Briefing: Let’s show, not tell, to attract vital new blood into UKGI sector

By Kelly Ogley

Some people in the insurance industry think September and not January is the most miserable month of the entire year.

Investors dread the next 30 days. Shareholders hate it. And let’s face it, who can blame them? Summer is over. Winter is on its way. The nights are drawing in. There are fewer than 100 shopping days until Christmas.

As it happens, I am not one of the September doom mongers. In fact, I always think of September as a month of hope. A month of new beginnings.

School terms are starting. Teenagers all over the country are still digesting GCSE and A-level results and thinking about their future. UK graduate jobs and schemes are starting up too, with the majority of bigger companies accepting applications between now and January.

In other words, this is a month of great opportunity. The perfect moment to start setting out our pitch to draw in new talent to our industry.

New blood needed

I’ve made no secret of the fact that this is an issue I’m passionate about. We know there’s a big problem around talent attraction and retention in our industry.

Simply put, we need new blood. According to some reports I’ve read, we’re on course to lose around 400,000 workers by 2026. This is a crazy figure and just unsustainable.

It’s not just the numbers we need to think about – it’s the mix of talent.

We need to attract a diverse workforce to address the inequality we currently have. And that means having the right culture, the right talent management and the right diversity, equity and inclusion strategies in place to help brilliant people reach their potential.

Year after year we talk about these problems among ourselves. But it’s time we showed more gumption. We’ve got to get out there and explain to people why insurance is the best sector to work in.

I always think it’s ironic that we’re brilliant salespeople of our products, but pretty terrible about making a case for the value we add to the country a whole. The reality is if we don’t invest our energies today to combating this problem, there simply won’t be an industry tomorrow.

It’s time to turn what Howden chief executive David Howden has called the “unloved sister of finance” into Cinderella. But how?

Storytelling

The secret lies in what the teachers like to call show not tell.

So yes, we should talk until the cows come home about how insurance makes amazing opportunities happen. Yes, we should explain how our industry underpins global trade, enabled the Industrial Revolution and even made electrification possible.

But we should also bring our work to life with stories of today.

Whether it’s how we’re using tech, data and artificial intelligence to find solutions to getting grain out of Ukraine. Whether it’s how we’re unlocking supply chains to keep other essential goods moving. Or whether it’s helping a grandmother sort out a messy flood.

Problem solving, caring, innovative, stimulating, creative – these are not adjectives that traditionally spring to mind when thinking of insurance. But they are absolutely what we collectively do all the time.

In fact, each of us has a unique story to tell. So, let’s tell it. Let’s use fantastic things like Biba’s Talent Toolkit, a career programme which formally launched in September 2024, to help raise awareness.

Let’s get out there to schools, careers fairs, colleges and universities – showing not telling. Let’s dispel the myth that insurance is boring once and for all.

And, if we can show future talent how amazing our industry is, we’ll finally achieve the impossible – narrowing the recruitment gap and putting the smile back into September.