Career Guide

In today's competitive market, insurance companies and brokers are investing vast amounts of time and money in technology, marketing and service standards. Yet how worthwhile is this investment if they cannot recruit or retain the quality staff needed to drive the company forward?

The Insurance Times Career Guide attempts to address the many issues facing employers today. These include the growing demand for improved employment packages and training, new employee rights and the skills shortage in insurance. Graduate recruitment could be a solution in the war for talent, but this would require a major promotional campaign from the industry as a whole. The Chartered Insurance Institute is making determined efforts and is planning a career fair at its next conference, but more input from the rest of the market is still needed.

Job candidates, too, have concerns, as more and more are now looking for a career rather than a job for life. Getting the right position has never been more important and benefits, training and prospects for career progression are all important considerations in addition to salary.

According to our Salary Survey 2001, however, it seems that there is still a distinct lack of recognised official training in the industry and a lot of companies consider "on-the-job learning" sufficient.

But the industry must be doing something right, as more than two-thirds of the respondents in the survey foresee themselves still working in insurance in five years' time.

Alison Boyle
Managing editor