P&C Carriers Lack in Tech Recruitment

Paysa, a hiring technology platform provider, just released a list of the highest-ranking companies for hiring and retaining top tech talent over the past six months. The company used its technology to explore data from 200,000 employers. To create the recent findings, Paysa tracked changes from the first half of 2015 to the first half of 2016.

Examining the top 200 employers on the list, there’s no surprise on the companies topping the list as being top tech talent draws – it’s the usual suspects. Uber is number one, followed by Google, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and so on.

Some insurance companies – mainly health insurers -- did pop up in the list, starting at 50th place. These include Unitedhealth Group (#50), Willis Towers Watson (#97), Kaiser Permanente (#147), Anthem (#156), and Molina Healthcare (#168). That’s five insurers, or 2.5% of the top 200. No P&C carriers appear on the list. And, as a matter of fact, very few financial services companies in general made the list.

The challenge for insurance companies is that tech talent is a precious commodity, especially at a time when moving into the digital realm and exploiting data analytics is crucial to success. Insurers need top tech talent to identify, build, acquire and improve the systems that will deliver new capabilities. In the process, they are competing not just with other insurers, but tech companies, insuretech companies, fintech companies, and every other industry from telecom to travel booking.

INN editor Nathan Golia explored what leading insurers are doing to address this problem in a recent article, and some common themes emerged. Vivian Chow of Travelers explained that her company was in a war for talent with many other companies outside the insurance industry. One thing the IT executives featured emphasized were their efforts to nurture internal talent already within their organizations, and to provide opportunities to learn and advance. The importance of this cannot be over-emphasized.

The drive to attract tech talent may ultimately be beneficial to insurers as well. Along with attractive salary and benefit packages, one of the best tools to recruit and retain developers and analysts is enabling them to work with new technologies, and to be able to work closely with the business. Some financial services firms are enabling “innovation labs” in which professionals are free to pursue and test new ideas. Such environments also encourage employees to work with non-traditional partners, such as startups, to develop new ideas. Insurance companies can be great places to work and pursue a career. Now is the time to sell these qualities to technology professionals.