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The Human Element of AI Transformation

Discover ways to effectively navigate through AI transformation. Only 4% of companies say they’re creating real value from their AI investments. The key differentiator is how well organizations manage the human side of implementation. 

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Recruiter Report: Find the “Perfect” Candidate

Finding top talent remains difficult in today’s labor market. However, holding out for the “perfect” candidate may mean losing out on high-potential individuals that would thrive in the role.

Read our blog post gain insights on redefining what the ideal candidate looks like and share how to take a realistic and future-focused approach to making the right hire.

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Recruiting Millennials: How to Bring Young Talent to Your Organization

The insurance industry is aging. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 50 percent of the industry workforce is older than 45 and only 26.67 percent of employees are under the age of 35. In order to prepare for the future and successfully build a bench of bright, young talent, insurers must focus on engaging and recruiting young professionals and recent college graduates, yet recruiting this emerging group of talented individuals is challenging. The Wall Street Journal ranked insurance 97th out of the 100 most desirable industries for college graduates. The insurance industry is seen as behind the times and offering little in terms of career development. Young professionals are looking for an industry that is fresh, exciting, edgy, modern and trendy—and insurance is falling behind. How can organizations differentiate themselves from this blighted and inaccurate view of the industry? Highlight what makes your organization desirable to the younger generation. Millennials want guidance, mentoring, a quick climb up the company ladder and a sense of purpose in their work. Showcase how your organization fulfills these workplace preferences. Foster a collaborative environment, promote mentorships, encourage new and innovative ideas and demonstrate social responsibility with volunteerism and community service projects. Remember to emphasize the perks and hot button trends that can be found within your organization. Flexible workplaces, updated technology and compensation are all among the top perks sought after by recent graduates and young professionals. Position your company as tech-savvy, cutting-edge, employee-focused and innovative. Millennials want their employers to understand the importance of updated technology, so make sure your company is in tune with what is needed for your team to function at the highest level. Any discussion about Millennials and technology is incomplete without a focus on social media. Your company must be present and engaged in social media—and using it for recruitment and engagement. If you are not, you are missing your target audience. You should have a general presence on social media sites including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The younger generation leverages social media as a standard part of the job search. It is a major red flag to candidates if you do not have a social media presence. Insurers looking to attract Millennials need to re-think their workforce strategies. By updating their company image and embracing a fresh company culture, insurance organizations can combat the skills gap and talent shortage by becoming more accessible and attractive to the next generation of leadership.

Are Industry Regulations Leaving You in the Lurch?

A wave of new regulatory initiatives is hitting the life insurance industry. These reporting requirements are leading many insurers to take a deeper look at their current employees and evaluate their staffing efforts. According to a study by Towers Watson, merely 27 percent of current life insurance personnel understand the basics of these new regulatory requirements. In addition, only 13 percent of key personnel are considered experts in these new requirements and the changes they will bring. Insurance companies are looking to implement in-house training programs, as well as bring in additional staff with a better grasp of the regulatory changes and compliance needs. In cases like this, organizations often turn to subject matter experts to bolster their staff and provide much needed project assistance or to implement critical training programs. In fact, here at Jacobson we are witnessing first-hand the increased demand for contract experts with specialized knowledge and skill sets. According to our recent Semi-Annual U.S. Insurance Labor Outlook Study, 28% of life and health companies are planning to increase their use of temporary employees during the upcoming year, an increase from what was reported a year ago. For companies needing assistance with the upcoming regulatory requirements the minimal ramp-up time, quick deployment and specialized skill set offered by subject matter experts are proving attractive. How is your organization preparing for these pending changes in regulation?

