Insurance staff are being poached by other insurers
The main reason is because of the severe skills shortage in the industry
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One of the most frustrating things faced by any insurance company is to spend
considerable amounts of money training staff, only to have them head off to join
another firm when they are approached with a better offer.
According to industry analysts, this has led to a severe shortage of trained
professionals overall in the industry, as the companies are wary of spending
money on training and education if they know that they stand a good chance of
losing their staff.
"Poaching, which has become a sad necessity in South Africa's
insurance industry due to the severe shortage of skills, has left the industry
without a future generation of skills to replenish it," said the Chief Executive
Officer of Centriq Insurance, Michael Blain.
Blain described a vicious cycle that has been caused by industry poaching.
"Organizations fear that trainees will be poached before their investment yields
return and therefore delay much needed training," he said.
Poachers use a wide range of incentives to lure trainees away from their
original companies, including higher salaries, bonuses and others.
Recent statistics show that the South African insurance industry rates third
in the overall number of industries in terms of skills shortage. "Many insurance
organizations have a skills vacuum to fill - a challenging task given the tough
economic climate in South Africa," said Blain.
Managerial positions were especially difficult to fill, according to recent
statistics, although other fields such as administration, call centre personnel,
agents and telemarketers were also experiencing a severe shortage.
All in all, the main problems facing the industry at the moment remain a
severe shortage of properly qualified and experienced staff, as well as poaching
which is in fact a trigger to the first problem.
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