Heading the hunt for talent

Clair Hayward, regional manager of Mansion House Executive

Executive search consultants, or head-hunters as they are more commonly known, are now starting to see a shift in the market. General insurance is becoming more competitive as a result of consolidation and softening rates (among other things). Companies in the sector are looking closely at staff levels and capabilities, and studying how they can be bolstered with more executive positions.

Despite the level of merger and acquisition activity, most of the key firms are still seeking to attract more senior leaders into their organisations.

Companies may be losing large numbers of staff following the mergers, but there is still a need for high calibre individuals to join and take these organisations forward.

At present there is a healthy mix of companies recruiting - both large insurers and brokers are experiencing the need to bring quality individuals into their organisations. We are also seeing more supporting companies and service providers to the industry recruiting at the executive level.

These companies are not only looking for top class technical underwriters and brokers, but the focus is increasingly on high-level relationship managers and deal-makers. Brokers in particular are actively looking to fill the gaps in their skill base and shape the business for the future.

All companies are looking for the leaders of the future: those individuals who will be capable of running their businesses. The focus is on middle management positions, where individuals have potential for the future key roles in insurance companies.

Leadership qualities

The more senior positions, filled by executive search, require leadership qualities and the ability to add value to a business. Skills required include drive and ambition to take a business forward, while commercial and business acumen are taken for granted.

Searching is buoyant in London and the South East, but there are moves in the regions for organisations to use search companies for their more senior positions. The presence of search companies in the regions will stimulate the drive to find real talent and persuade these people to join their businesses.

And people's motivation for moving is, surprisingly, not always about cash. Often the reasons are based on the new organisation's future ambitions - how the individual fits in with the culture and what skills and competence can he add to that business.

Executive search companies strive to become real partners with their key clients, and are seen as an essential element in the recruitment of the senior people within their organisations. Understanding the client company and its needs is a pre-requisite for successful recruitment.

For us to do our jobs well it is vital for to be close to the recruiting company and understand its mission. In short, our aim is to become a true business partner, and by doing this we can ensure that the needs of the recruiting company are fulfilled.

The ever-increasing business schedule of our market leaders, means the general insurance industry needs to know they can rely on the services of search consultants.

These consultants can work with them to find the key individuals who will provide their businesses with the quality staff that will need to achieve success.

Sue Smith, HR director at Hiscox

How easy is it to recruit staff at the moment?

The recruitment market has become increasingly competitive for high quality, experienced employees. As a result, compared to last year, it is taking us longer to find the people we want.

This is not a situation that we are facing alone. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says that 85% of companies are experiencing difficulties in recruitment, mainly due to a lack of specialist skills or lack of experience.

On the positive side, after a couple of years of difficulties in finding any candidates at all, more people are now looking to move jobs. There is now a renewed confidence among employees and companies in the financial services sector.

Nonetheless, there is still a tightness in the market as can be seen by the way salaries are moving forward. Some companies are even offering to buy out bonus payments as part of sign-on commitments - and at a more junior level than I have experienced before.

Senior recruitment is also buoyant at the moment - there are a lot of happy head-hunters around. I see more of a willingness to look at transferable skills rather than focus on sector skills. Many senior management roles are about understanding commercial and people issues; if you have a bright enough person with these capabilities they will learn the sector knowledge.

What is Hiscox doing to make a career in insurance attractive?

We are putting more energy into building up our brand awareness as a business and as an employer. Our entry and positioning in The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies To Work For provided a great opportunity to give some insight to young people and their parents on what we do and that, as a specialist insurer, there are some really interesting areas to be involved in.

We take every opportunity to point out that there is more to insurance than motor and life assurance. A lot of young people haven't considered the need to insure fine art, bloodstock or the products that wealthy people need, such as kidnap and ransom insurance.

We are looking at advertising more than we have done previously. We will emphasise that working in insurance can be challenging, interesting and great fun providing opportunities to use different skills and to travel the world.

We have made a conscious decision not to employ first-jobbers, although we are happy to recruit people who have not worked in insurance before, but have 12 to 18 months' professional work experience.

Do you notice a shortage of the skills required?

The reason we have focused on second jobbers is that they have the edges smoothed off. There is more appreciation of self-discipline, teamwork and commitment to work. We expect a lot from our employees, but also give a lot of freedom in decision-making and responsibility. It can be quite a culture shock for younger people who have not experienced an environment like that.

How does Hiscox ensure high staff retention?

We have put a lot of effort in to retaining staff as they are very important to us. This paid off with staff turnover falling from 20% in 2001 to 11.5% in 2003.

We do all of the usual things such as benchmarking salaries to make sure they are competitive, providing an excellent benefits package and bonus schemes for all employees. We also carry out exit interview analysis to identify trends of why people leave us and take remedial action.

The key is to create an environment where people can perform and be rewarded for that. We want employees to feel they can make a difference and do just that.

Janet Elms, UK human resources director at Marsh

How easy is it to recruit staff at the moment?

While the term 'war for talent' disappeared from view at about the same time as 'dot-com millionaire', recruiting high calibre first-jobbers continues to be hugely important for the future prosperity of businesses in our sector.

However, the combination of skills required for a successful career in our business is often difficult to divine.

Our principal objective is to improve our services for clients, which in turn affects everything we do. But it is not always easy to find individuals who can embrace and drive change in this way and this remains a key recruitment focus.

What is Marsh doing to make a career in insurance attractive?

Marsh has put in place an extensive graduate recruitment and development programme which is designed to find the right graduates and provide a clear path for them to develop - through structured training and job-based learning - into senior contributors within the firm

Do you notice a shortage of the skills required?

The recruitment market changes to reflect business trends and areas where specific skills are scarce. For example, the global political climate means that political risk specialists are more in demand than ever and are currently a scarce and valuable resource. High calibre wordings professionals can be particularly difficult to find as there is a dearth of them in the marketplace. The pragmatic solution is to focus on 'growing our own' as much as external recruitment.

Organisational focus can also create short-term skills shortages. For example, client support roles were traditionally perceived as 'back office' transactional roles. As the value of these roles to client service and retention increases, so do the demands on the role and the skills necessary to fulfil the role change quite radically.

While there is not a shortage of traditional client support professionals, the unusual skill set required for the new roles means that there are, as yet, few suitable candidates to meet the challenges.

How does Marsh ensure high staff retention?

A good development programme is vital in ensuring that employees can deliver on their potential. At Marsh we have an accelerated leadership programme for our future leaders, which follows a structured curriculum of learning centred on the need to provide first-rate client service.

In addition, we provide compelling development opportunities for ambitious individuals at all stages of their career development. For example, our employees have the opportunity to learn from respected market leaders, through mentoring programmes and project involvement. Also, our people have the opportunity to gain international experience as a result of Marsh's global presence.

In recent times, we have made excellent progress in building a more meaningful performance management culture, to the point that we can be confident that the vast majority of our executive, senior and junior management colleagues are engaged in the performance management process.

It would be impossible to talk about recruitment and retention without mentioning remuneration, which is of course one of the most important components of the employee offering.

Without offering competitive remuneration with strong and clear links to performance it is usually impossible to attract the right calibre of employee. Marsh has re-focused its reward package to ensure that as much cash as possible is linked to performance.

Our recent Europe-wide employee surveys indicate that our colleagues' understanding of the linkage between pay and performance is improving.

There are more initiatives planned, which will further strengthen the package we offer.