Insurance firms in new push to hire, retain employees

Insurance firms are increasing their workforce by more than 200% and are coming up with three-month notice periods, higher incentive programmes, and referral policies where employees can earn a part of the incentives that their referred candidates earn—to attract and retain employees — according to senior executives at two major private life insurance companies.

“We grew from 7,000 employees about five years ago to 23,000 now. We are recruiting from competition and the BFSI sector,” Tarun Chugh, managing director and chief executive officer of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, said. The company aims to hire a net 3,000 employees this fiscal and raise campus recruits to 1,500 this year from 900 last year.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance with 17,800 employees said it is adding manpower depending on new growth engines, customer segments and market trends. “In the last three years, we have added around 3,500 employees to the company— 75% of the addition has been in sales frontline sourcing roles with around 45% being freshers,” Subhashish Banerji, executive vice president, Human Resources, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said.

Over the last few years, attrition in the sector has led to high intake of employees and reliance on recruitment agents, sector experts said.