By; OLIVIA NNOROM
Rohit Verma, the CEO of Crawford & Company, world’s largest publicly listed claims management provider for insurers & self-insured, has urged the insurance sector to prepare for the ongoing global demographic shift, emphasising the need to invest in the growing population of Africa and South Asia, in response to tackling talent shortage in the sector.
“The capital that drives the insurance industry to success is mostly based in the United States, Japan and Europe,”
“However, these areas are seeing birth rates declining and an ageing population, while places like Africa and South Asia have a median age that is much younger,” Verma said.
He made this point during a sit-down interview at RIMS in Atlanta while speaking about “how the insurance industry can tap into this source of potential talent effectively and why the messaging behind a career needs to be rethought.”
Verma noted that the booming birth rates in these regions is paving way for insurance products and talent to thrive, however, this supposed high demand is met by a limited supply.
Consequently, he said that corporations need to enact more strident efforts to tap into this well of potential by making provisions to educate and train these individuals, to enable them thrive in the industry.
In addition, Verma highlighted that proper education will create Insurance job opportunities for these individuals within and outside their regions.
“that is going to create a whole different social order, because if they are not educated, there are not enough jobs over there to go round, then we don’t have the people, but we can’t really bring them here because they are not educated to be here in the way that we need them” he said.
Moreover, Verma believes that beyond the demographic shift, the sector is expected to find a more effective way to sell insurance to the younger generation, such that they no longer view insurance from the old traditional way.
He advised the industry to tap into various Vocational focuses since insurance is bedrock for every profession in the world.
Verma argued that it is more effective to sell insurance to middle school and high school students as opposed to college students because they are less likely to have any concrete future goals set in place.
He suggested that textbooks at these grade levels need to include some information about insurance, since it will become an indelible aspect of adult life, whether through professional obligations or personal necessity.
Also, the Crawford boss suggested that Insurers, brokers or underwriters should make plans towards attending career days to act as “role models” to give visibility to a field that is not always represented in such events.
“We have to spend more time in the high school system and be more deliberate about it,” Verma said.
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