Navigating the Regulatory Waters

It is my pleasure to introduce a guest blogger for this latest post. Jenn Shorr is a contract analyst here at Jacobson, administering contracts and overseeing Jacobson’s risk management program. Her insights into mandated employer benefits are worth a read. Enjoy… The past five to seven years have seen a marked increase in the number of cities, municipalities and states enacting regulations or legislation that require employers to provide a variety of benefits including: paid or unpaid sick leave, disability coverage, extended FMLA leave, and mandated healthcare assistance. There are currently ten cities, municipalities or states that require employers to provide at least some sort of employee benefit—a number that is set to increase by the end of 2014. While some of these regulations have been impacted by the implementation of the PPACA, the movement towards local mandates has been a familiar employee benefits trend. As the workplace experiences a fundamental shift with traditional employment models being modified to make room for part-time, temporary, and consulting relationships, so too has the concept of benefits eligibility and entitlement. If you currently rely on a staffing service provider, you may think these mandates don’t affect you. As the employer of record, the staffing service provider is responsible for all the fees and liabilities; right? Not so fast. Some regulations actually do address temporary employment situations or deem both the staffing provider and the client company as joint employers, even if your agreement says otherwise. As the expert in identifying, retaining and employing talent, your staffing provider should be your compliance partner. They should be aware of the regulations, have compliance and audit processes in place, and clearly spell out your role and participation in the compliance process. Understanding whether your staffing provider has sound compliance processes in place will help you avoid a potentially unknown liability. At Jacobson, we review every situation with a thorough and strategic approach. We are regularly monitoring reliable resources for regulatory updates; and, when a new requirement is enacted, we go directly to the source and read the actual regulation or legislation. Our HR and compliance team meet with our senior leadership to discuss compliance options, the challenges unique to our industry, and the anticipated financial impact. The next step is education. We educate staff members on the regulations and compliance process as it applies to their roles. We educate our clients about their participation. We educate our employees about their rights under the new law or regulation. Finally, we audit, monitor and reevaluate. Where are the communication and administration gaps? Have the regulations been updated recently? No matter how minor the change, we are on top of it. Does your staffing vendor have a process in place for handling changing laws and regulations?

Forecasting a Perfect Storm for Insurance Talent in the U.S.

The results from the January 2014 iteration of our U.S. Insurance Labor Outlook Study are now in. The rate of hiring has increased to its highest point in the entire history of the study, with nearly 62% of survey participants responding that they intend to increase their staff during 2014. In addition, the BLS has reported the January 2014 unemployment rate within the industry to be at its lowest point since March 2007—2.0%. So what does this mean for the insurance industry? While low unemployment and an industry-wide push to fill open positions is certainly a positive trend, it does present its own set of challenges. The current recruiting difficulty that many companies are reporting will only intensify as the industry talent pool becomes depleted. Compared to last year, survey respondents found that the recruiting climate for most functions continued to be moderately difficult, with some positions—including actuarial, analytics, executive and technology positions—becoming slightly more difficult to recruit for. Industry demand is now focused on technology, underwriting, claims and sales/marketing, with technology remaining the most likely position to be filled in 2014. This reflects the growing focus on technology within the insurance market. Positions rated 5 or above are considered moderate or difficult to fill. The low unemployment rate and the recent upcoming hiring push have created a perfect storm in terms of talent shortage and companies must prepare. Looking forward, recruiting top talent, especially in high-demand roles will continue to be a challenge for companies. Focus must now shift towards the recruitment of young professionals, the engagement of individuals outside of the insurance industry and the hiring of subject matter experts in order to combat the growing skills gap and build a strong talent pipeline for the future. Jacobson has already begun targeting this growing need through our Emerging Talent program. This program, which aims to provide insurers with recent graduates and young professionals, has already begun shepherding new talent to our clients in an effort to offset the coming skills gap.

Are Your Employees “In Love?”

