How to Navigate Talent Market Headwinds

Many property/casualty insurance companies are finding it very challenging to acquire great talent. There are several key factors that contribute to the headwinds in the talent acquisition market:

Executive Summary

What's compelling about your business? What's enticing about your culture and leadership? How can a job candidate make a difference? What's in it for a top performer to join your company? Those are the questions insurance carriers need to answer as they reach out to job prospects five or 10 times, according to recruiters Ira Ziff and Anuraag Sunder. Here, they spell out some of the dos and don'ts of acquiring great talent.

Top performers are tuning out the current avalanche of recruiting emails, texts and LinkedIn messages. Many employees with unvested stock options are more averse to changing jobs. Given the shortage of talent, companies are investing more in retention initiatives as it’s exorbitantly expensive and time consuming to replace valued employees. As jobs have become increasingly more specialized, significant skills gaps are more apparent, making the existing talent pool much smaller.

Hiring managers that we speak to are particularly frustrated by:

Interviewing slates of underwhelming candidates who are not aligned with the role. Losing out on top candidates to competing offers without a viable Plan B. Contingency search firms that under-deliver.

The problem is especially acute for carriers that incubate, invest in or acquire startups, since these companies are under significant pressure to rapidly deliver results. Thus, hiring the “wrong” person for a critical position or having unstaffed roles can lead to devastating consequences.