Five key skills insurance recruiters are looking for now
While investment banks have posted bleak results, key insurance companies have largely had a strong first half, and while banks focus on cost-cutting, insurers are still open to increasing headcount.
But what are insurance firms looking for at the moment? Building on our analysis of the key skills that financial services recruiters are looking for on eFinancialCareers’ CV database, we turn our attention to the insurance sector. Here are the five most searched for skills.
1. Actuaries: Not surprisingly, perhaps, actuaries top the list. There’s been a big push to hire actuaries for Solvency II projects, which has created something of a shortage for business-as-usual roles in an area where supply was already tight. More specifically, some searches focused on pensions actuaries and those with experience in investment consulting.
2. Business analysts: Insurance and life assurance firms alike have been shaking up their finance, IT and risk functions as a result of Solvency II and external market pressures and they’re taking on business analysts to help spec out what’s needed to be done. Both change and project managers also featured, suggesting some firms are more advanced than others.
3. Compliance managers: Compliance has, of course, been a hot area within financial services organisations for some time now. Within insurance, it’s now less about the day-to-day activities and more focused on advising the business on the impact of regulations and communicating this to the business. Compliance managers with Lloyds experience appear particularly in demand.
4. Accountants: In line with demand across financial services, accountants are being sought by insurance firms. As we’ve pointed to previously, insurance firms want accountants with knowledge of both Solvency II and the new IFRS accounting standards. This expertise is hard to find.
5. Risk managers: Risk has never been considered a particularly attractive area to work within insurance and, faced with a shortage, firms have increased salaries by 50-100% over the last three years. Not surprisingly, therefore, it remains a skill-set that recruiters are actively looking for.
