How to hire more Gen-Z underwriters

Employers of all industries want to hire the newest generation of workers, Generation Z, and so the insurance industry needs to make sure it’s getting ahead of the curve, especially with a dearth of property and casualty underwriters in Canada. 

To do this, the industry should harness the power of technology to do the boring things faster, Adam Cherubini, chief revenue officer at the commercial insurtech Send, said in an interview with Canadian Underwriter.

“When you think about the younger generation, they expect technology to be integrated into the workforce. It’s not a nice-to-have, its table stakes,” said Cherubini. “What do you think are the most challenging aspects of the job?…Those are the ones that you automate. Those are the ones that you create a technological platform to handle for you.”

Generation Z, colloquially dubbed the Zoomers, describes people born between the mid-1990s and 2010s. It’s the first generation to grow up with access to the Internet and portable digital technology from an early age. Hence, they are often referred to as “digital natives,” regardless of their aptitude with using technology, per Wikipedia.

Making efficient and effective use of digital technology will free up this young talent up to do meaningful work more quickly — and make better use of their underwriting muscles — while also preventing turnover, Cherubini said.

“If you have technology that’s allowing the most highly skilled individuals at your organization to use those skills more broadly…that’s where you’re going to find a higher level of engagement from those employees, meaning they’re happy at their job, and therefore, they’re willing to do more of it,” he said.

Since jobs like commercial underwriting are highly technical, automation will not replace the skills required for it. But it can augment the work experience.

“I don’t think anybody wants to get into an industry if they feel like it could be disrupted by tech; that tech can do their job tomorrow,” said Cherubini. “We’re of the mindset that the human underwriter is not going anywhere for a very long time. But they do need to be aided through the use of tech.”

This is an especially prudent mindset, since Gen-Z prioritizes jobs that can expand their skills and broaden their experience as they enter the workforce. “What younger people are looking for is that ability to not only walk into an organization that’s really leaning into tech, but also know that they’re going to continually be up-skilled and learn more through the use of tech,” Cherubini said.

Plus, investing in tech is advantageous for the company as well.

Beyond tech, the industry has other options to appeal to the younger generation. For one, Gen-Z wants more than just a paycheque out of their careers, but to work for a company whose values align with their own.

The good news? The insurance industry is taking a lot of the initiatives that Gen-Z looks for in its employers.

“[Insurance is] a stable industry, we’re one that has a very, very high level of social consciousness…We’re trying to lead the way in terms of work-life balance, flexible work environments, all these things that I think matter to [the Gen-Z] generation,” said Cherubini.

But underwriting should embrace further workplace innovation and flexibility, particularly when it comes to remote work. “The younger generation appreciates [remote work] probably more than some of the older generations,” observed Cherubini.

The industry most commonly trains underwriters through an apprenticeship model, in which new hires go into the office and learn their role by shadowing a senior underwriter. A lot of this learning can happen remotely, despite some objections from industry pundits.

“The use of tech platforms can deliver that same level of apprenticeship, knowledge-sharing and knowledge transfer through the ability to work remotely, so that you don’t have to be sitting shoulder-to-shoulder to be able to learn how to become a great underwriter,” he said.

“It’s about having that highly-skilled person being able to do their job almost regardless of where they sit. And I don’t know how you do that without being at the forefront of technology investment.”

Feature image by iStock.com/Alessandro Biascioli