Aviva looks to ‘re-seed’ talent across its UK broker programmes

Attracting and developing the next generation of broking talent has not been an easy endeavour for the UK general insurance industry (UKGI).

According to research by specialist insurer Ecclesiastical in 2024, 50% of 250 UK brokers said they struggled to recruit people aged 30 and under.

And just 55% of those brokers said they had training programmes in place to support the development of young brokers.

For regional brokers without all the resources and people power to be bringing on apprentices and learning and development schemes, creating these pipelines appears a Sisyphean feat.

According to Aviva’s latest Broker Barometer survey, released on 27 May 2026, 75% of local brokers were currently recruiting, with 53% experiencing an increase in recruitment needs over the past year.

In turn, the role insurers can play in helping brokers attract, develop and retain talent has rarely been more important.

One such initiative is Aviva’s Rising Stars programme. The initiative is designed to accelerate the careers of high-potential employees working in any area of a broking firm.

Now in its second year, the programme has already resulted in seven promotions among the 34 delegates that have participated so far.

Among participants is Chloe Denholm, who currently serves as personal lines manager at Alan Boswell Group.

She joined the broker’s Norwich office in 2021 and worked her way up from commercial insurance into a leadership role in personal lines.

A fairly “unheard of” career shift, Denholm mused that she had ended up managing a team who had worked in the industry longer than she had “been alive”.

Despite the culture shock, Denholm told Insurance Times that the experience reinforced the value of learning from others, which she was keen to pass on as she took up 12 apprentices in Alan Boswell’s own programme.

With the programme running since 2010, she said that the broker was looking to support their apprentices further as it took on more talent.

In light of this, she said that one of the main takeaways from the Rising Stars programme that stuck with her was “the difference between mentoring and coaching” and how you put on “different hats” to meet the current need.

“That’s really big with our starters because sometimes you need to be a mentor and draw on your own experience to guide them, while at other times you need to be a coach and help them develop their own thinking,” she continued.

“We learned this very early on. It’s useful to be able to identify which is needed and how to do it best.”

Multigenerational mentoring

In a multigenerational workforce where those starting their careers now have different expectations, navigating how to lead a team of varying needs is no piece of cake.

One Rising Star session that stayed with Denholm, however, was on emotional intelligence in leadership and how to be an “empathetic listener”.

Adopting this approach with her new apprentices, she explained that it was integral to her role of pastoral care, especially as “new people won’t always say what the problem is”.

“It helps you have the conversations with them when something isn’t quite right or at a time where they might be at a difficult spot in their apprenticeship or generally struggling,” she continued.

“It’s about working out whether people need a solution or just want to vent and that’s fostered conversations amongst us all as managers as well. Particularly as sometimes we’re trying to fix problems we don’t necessarily need fixing – we just need somebody to listen.”

‘Re-seeding talent’

With many takeaways to feedback into Alan Boswell’s apprenticeship drive, Denholm has already set her sights on partaking in Aviva’s talent initiative for senior middle managers.

Called the Future Leaders Programme (FLP), the initiative is a practical and business-focused learning programme aimed at senior leaders in independent brokers, to give them the skills and knowledge to successfully run a broking business.

Gillian Brennan, broker propositions lead at Aviva, said having this clear talent pipeline between each programme was the “dream” as the insurer looks to professionally develop individuals across the “whole cycle”.

Brennan also explained that she was looking at inviting back former delegates for “specific workshops where they have that expertise” or are “passionate about a particular area”.

“It might be then that [a delegate] really gelled with whichever broker it is and has that network to reach out to them for additional guidance and coaching,” she continued.

“People who have been through the FLP are now sponsors of Rising Stars, so we’re trying to create a cycle of re-seeding talent and experience through our programmes as well.”

She added Aviva has been reviewing how its development programmes are positioned to support employees at different stages of their careers, which has led to “a new joiner pathway” expected to be ”rolled out on Aviva development zone later this year”.

The pathway, she explained, will cover ”a range of topics designed to help new joiners build their understanding of insurance, as well as develop their soft skills”.

“Rising Stars is the next step so people that have got their feet under the table, have talent and want to progress,” she finished.

“Ideally, we will start to help people move through to FLP and we can support them at different stages in their career and once they’ve completed that, they can take on different roles as sponsors, mentors, coaches and be part of it.”