Best behaviour

Professional development programmes need to look beyond bridging the skills gap and strive towards behavioural goals to get the best from employees.

In an industry as competitive as insurance and one so reliant on the quality of its people and their specialist skills, most companies in the sector would list staff as one of their top assets, and gaining and keeping the best people as top priorities.

With that in mind, it is surprising how little attention gets paid to the personal development of staff in the insurance sector.

Increased regulation and the need to demonstrate that staff are competent means that, all too often, training becomes an uninspiring tick box exercise that fails to address what really makes the difference to staff performance.

Bridging the skills gap

When you mention training, most people, no matter what industry they work in, think of programmes that fulfil a specific need, such as presentation skills, writing skills or improving a knowledge base.

This thinking is also clearly evident throughout the insurance industry.

All too often companies can be guilty of seeing a skills gap, filling it with training and then considering the job done.

A rigorous professional development programme, however, is much more than this and requires a step change in thinking within much of the insurance industry.

Companies need to get innovative and passionate about professional development and delve much deeper into behavioural training. Research by psychologists has shown that it is behaviours, attitudes and underlying capabilities which make the difference between average and exceptional performance.

Insurance companies need to ask themselves the central question "what behaviours are the critical ones to high performance?" and use the answer as the foundation stone for their programme.

Key competencies such as managing relationships, communicating in a range of situations and the ability to speak and act with credibility and authority are the areas that training programmes need to focus on.

After all, insurance is an industry where technical know how can be wasted without people who can be advocates, communicators, listeners and relationship builders. It makes sense to concentrate on these core skills.

The delivery and content of these programmes is central to success. The onus has to be on behavioural change rather than simply teaching a trick or a gimmick. Someone lacking confidence in a certain scenario needs to understand the underlying causes behind it.

This means coaching and empowering people to think for themselves and giving them the self belief to develop their full potential.

One of the most rewarding aspects of training that drills down to such a deep level is that it not only changes working practices but can also change the lives of trainees outside of work.

Engaging staff

A criticism levelled at some training programmes is that they fail to engage staff.

This is frequently due to training being too prescriptive and being forced upon unwilling employees.

Professional development should be voluntary. Companies should trust their people to want to participate in the training programme and to engage with the process.

If you put your staff in the driving seat of their own development and give them the choice, then sessions will be more productive and the training will be enhanced.

Overall, the programme must be interesting. This is not too difficult to achieve because behavioural development, with its intrinsic focus on the personal and individual, naturally lends itself to engaging trainees.

In essence, a properly developed training programme is a 'must-have' in the insurance industry.

Get it right and it means getting the best from your people as well as attracting the best and the brightest that the industry has to offer and giving them a reason to stay.

- Vivienne Ayers is training manager at Hiscox

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Hiscox aims to provide a good workplace for its staff and has been recognised for three consecutive years in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For survey.

But such league tables only tell half the story.

In 2000, as part of investment in a bespoke staff development programme, Hiscox spoke to management development consultants Jo Ouston & Co.

Hiscox felt it had strong people with value as individuals at all levels.

It was less sure this value was always seen by colleagues or clients, often because it was not recognised by the individuals themselves.

Jo Ouston devised a personal development programme for Hiscox to transform professional work.

A three-day course has been introduced and used by the company's senior executives, though others who have completed a two-day event may go on to the next stage. In all cases, course work is followed some weeks later by one-to-one sessions with a Jo Ouston consultant.

The course covers communication skills over a range of different scenarios and focuses on behavioural insights and why people act the way they do rather than specific presentation or communication techniques.

Simon Williams, 39, is head of marine underwriting. "Our business is a people business," he says. "Our age profile means we're often dealing with older, apparently higher status people. When we talk to them, it's important they see the maturity of the personality rather than just the age of the person.

"Because of the inner confidence we learned, I now feel I can handle a heavyweight subject, in front of a heavyweight audience, without any sense I'm not in control."

David Bruce, head of speciality division, has been with Hiscox for 30 years and views the question of status from a different perspective. "The course showed me a lot about the importance of skilled listening, of observing others and reading the signs.

"I've been in this business a long time and I tend to be pretty sure of my ground. But playing that hand from the word go doesn't always get the right reaction.

"The course showed me reading people is an important skill and usually gets better results."