The insurance industry wants to hire millennials, and many of them don’t realize how strong the industry is as a career choice.
While there is a host of reasons why insurance is such a great industry for people at the beginning of their careers, chief among them is the fact that the industry workforce is aging and millennials are becoming a new target market for companies.
Equally important is the fact that millennials will gain excellent skills such as critical thinking, interpersonal communication and risk management. These are skills young graduates can take with them – no matter what industry they may move to in the future.
Three extremely important skills that working in the insurance industry can teach are Critical Thinking, Interpersonal Communication and Risk Management.
Critical thinking skills will be developed by attempting to find the best policies for a customer based upon their expectations. In a personal policy this will involve the amount of coverage, but on the commercial end, it may be with convincing customers what type of coverage they need.
While general liability and workers compensation insurance are the only two policies that are required, they’re usually not the only policies a business may need. Critical thinking skills will give you the ability to adapt your persuasion tactics to convince the customer what coverages they actually do need and why.
Interpersonal communication skills are important because of the number of customer interactions an employee in the insurance industry has in a typical day. Many days will require you to interact with 15-25 individual customers. The diversity of those customers and the way in which you are required to communicate with them will change throughout the day. One interaction may be over the phone with a family owned farmer.
The next conversation may be through email with a financial advisor who is traveling to Arizona for the week and they need to know if their commercial auto policy will cover their rental car. Another conversation may be with a disgruntled customer via Facebook. Having and developing strong interpersonal communication skills will go a long way towards your success in this industry and those are skills that you will take with you throughout your career, no matter what industry you move on to.
Risk management skills are the essence of the insurance industry. In its most simple form, the insurance industry makes money by bringing in more in premium than they pay out in claims. The ability to assess and manage risk is what makes the difference between success and failure in the insurance industry.
One great way to manage risk for small business owners is to ensure they are in the proper worker’s compensation class codes. Many business owners rush through the quoting process. If they do not give adequate information to their agent then they may be placed into the incorrect class code. This can cause them to over or under pay for premium, but more importantly, it may cause a claim to not be covered.
If you have or can develop good interpersonal communication skills it can help you manage the risks your customers face. The worst part of the insurance industry is when you have to inform someone that a claim is not covered. The better you are with these three skills on the front end of the interaction with your customer, the less likely you will ever have to inform them their claim is not covered.
These three skills are essential for success in the insurance industry as well as many other industries. These are the skills that are sought after by employers. Insurance is one of the best industries to start your career and develop these crucial skills. No matter what industry you ultimately want to work in, insurance is a great place to start your career.
The workforce in the insurance industry is aging.
According to the Insurance Journal, “The average age of an insurance industry professional is 54, and 60 percent of insurance industry professionals are older than 45.”
This fact means many people will need to be replaced in the next 10 years. If a millennial employee can find a place as a valued employee within an agency, it can allow them to set themselves up well for many years to come. On top of the need to replace aging employees, the industry is changing at a rapid pace.
In today’s’ business environment, many customers want access to their insurance agents in new ways. Online and mobile access to your policies and the employees within the agency are more often the way in which customers want to access their insurance policies. If you can help the agency provide these options, it can establish yourself as a valued employee within your organization.
People will always have to purchase insurance in some form or fashion.
Insurance is like death and taxes; everyone has to purchase insurance in some form or fashion. Just like everyone has to pay taxes and someday all of us will die. On the personal side of the insurance industry, people are required to carry car insurance if they want to legally drive a car. For now, health insurance is a requirement and the market for these coverages should only grow over time.
On the business side of the insurance industry, Workers Comp is required by law in 48 out of 50 states. General liability insurance is also a requirement in most states and for most industries. Because of the requirement to purchase coverage, this industry provides recent graduates with an industry that will stay relatively stable for the foreseeable future.
Millennials are becoming a target market.
Millennials are now approaching the age in which they are purchasing insurance themselves. Some are aging out of the ability to still be on their parent’s health insurance plan, many are buying their own cars and beginning to purchase homes. On the commercial side, more millennials than ever are starting their own businesses and need to protect their precious investments.
For all of these reasons, millennials are becoming a target market for the insurance industry. In just a few years’ millennials will be a larger demographic than baby boomers. This gives them purchasing power to initiate change within the industry. Millennials shop for insurance in a very different way than baby boomers. Millennials are completely comfortable buying coverage entirely through their mobile device. A baby boomer probably still wants to come in and have a face to face meeting with their agent.
Walt Capell started Workers Compensation Shop.com in 2005. Workers Compensation Shop.com is a rapidly growing national insurance agency with a strong reputation for forward-thinking, out-of-the-box products and solutions for business owners. Walt would like to use his experience as a small business owner and insurance expert to benefit the next generation of leaders.