In the News

Insurance Business America Magazine has published the 2017 recipients of the Elite Women in Insurance award.

Insurers use extreme measures to lure new hires, from ghoulish videos to free beer.

By 2018, we can expect 25 percent of the current insurance workforce to retire, creating 400,000 open positions for which there are no ready replacements.

Securing year over year growth, what’s their secret? Read how their giving producers more time to do what counts.

Whether or not the pursuit of new revenue is killing your potential for profitable growth is, in some form or another, a question that business leaders are (or should be) asking on an ongoing basis.

Around the turn of the century, the insurance industry entered the war on talent. As boomers began aging out of the workforce, succession planning took on a pronounced urgency. Insurance leaders feared they would be replaced by na?ve, social media obsessed young professionals unprepared for the realities of the workplace.

Analytics are critical for insurance, not just from an actuarial standpoint, to understand how to price, but more interestingly how you look at your operations, how you make decisions and how you understand what’s happening within your business on day to day basis

To the baby boomer generation, pension plans, a straight career path, and a corner office were more important. The baby boomers believe in committing a substantial duration of their careers to a particular organization. This is not the same value system or driving force of the millennials. The millennials want meaning in their work and are more attracted to entrepreneurial endeavors. Among many other things they value experience other than ownership. And at work, they want ongoing conversation and feedback rather than annual review.

Talent acquisition—finding and hiring the best people for your needs —can have a significant effect on your bottom line. But finding strong performers takes hard work. Gaining a competitive advantage starts with thinking differently than others. If you put more effort and commitment into the talent you already have, you are creating an environment that retains and attracts additional great talent. In a sense, it makes it a bit easier to get great talent, because they are already looking in your direction.

Emotional Connections. Great brands avoid selling products. Great salespeople cultivate emotional connections with customers. —Harvard Business Review, August 2016

Managers who demonstrate leadership skills have a clear impact on daily company and employee performance. Managers, by definition, are responsible for coaching, influencing and creating the space for employees to perform their best to improve both productivity and quality of service.

Money from private equity and hedge funds continues to enter the program sector squeezing rates but rasing the value of organizations that best harness data.

Talent engagement is more than “keeping people happy”—it is a set of managerial and leadership activities critical for building and maintaining a strong team while keeping talent costs reasonable.

BLOG : 4 ways to harness talent management for profitability In the age of automation and machine learning, insurance leaders should not overlook the most important element to long-term success: their people. No matter the technology or processes you implement, you still need talent to execute and make decisions.That’s where talent excellence comes in.

The insurance industry as we know it will look a lot different in the future- at least that’s what many new and not-so-new entrants are hoping for as they revolutionize the sector. From the leveraging of big data by aggregators and tech companies, to peer-to-peer property/casualty insurer Lemonade and how insurance policies are being sold and purchased, to the road to autonomous cars and the impact it will have on auto insurance, these and other changes are making the business-as-usual approach obsolete.