Bridging the insurance industry talent gap

Jul 3, 2019

Tomorrow, America turns 243. As we celebrate her birthday with parades, BBQs and fireworks, you may not notice many cracks in her veneer. But if you look a little closer at her economy, it turns out that America isn’t aging very gracefully.

A recent New York Times article caught our attention with this statement: “Aging, according to recent economic research, is stunting the emergence of new businesses and sapping productivity. It is contributing to the rise in monopoly power and eating into workers’ share of national income.”

These effects on our economy are due, in part, to the 70 million baby boomers who will continue to retire from the workforce – at a rate of about 10,000 people per day until 2030. Our labor supply is shrinking, and work is being left to smaller generations that don’t have the sheer numbers needed to fill the work force gap.

As we mentioned in our Can Remote Work Fill the Talent Gap blog, there are over 7 million job openings in the United States and not enough workers to fill them. By 2030, the global talent shortage could reach 85.2 million people – which could cost trillions of dollars in lost economic opportunities.

For those of us in the insurance industry, this doesn’t come as a surprise. According to insurancejobs.com, the average insurance professional is 45, and only 5% of millennial students describe themselves as “very interested” in working in the industry. So, insurance will continue to be one of the industries hardest hit by the talent gap, and the problem will only continue to grow.

Many of you are already experiencing the pressure created by the talent gap. As veteran insurance professionals continue to leave your business, how will you plan to recover from lost opportunity and possibly lower customer retention? How will you retain the valuable knowledge and skills needed to efficiently serve your customers and run your business?

What are you doing next to adapt and recover?

The good news is that it is possible to bridge the talent gap AND keep experienced workers on the job. The solution requires all of us to think beyond traditional business models to find new ways of solving this ongoing problem. At WAHVE, we offer a unique solution to help bridge the talent gap by providing a nationwide pool of qualified work-at-home vintage insurance professionals who are matched to your staffing needs. You benefit by tapping into the workers’ years of relevant insurance industry experience and knowledge, while they slowly transition into retirement while working from home.

How is the talent gap affecting you and how are you planning to address it? Let us know below.

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