Poaching: Inside the industry’s cutthroat war for talent

Recruiting into the P&C insurance industry has become so urgent that employers are looking for “plug-and-play” hires who can hit the ground running, leading to widespread industry poaching.

“What we’re seeing [in our demographic research], and we’ve seen it since 2017, is inter-industry competition — i.e., ‘poaching,’” Brad Neal, vice president of business development and strategic partnerships at the Insurance Institute of Canada, said during a Live with CU webinar last Thursday. “It is one of the biggest issues we have. We have to grow the pie [of industry recruits], not just try to reapportion pieces of it, and take pieces we want here and there….

“I think [poaching happens because] we have a number of people that have been in the industry for five to seven years. They’ve got the expertise, they’ve got the talent, and people want them — especially when there’s not enough of them.”

The Insurance Industry of Canada conducted an HR survey with 26 Canadian P&C organizations, representing more than 44,000 employees and 34% of the industry’s workforce. Seventy-seven per cent of companies surveyed said recruitment ranked top among HR issues in 2022.

Ninety-two per cent of surveyed companies said P&C organizations are competing with each other for available candidates. Almost two-thirds said their next closest competitors for talent are from other insurance fields.

Stefan Rolfe, associate director of Impact Recruitment, recruits for insurance organizations in the P&C industry. He provided examples of just how cutthroat the competition for talent has become.

“Yes, it happens,” Rolfe replied, when asked if P&C organizations poach talent from other firms within the industry. “Sometimes my clients will ask us to go and target a specific company and ask us to bring people forward from them and speak to certain people in that organization. They know they’re going to be a good fit because of the training they’ve had, the experience they have, or the accounts they’ve worked on, et cetera….

“Some companies are going to be turned off by it. They can’t really stop it. For us [in a headhunter role], it’s more about [showing potential recruits] what’s out there and getting these roles in front of people so they know they exist. Certain people don’t know these roles are out there, and that there are better compensation packages out there, and there is flexibility on hybrid or remote work.

“Some people have been in an industry role for 10 to 15 years or more, and they don’t realize the market is what it is. And when they hear about opportunities that might pay them 20%, 30%, 40% more, it’s a given that they want to explore these other opportunities.”

Related: What P&C industry recruits will give up for hybrid work

The Institute’s 2022-23 industry demographics study involved an online survey of more than 4,700 Canadian P&C industry employees. Through the survey, it estimates the average annual salary in the industry grew by 15.6% over the past six years and now sits at $83,275, well above the Canadian average of $54,450.

To increase the size of the pie, John McNeil, program coordinator and full-time professor at the Humber College Insurance Management Program in Toronto, said the P&C industry needs to focus on targetting potential career-changers from outside the industry. Employers should explore how potential recruits from outside the industry have transferable skills that would benefit them in P&C industry roles.

“In terms of linking transferable skills, we’ve mentioned kinesiology,” said McNeil. “I go and speak to 300 kinesiology students, many of whom may end up in clinics making minimum wage.

“I come in [to see the students], and [to them], I’m like ‘The Insurance Guy.’ I present a short accident clip [showing] two people are injured. And I ask: What do you think the injuries are? Can you identify them? What do you think the treatment plan should be? When do you think they can go back to work if, say, this person is a dentist or this person’s a mechanic?

“[The students] can identify with this. And then you say to them, ‘You just did an accident benefits adjuster role.’

“It really gets people to start thinking. It’s about inviting people into the industry and getting them to think about what a great career this could be. It’s getting them to think about what that would look like within their personal narrative.”

Regarding potential recruits from other industries, the Insurance Institute’s 2022-23 research shows half the P&C companies surveyed said the banking industry is a major competitor for talent, up about 20% from the Institute’s 2017 results. Others saw greater competition from fintechs and consulting firms companies, while others cited lesser competition from professional services organizations.

Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/Abu Hanifah