Life insurers struggle to attract, retain talent

The life insurance sector is battling a human resource shortfall due to elevated attrition levels and high-growth environment. Hiring across companies has surged drastically, according to industry sources.

The sector had grown tepidly during the pandemic, but is now seeing a speedy revival aided by pent-up demand, IRDAI’s push for insurance penetration and product innovation, and the entry of new players across insurance companies, intermediaries, brokers and distributors.

“Post-Covid, we are working to improve the attraction and retention of key talents. One of the reasons is that as the market and industry get back to growth, the competition for talent is increasing exponentially,” said Bruce De Broize, MD and CEO, Future Generali India Life Insurance.

The industry is struggling with sector-specific hiring for positions such as actuarial, sales and distribution due to their technical requirements.

“The insurance sector is growing at a very rapid pace and hence, the demand for actuaries too has drastically gone up. Currently, the supply of these niche professionals is on the lower side,” said Praveen Menon, Chief People Officer at IndiaFirst Life Insurance.

Due to talent unavailability and applicants having more negotiating power in an employee job market, life insurers are now looking at more industry, geography and job-agnostic hiring, at least for non-technical roles, and offering more benefits and perks such as work flexibility and staff personalisations.