Guy Carpenter, Chairman of Re/Insurance Talent Attraction and Retention

During the keynote address at Zywave’s “Cyber ​​Risk Insights Conference 2024,” Vicky Carter (pictured left), director of global capital solutions at giant reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, joined Rachel Turk (pictured right), head office Lloyd’s of London underwriting to discuss the key challenges facing the reinsurance market – including attracting and retaining talent.

What’s clear, Carter said, is that the industry isn’t good enough at promoting its fantastic diversity and the role it plays in creating the world as we know it. It’s only when you join the industry that you start to understand this, and it’s the responsibility of those in the industry to share this message with the next generation of talent.

How the re/insurance sector has evolved

“Coming into this industry was completely different than it is now,” she said. “(…) And seeing how it has evolved, I wanted to create a platform that could unite young people and give them a vision of the diversity of this industry. So I created a two-day forum that brought together world-class speakers covering all the most important topics facing the industry. “And all of a sudden it turned into quite a big event, with 1,000 people now attending.”

She said the next edition of the event would take place in June and that it would be an insurance event unlike any other. It’s exciting to see the re/insurance market come together in this way. From politicians and astronauts to leading voices on key issues including GenAI, cyber and geopolitical risk, the event aims to show the younger generation the opportunities that a career in the industry offers and the reality that there truly is something for everyone.

“Despite all the technology emerging in the industry and the vast amounts of data we see as we move to more digital systems, we cannot forget how important this face-to-face conversation (aspect) is when building relationships,” she said. “It’s great to see Lloyd’s getting lively again… It’s a far cry from what it was a year ago… It’s coming back and you can see that our young talent wants to come back and they want to be there, building their face… face-to-face relationships.”

Finding the right work-life balance

For Turk, finding the right balance between remote and in-person work remains crucial to ensuring the reinsurance market does not lose the benefits that hybrid working has brought to the sector and its employees. While assessing what was happening at Lloyd’s, she noticed that more and more people were returning to the dance floor.

“When I was an underwriter, I benefited greatly from face-to-face trading and relationships with brokers,” she said. “I was (recently) with some of the brokers I’ve worked with for the last 10 years, and some of them I haven’t seen in the four or five years since I stopped insuring. It was nice to reconnect and reminisce about old times while sitting at the booth where you learned so much about each other’s lives. It’s a fantastic thing that the London market has that we don’t necessarily want to give away.

“The flip side, of course, is that when we talk about attracting and retaining talent, there is a huge benefit to being able to work more flexibly. So it’s quite difficult to chart a course at the moment – how do we get people to come back? How do you create an environment where people want to come? I think that’s the key: you need people who want to come to London. And I’m not a big fan of forcing this issue.”

The reality of most people’s lives is that they require some flexibility, she said, and the reinsurance market needs to remember this if it is to attract – and, crucially, retain – the best talent.

“Lifestyle balance is certainly very important for the younger generation,” Carter agreed. “When we interview people, this is one of the things they talk to us about – what is your work from home policy? I am a believer in working hard and playing even harder. I think it’s really important that we allow young people (flexibility).”

Rethinking the way re/insurance thinks about work

The reinsurance market needs to rethink the way it thinks about work, she said. The traditional view is that it’s important for people to come into the office five days a week. But the pandemic has really proven that you can work from home very effectively.

“If someone had told this industry a month before the first lockdown that virtually the entire world would be quarantined, it would have seemed ridiculous and people would have said it would never work,” she said. “But guess what? We went virtual overnight. And it worked really well, we did mergers and acquisitions, we raised capital, we implemented disaster programs, etc. Everyone did their job and everything worked.”

It is under enormous pressure that people prove that they can change and adapt. The same applies to the industry. From Carter’s perspective, the industry needs to do a much better job of listening to the younger generation and their ideas. She said they have a lot of information at their fingertips today and they use it to develop great ideas.

“I’m a big believer in bringing young people into (the industry) and letting them express their opinions,” she said. “Because it opens up new ideas and provides new tools and new skill sets – that’s what innovation is all about… For me, D&I isn’t about men and women, it’s about bringing in really good ideas and different skill sets. This is extremely important to ensure the industry continues to evolve and innovate, which will help us make our societies more resilient.”