Crucial to the sustainability of any insurance business is having a clear understanding of which positions are critical for running the business both today and in the future.
Succession planning will help determine each role, its overall importance to operating the business and the impact on the organization if a vacancy arises.
Succession planning will provide a clear picture of which insurance roles require more attention and will help identify and nurture talent to fill business critical positions in the future.
It does not always equate that the most senior positions or those that pay the most are the most critical, so how do you know which roles are business critical and which aren’t?
To bring clarity, here are 6 questions to ask as part of your succession planning.
Is the current role held by someone with exclusive knowledge or skills?
Succession planning will assist with the identification of job roles, where the current jobholder is the sole possessor skills or knowledge not found elsewhere within the business.
Does that insurance leader have industry, technical or technological knowledge that they and they alone hold or understand.
Once all key insurance roles have been considered, having a ‘succession planning mindset’ will help develop a solution.
Other insurance leaders within the organization can then be primed to learn through mentoring or internal learning & professional development programs – and detailed documentation and procedures can be put in place as a safeguard.
Are there job roles which are more likely to become vacant in the near future?
When assessing job roles within the business, consider which positions tend to have a higher turnover.
Or are there a number of employees approaching retirement in a certain function of the business? What knowledge do they have and how can it be passed on to the next generation of insurance leaders?
Those who have been with the business the longest can often possess knowledge and information, which may not necessarily be formally documented.
What impact does that have on the business and the wider team? And what are the hiring requirements to fill such roles?
Are there internal candidates who could take on an interim role if needed?
An aspect of categorizing roles as critical or not is whether there are current employees within the insurance, who could take on a role as a short-term solution.
As part of their succession planning, businesses should ask whether an internal candidate could take on the role immediately if required.
If there are a number of colleagues are available, have the skills and capacity, then an insurance leadership role may be viewed as less critical.
However, a lack of internal candidates would suggest that the role is more crucial and needs more emphasis in the succession planning process.
Will the operation of the insurance business suffer if a vacancy arises suddenly?
It could be due to ill health or an insurance leader leaving at short notice, but consider all roles within the organization and work out the following.
How long can a role remain unfilled before it has a significant, negative impact on the delivery of business operations and the wider team.
For some insurance roles, it may be one week. For others two months may pass before any noticeable effect.
Insurance businesses will be able to weigh up which roles are the most critical and start succession planning accordingly.
Are specific qualifications or insurance industry accreditation required for certain roles?
A key element of succession planning is to understand and identify the level of formal education or training required for different roles.
More technical roles, which require a higher level of training, often result in a smaller pool of talent, either internal or external.
Roles with higher skill requirements can be more critical to the insurance business’ operations and can often take longer to fill.
Insurance businesses will therefore need to put a plan in place as to how they will fill those positions as and when the need arise.
Is there a sufficient supply of external insurance talent ready to fill the role in question?
Succession planning can help insurance businesses understand whether there is potential talent outside of the business
If there is, how big is the talent pool? Is it in the same geographic location? How quickly can they be hired?
The answers to these questions will help decide which roles are the most critical. Businesses can then prioritize how they will engage with external talent or upskill internal candidates.
Engaging with an external search partner to carry out a market mapping assessment may add value to the succession planning process.
Succession planning plays a crucial role in insurance businesses achieving their goals and the overall success of the business.
Identifying which insurance roles are more crucial than others will help shape a robust talent development and talent attraction plan.
Read our insight “7 areas where Human Capital Consultancy can help insurance businesses improve, retain and attract the best people”
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