Do your employees love working for you or are they just putting on a good show? According to a Gallup survey of the American workplace, 63% of employees are unhappy with their jobs, while 24% of workers actively hate their jobs. Combine these two numbers and just over 1 out of 10 workers in the U.S. actually love their job. The best way to learn how your employees really feel about your company is to ask them. An annual employee satisfaction survey is an efficient way to gauge how happy your employees are with your work environment and culture. At Jacobson, we hold a yearly company survey to determine how our employees are faring, and to see if there are major issues that we need to address. The key to implementing a successful employee engagement survey is making sure that everyone is on board. Unless your leadership and management teams are committed to evaluating the results honestly, and executing changes, conducting a satisfaction survey is going to be ineffective and could leave you worse off. Make sure your workforce is aware of seriously you take their feedback. Send them an introductory email outlining why you are doing a survey, assuring them that all responses are anonymous, and reinforcing the company’s dedication to making changes based on their feedback. Develop your questions around areas of concern. Are you looking for insight on managerial relationships? Ask your employees if they are inspired by their managers, or if they feel like management does a good job of communicating and sharing information. Want to gauge how effective your professional development program is? Ask about training opportunities and whether employees feel that they are supported in their development and advancement. Once the results are in, share them with your staff. Did the survey pinpoint any problem areas or places where your organization may need some improvement? Remember to embrace employee feedback and don’t let negative comments get you down. Each comment is an opportunity to change and grow. Engage your employees by letting them participate in the solutions. Here at Jacobson, we create cross-organizational committees to help craft specific solutions, bounded by well-defined project charters, to address key areas where there is needed improvement. Throughout the past years, these committees have helped us implement some significant changes including: the implementation of casual Fridays, the development of an internal social media network, the creation of a formal career development process, implementation of an education reimbursement program, and many other significant changes. Repeat your survey on an annual basis to see your progress. These year-to-year comparisons provide insight into areas that still need work and are a great way to assess the effectiveness of your improvement initiatives. If your organization can focus on creating a welcoming and open environment that fosters employee satisfaction, success will surely follow. Does your company conduct employee satisfaction surveys? How have the results of these surveys changed your company culture?

Is Temporary the New Permanent?

There is a fundamental shift occurring in the workplace and the insurance industry is no exception. Industry-wide, the traditional employment model is being modified as the use of temporary workers continues to rise. According to the BLS, the penetration rate has reached an all-time high of 2.06%, with the industry bringing on more than 235,000 temporary employees throughout the past year. At Jacobson, we have experienced this trend first hand as the demand for our temporary suite of services continues to grow. Much of this shift can be attributed to a need for flexible, highly-skilled professionals to fill a growing skills gap. As mentioned in my recent post discussing the difficulty faced in securing insurance talent, the BLS is reporting that only 26.67% of the current insurance workforce is under the age of 35. In fact, the median age is closer to 45. As the workforce continues to grey, organizations are looking to temporary employees to fill the gaps. Temporary workers open the door to cost-effective, time-sensitive solutions to specific business needs. These employees often require minimal ramp up time and are able to take on special projects that permanent employees may not have the time nor the expertise to tackle on their own. Organizations are learning to leverage the skills of these temporary workers to complete necessary projects while maintaining a lean core of traditional permanent employees. The myth that contract employees have just settled for temporary work is just that. These professionals often enjoy the flexible lifestyle and diversity of projects that come with interim assignments. Project-work also appeals to individuals who enjoy focusing on niche business problems and using their unique expertise and skills. As the industry’s skill gap continues to expand and the demand for highly skilled individuals grows, I believe the hiring of temporary workers will remain a priority for many companies in the insurance industry. With an Intuit report stating that more than 40% of workers in the U.S will be temporary, contingent employees by 2020, the traditional model of employment is certainly changing quickly. How do you think this shift will affect your organization?

Las Vegas or Bust! Rethinking Employee Engagement

Happy and motivated employees are the key to any successful business. A company will have a hard time being productive and profitable with employees who don’t enjoy their jobs. Yet studies are reporting that anywhere from 66% - 77% of workers in the U.S. are disengaged and unmotivated. So what can we do? There is no exact answer when it comes to motivating individuals. What works for one may not work for all. But creating a company culture where people feel appreciated and recognized for their hard work is a good place to start. Like most companies, Jacobson sets annual goals. Throughout the past 10 years, we have added an incentive for meeting these goals—a company trip. That’s right, we offer our employees (and a guest of their choice) a joint trip, on the company, for reaching our annual targets. At the beginning of the year, we meet with our employees and share with them our objectives for the next 12 months and announce the motivational destination. The goal is then prominently displayed in the break room, so everyone can see how we are progressing throughout the year. Emails recognizing large sales or highlighting hardworking employees are circulated amongst teams, creating a sense of camaraderie and celebrating milestones throughout the year. In the past 10 years, we have taken 4 company trips. In fact, this week, we are taking the company to Las Vegas. The office here at our headquarters is filled with buzz and excitement; and I, too, am looking forward to celebrating our success with each and every employee. A company trip may not work for all companies. However, it is the simple things that often make a big difference. Don’t forget to pat workers on the back for doing a great job or show your appreciation with a catered lunch every once in a while. Whatever the method, employees want to know that their hard work is valued. Show them you care and you will find yourself with a much happier, motivated workforce. What are some employee engagement best practices you have implemented at your organization?

