Event date/time: Tuesday, 9th July 2024 at 8:30am – 10am
We recently hosted Arthur’s Heads of Delegated Authority roundtable breakfast discussion, titled ‘Expanding the Talent Pool,’ bringing together esteemed Heads of Delegated Authority from the insurance sector. The focus was on innovative strategies to broaden and futureproof the talent pool within Delegated Authority—covering Delegated Underwriting Authority (DUA), Delegated Claims Authority (DCA), Bordereaux Management, and DUA Auditing.
As the demand for expertise in Delegated Authority continues to keep pace with revenue growth, attracting, developing, and retaining skilled professionals in Delegated is vital to sustaining momentum. Here are the key strategies identified during this engaging session.
Focusing on grassroots initiatives for future talent
Top of the agenda was building a robust pipeline of future professionals in Delegated Authority to sustain revenue growth. Participants explored grassroots initiatives such as apprenticeships, university partnerships, and cross-company industry secondments as potential solutions to equip the profession and industry with the new talent and skills needed to thrive.
Apprenticeship programmes
Creating a dedicated apprenticeship programme for Delegated Authority talent emerged as a pivotal strategy to attract and nurture new talent from the ground up. Participants discussed insights from Lloyd’s Market Association’s (LMA) apprenticeship initiative within Wordings, which runs a limited number of apprenticeships annually. To effectively address talent shortages across the whole market, the LMA and companies would need to fund at least fifty apprenticeships each year. This substantial investment would go some way to meet the industry’s demands and ensure apprentices gain the fundamental skills and industry-specific knowledge required for long-term success.
University connections and industry placements
Forming partnerships with universities to offer year-long industry placements specifically with Delegated Authority is another strategy that participants proposed. By integrating real-world experience into degree programmes, students would gain invaluable insights into Delegated Authority roles, fostering early career awareness and interest in insurance.
Moreover, offering these placements at the undergraduate level has the potential to provide a talent pipeline for graduate schemes and beyond. It is a mutually beneficial strategy that equips students with practical experience and perspectives, while ensuring the insurance industry remains filled with knowledgeable and skilled professionals ready to contribute towards its growth.
Cross-company graduate schemes and industry secondments
The introduction of cross-company secondments during graduate programmes emerged as an innovative strategy. Building on the existing graduate programmes that rotate graduates internally across different departments, these initiatives could be expanded to create opportunities for graduates to rotate externally outside of their organisations.
Such a move would broaden their skill sets and perspectives, enabling them to learn and share industry best practices. By experiencing various company cultures and approaches, seconded graduates could help elevate market standards and gain a holistic view of Delegated Authority across the insurance sector.
Exploring internal talent mobility from underwriting or other divisions to cross-skill and retain talent within a company
The group highlighted that attracting talent from other internal teams could be another successful way to address talent shortages within their Delegated Authority teams. For instance, by adopting an internal talent mobility strategy to move employees from other areas of the business into Delegated teams, could provide talent with the transferable skills needed to address talent shortages and create a high-performing team.
To be able to support this approach, participants emphasised the importance of having honest career conversations between line managers and team members to identify individuals who want to change from either Underwriting or another business division into pursuing a career in Delegated Authority. By having these open conversations, the company can uncover internal candidates for open roles, expand their learning and development programmes and retain talent. Whereas, for current employees, this offers new career and development opportunities, allowing professionals to explore potential career paths they may have not considered.
Raising awareness of Delegated Authority as an attractive and rewarding career path
During the roundtable discussion, it became evident that tackling talent shortages requires raising the profile of the Delegated Authority profession. Unlike traditional roles such as Underwriting or Broking, Delegated Authority is often overlooked as a career path of choice within the insurance sector. However, these roles have evolved in perception and career trajectory and are now regarded as integral functions that drive and facilitate business rather than being seen as solely compliance-focused.
A career in Delegated Authority offers structured training, clear and stable career paths, and competitive remuneration packages, making it an appealing alternative to client-facing roles within the insurance industry. These positions also attract experienced professionals from outside the sector.
A collaborative approach is key to raising awareness and attracting talent to the Delegated Authority profession in the long term. This approach, which includes internally educating leadership teams and employees about the career opportunities in Delegated Authority and partnering with the LMA and Lloyd’s to elevate the profession’s profile across the entire insurance industry, ensures that we are all part of a collective effort to elevate the profession’s profile across the entire insurance industry.
Tapping into talent outside of the market
Adopting a skills-first approach and considering talent from outside the immediate market—whether from another region or a different industry, could successfully address talent shortages.
During the discussion, many examples of hiring candidates with transferable skills from other regions or sectors, such as e-commerce, to the public sector, who successfully made the move into Delegated Authority, were shared. For example, identifying and hiring candidates from other industries with robust analytical, investigative, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills has been proven invaluable in enhancing Delegated Authority functions and building high-performing teams.
Flexible working
The roundtable participants discussed the importance and role of flexible working to attract and retain talent within their teams. Striking a balance between remote work and office presence is essential to meeting the needs of this multi-generational workforce, and in particular younger generations who place a higher value on flexibility at work. A schedule of three days in the office and two days working from home has become standard, though junior employees might benefit from more time in the office to learn the job role and build relationships with stakeholders. Flexibility should be tailored to individual requirements and meet the diverse needs of a multi-generational workforce.
Interestingly, the group referenced that many of the roles across Delegated Authority are female-dominated, yet the group highlighted that the post-maternity leave return rate is low. Adaptive working patterns were identified to support those re-entering the workforce, such as women after maternity leave or individuals caring for family members. Part-time schedules, compressed hours or job-sharing were cited as proven approaches that worked well and could facilitate their transition back to work.
Multifaceted talent strategy
Addressing the challenge of establishing a sustainable talent pipeline within Delegated Authority requires a nuanced and multifaceted strategy, with support from insurance companies, the LMA and Lloyd’s of London. Implementing creative and diverse solutions are essential to successfully addressing talent shortages.
Insights from Arthur’s Heads of Delegated Authority breakfast roundtable highlighted that the Delegated profession’s future depends on innovation and collaboration to build and develop the talent they need to support industry growth. By prioritising grassroots initiatives, raising awareness of the profession, leveraging diverse talent pools, embracing remote work flexibility, and adopting a skills-first approach to recruitment, we can collectively develop the talent pipeline in Delegated Authority to address the current shortages and ensure a resilient, talented, and growing workforce now and in the future.
These discussions and initiatives represent that there are solutions available, and through strategic collaboration and sustained investment across the insurance industry, Delegated Authority can and will remain an excellent career path with many opportunities for generations to come.
Whilst we do not set the talent strategy for the Delegated Authority market, we have a comprehensive understanding of the key talent challenges in the industry and are dedicated to supporting the market in overcoming these challenges. With over six years of exclusively recruiting within the Delegated Authority market, I am deeply committed to seeing it flourish and continue to be an attractive career path, the career path I know it to be.
Whether you are interested in future events, seeking talent for your Delegated Authority team, or contemplating a career change into Delegated Authority within the insurance industry, please reach out to Vicki Filer.
Vicki Filer
Email: vf@arthur.co.uk
Mobile: 0203 5877 975
