines office while half trains at its Dallas location.
In the program’s 2015 inaugural class, 27 recent college graduates were hired full-time, after an intensive interview process, as account executives or in client services positions.
“I think it’s a model for the whole insurance industry,” said Bob Skow, president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa. In many cases, the industry has tended to recruit older people seeking a second career rather than attracting college graduates, he said. “I think collectively the industry is aware it needs to attract more millennials. (Holmes Murphy is) definitely on the leading edge and I hope everyone learns from their lead.”
According to The Jacobson Group, an insurance recruiting firm, eight out of 10 millennials are unfamiliar with insurance as a career path, and less than one in 10 young professionals are interested in working in insurance. At the same time, the U.S. insurance industry needs to fill 400,000 positions by 2020 to stay ahead of retiring baby boomers. Currently, millennials make up about 27 percent of the U.S. insurance workforce.
“As a trade association, we’re trying to conduct some workshops as well as bring in speakers about how to attract new talent into the business,” Skow said. “We have a few programs focusing on communicating with millennials. We’ve just got to do a better job of attracting them into our business…”
The Brainery is “a terrific concept,” said Dana Ramundt, president and CEO of The Dana Co. and a board member of the Vaughan Institute, an insurance program in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa.
In the insurance industry in Iowa, “most of us are either gray or bald, or both,” Ramundt said. “Insurance centers are now just waking up to this fact that they have to replace a lot of retirees.”
Madelyn Mauk, who graduated in May 2015 from the University of Iowa with a finance degree, heard about Holmes Murphy’s program through a career fair.
“A few of the other agencies say you just start working at the desk, but I wanted to have some base knowledge before I started working with clients,” she said. Since graduating from The Brainery, Mauk has worked as an account manager in the company’s risk management area in West Des Moines, focused on health and human services accounts.
“I think that (the class) resonates with millennials,” Burt said, “that people care about them and will push them and welcome their input.”
Originally Posted at Business Record on April 25, 2016 by Joe Gardyasz.
Categories: Industry Articles