Reason to Celebrate: Women Making Strides in Insurance Industry

I want to use this post as an opportunity to congratulate women in insurance on a major milestone. You’ve undoubtedly heard that Inga Beale was recently appointed as Chief Executive of Lloyd’s, one of the most high profile jobs in the global insurance industry. This unprecedented move makes Ms. Beale the first woman to lead Lloyd’s in its 325-year history. Learn more here. This is undeniably a huge leap forward for women in the insurance industry. Unfortunately, women still face a fairly steep uphill climb to achieve unbiased equality within our industry. In fact, the number of women working in insurance is roughly equal to the number of men – at 191,000 and 197,000, respectively. However, a 2012 study by St. Joseph’s University showed just 6% of top executive positions across the insurance industry were held by women, and only 12.6% of board seats belonged to women. Women are making strides with accomplishments like Inga Beale’s.  What other accomplishments have women in insurance made this year? What other hurdles do they face?

Game On: The Quest to Attract Analytical Talent

It is my pleasure to introduce a guest blogger for this latest post. Patricia Strange is a Fulfillment Director leading our executive search team here at Jacobson. Patty’s expertise provides strong insights that are definitely worth a read. Enjoy… Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a Women’s Insurance Networking Group (WING) luncheon with guest speaker Kelley Buchanan of PwC’s Insurance Advisory Practice. Kelley spoke on a topic that everyone in insurance is buzzing about: analytics and big data. In her presentation, entitled “Game On: How Information is changing the rules of Insurance,” she offers an example of how underwriters are using analytics to expand sales and augment new business capacity. Data is creating competitive advantages for insurance companies that are differentiating organizations and driving success. It’s clear that it’s no longer optional for insurers to build a cutting-edge strategy that incorporates data and analytics – it’s a requirement. So it begs the question – with the world of insurance analytics changing so rapidly, how will insurers keep up with the demand for talent? According to Jacobson and Ward Group’s 2013 Insurance Labor Market Study, for the first time ever, the demand for actuarial talent was surpassed by – you guessed it – analytics. Jacobson has seen firsthand that the demand for analytics talent has sky-rocketed – at all levels including entry-level and staff roles, as well as middle management and executive posts. And, our forward-thinking clients also consider bringing in top analytics talent on a contract basis for special projects or interim roles. Those innovative companies that have begun to dig into advanced analytics beyond that of just traditional business intelligence will have the advantage in the marketplace and will be particularly compelling to prospective talent. Organizations must have an exciting and earnest “analytics story” to share with candidates – what they have done, what they are doing and what they plan to do – so top talent can envision their role as a star player in analytics within said organization. How is your organization planning to compete for talent in the analytics and big data arena?

