Oct 154 min read

InsurTech Ohio Spotlight with Chris Peabody

Chris Peabody leads Strategic Partnerships at Ascend, a comprehensive financial operations automation platform purpose-built for insurance. Chris was interviewed by Chris Luiz, Director of Solutions Architecture and Customer Success at Monitaur and Cleveland Founder at InsurTech Ohio.

Chris, what talent issues do you see in the insurance industry?

“The majority of conversations I have with folks in the industry are primarily on the retail side. I'm talking to agency owners and leaders such as COOs, CFOs and office managers. One of the biggest challenges they share is they have employees who have been a part of their organizations for 10-plus years, and they are starting to retire. The companies don't have the resources to replace those employees.

Overall, there's a discrepancy in terms of talent that's leaving the industry versus the talent that's coming in. The question then becomes, ‘How can we acquire talent and bring it into the industry?’ Those not in insurance believe it to be one of the best industries, if not the best to work in. I always said I would never be in insurance, but now, I don't know if I would want to be in another industry other than insurance. It wasn't until I actually stepped foot into the industry to see what opportunities there were that opened my eyes as to what a phenomenal space it is to be in.”

How have you seen people successfully bridging the gap in talent today?

“There are two ways to go about it. Ultimately, one of the simpler ways to solve the problem is looking at technology and automation to help offload some of the work that falls onto the team's plate today. Whether they have someone who's been in controller and they’re going to be retiring or account managers transitioning out of the organization.

What sort of work could be automated that they're manually doing today? The work that cannot be automated can then be transitioned to existing team members. Technology is one outlet that agencies are looking toward. Another solution is using virtual assistants and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organizations to help offload some of the manual, back-office type work.

But, the real challenge is that it's extremely important to put together programs or internships to help younger generations entering college or the workforce. How can we educate young talent about the plethora of opportunities in insurance and how it’s not about just selling an insurance policy? There's so much more that can be done.

Ultimately, it's how can we understand the needs in our business, and how can we start to acquire talent to help fill those gaps and understand a newer perspective? Insurance has always had the perception of being slow moving in terms of adopting technology, but we can start to leverage younger talent to move faster into adopting technology.”

What are the key items employers need in place to improve this problem, and how can the broader industry assist?

“It's a matter of understanding the younger generation and what’s important to them. I'm the oldest of four; I just turned 34 this year. My youngest brother is 25, and we live very different lives in terms of what we find to be important. I'm in a different stage of life than him. I have family, a daughter, and he's still single. A lot of it is he's in a mindset of ‘I'm early in my career. I can stub my toe a couple of times, but I'm willing to do that in places where I have flexibility in terms of work-life balance. What is the meaning behind my work?’

If there's an opportunity to highlight the meaning behind what your end goals are and how employees can be a part of that, I would take it. It’s extremely important as a starting point because that’s what the younger generation cares about. I've had conversations with my brother and his friends where they’ve expressed that employment is not always about money.

Additionally, the new entrants into insurance are surrounded by their peers in other industries who are interacting with technology that empowers them to solve problems and think more creatively and critically. Insurance has traditionally been bogged down with a lot of manual administrative work. If we can put tools into the hands of this younger talent that results in positive outcomes for the business, it will help with hiring and retention of existing employees. On top of that, having the space for them to rethink and innovate on how to tackle business problems (introducing a start-up mentality into insurance), will set them up for situations where they can best succeed.”

Part of the talent gap problem is exposure of young people to opportunities in the industry, what are some ways that we could do better?

“When I was an undergraduate at Miami University, I remember there were days where companies would come and sit with the students to talk about the opportunities their business has to offer young talent. Overall, it needs to be more of a proactive effort of investing in potential young talent, helping them become aware of what insurance has to offer.

Another way is by creating social media content that's engaging. There's an agency that we work with called Three Arbor out of the Birmingham, Alabama area. Some of the content they've posted with their interns, in terms of the creativity, makes me laugh. You have 25 year olds that are making this content, which helps others see that it's a fun place to work. I'd love to engage with younger folks that like to work hard and have fun, and that's a place that I'd love to be.

This is a way to connect with people. There are ways for us to generate content that help people realize insurance is not this stodgy business. There's so much more to it that we can help people realize.”