Keep a Watchful Eye on Your Partners

Ok, so fair warning: the title will be the most intriguing part of this post. What I am really talking about is contract compliance, specifically as it relates to staffing firms. First though, allow me a brief divergence to reminisce about the good old days… I was Project Lead for a Data Center Consolidation project in Minneapolis in mid-January of 1997 when my father called to recruit me to join the small family business. It was Minneapolis; it was January; my father was a great recruiter – timing is everything. About six months into my tenure at The Jacobson Group, I took over the sales role for the provision of interim services to property and casualty carriers and agencies. We were about 18 months into the interim service offering and the business was starting to grow. I don’t tell this to our new salespeople, but I really had it pretty easy. When someone needed a PIP adjuster, a CSR or an underwriting assistant, they told me what they needed, I asked a bunch of questions and we sent someone over. Sometime during the post dot-com bubble recession things changed. First came requests for resumes, then came requests for interviews, then came contracts on every assignment… and then every acronym you could think of: MSP, VMS, VoP, etc. Personally, I think a lot of these changes were the marketplace’s natural reaction to mistakes the staffing industry, as a whole, made in the ‘Roaring 90s’ (the 90s were very good to the staffing industry), but that is a different story for a different day. The end result (for now) is that we have a market that is contract-focused. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though the people who sell staffing services might be hard to convince. The real issue I have is in what those contracts mean… or don’t mean. A contract without a strong process to ensure that the clauses of the contract are clearly understood, tracked, implemented and audited, as they say, isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. Only if both parties are truly committed to living out the words written does a contract provide real value. That sounds fairly easy, but what if every significant client has its own standards they expect you to meet? There are lots of variables at play here…. Our typical pre-employment screening includes education verification, employment verification, criminal background checks (some combination of state, county, federal and municipal), for certain positions a credit check, for certain clients a drug screen, an MVR check and insurance verification if the employee will be driving for the job or even to and from the job, OIG search, GSA search, Social Security search, OFAC Watch List search, and, of course, I9 eligibility verification. We have our strict standards and then some clients want other specifics. Whew! How do staffing firms do it? Well, sadly not all do. So here is my unsolicited advice to all of you staffing service buyers out there. Let’s call it Rick’s Rules for Engaging a Staffing Firm: Beware of anyone who doesn’t negotiate the contract and simply rolls over! I know we all like to win. I get it. I like to win – ask my kids, who have never beaten me at Hearts (well, almost never). The problem is that if a staffing firm accepts all of your language as-is, this is a major, major red flag. In almost all of these situations either a) the business is very small and they feel the risk of losing the business is worse than the risk of non-compliance or b) the business doesn’t intend on complying so will just say yes to anything. There is a real cost to compliance and any company who simply rolls over is likely not complying. If they aren’t complying with your contract, are they complying with the THOUSANDS of federal, state and municipal employment regulations? Do they know that staffing services are subject to sales tax in OH, CT, and PA? Do they know how the background check laws differ in each state? Are they experts in the application of the FLSA? Do they know that San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Portland; Jersey City; and many other cities and states now or soon will have employer mandates for paid sick leave or leave accommodations? No matter how your contract is written, most of these laws call for joint and several liability; and if your staffing firm isn’t paying, you might be – with some fines and penalties on top. Unless you are an employment practice attorney or a very senior and wonkish HR executive, your staffing firm should know more about employment laws, regulations and standards than you – after all, they are professional employers. This does not fully apply to the salespeople – though if there is a culture of compliance at the firm the salespeople will be able to ‘talk the talk’ – but the firm better have pretty hefty HR and compliance functions. Test them and rely on them. Negotiate as a partner. Partnerships are a win-win. Your partner should have your back, and you theirs. This might sound naïve in a business environment, but we have grown through 42 years by believing in and committing to our client partnerships. If your staffing firm is negotiating in good faith, many of their suggestions will be based upon best practices that will ultimately protect you. Trust but verify. I am truly disappointed in the low volume of audit requests that we get. Many of our contracts call for audit rights on the part of our clients. I will never negotiate against this concept – I view it as one of our differentiators. When we do get targeted for the rare audit, we always ask for the client scoring – and then I post it internally so everyone can see how we did. We aren’t perfect, but I’ll proudly put our results against any of our competitors’.

Anatomy of Today’s Successful Insurance Leader

My most recent posts have explored the tightening insurance labor market. With the war-for-talent in full-swing, the demand for executive-level insurance talent is no exception. Add to the mix a constantly evolving industry, requiring leaders who inspire innovation and change, and you have a lot of critical positions that are difficult to fill. As Greg, my brother and partner here at Jacobson, so eloquently puts it: “We have emerged from the recession changed and the new economy requires a new type of leader to guide our evolving workforce.” Drawing from our executive search experience, we have found that today’s successful insurance leaders have three traits in common: critical thinking, intellectual curiosity and the ability to build trust. Greg recently penned a white paper on this topic, which also includes smart ways to identify these traits, or lack thereof, throughout the search process. I invite you to read the full white paper here and learn more about what leadership skills are in demand. What characteristics do you believe are most important for insurance leaders? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Recent Data Confirms Our Assessment of the Insurance Labor Market

Back in July, I wrote about what we were seeing in the tightening insurance labor market and included some of the research that our talented marketing department put together in order to help us identify the long-trend causes. The just released September PULSE seems to confirm the trend: a labor market much tighter than the general labor market. The insurance unemployment rate of 2.5 percent in August is far below the 7.3 percent in the general U.S. economy and is also the lowest number we have seen since mid-2008. If you are interested in seeing the historical record, take a look at the BLS data series. This number will bounce around over the coming months – it always does – but my prediction is that this is just one more milestone in a long term continuing trend and that we will see sub 2 percent rates in the future.