Recruiting and retaining talent, a perennial challenge in any industry, is especially daunting for insurance companies now. According to the Jacobson Q1 2023 Insurance Labor Market report, two-thirds of insurance carriers plan to increase their staff this year. Another 23% plan to retain their current staff size, which means they’ll be recruiting too, if not as aggressively. Jacobson reports that “nearly all roles remain moderately difficult to fill, with technology, actuarial, and underwriting roles considered the most challenging.”

Furthermore, the insurance industry will lose a significant source of practical and institutional knowledge over the next ten years, because 38.5% of the insurance workforce is age 55 or older, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Companies will see a wave of new hires whose institutional and industry experience naturally lags behind their predecessors, resulting in a phenomenon known as “brain drain.”

One way to address both these challenges is by offering employees education, learning, and development. The LinkedIn 2023 Workplace Learning Report declares that the top way organizations are working to improve retention is by “providing learning opportunities.” However, most learning opportunities aren’t free; last year, employers spent $594 billion on training and training wages, according to the 2022 Credential Engine report on education and training expenditures.

The most cost-effective employee learning option

Most learning opportunities aren’t free, but ISO Education isn’t most learning opportunities.

It’s a complimentary service for Verisk clients featuring more than 140 on-demand educational modules. ISO Education is a robust go-to resource for insurers training new hires, cross-training existing employees, or helping employees develop their careers by improving their insurance IQ.

Courses and modules are arranged by topic or product and available as individual units or part of a learning plan that walks users through the material in a graduated manner. Accessing ISO Education is easy: users log into ISOnet® and select the “Education” option from the menu bar across the top of the screen.

If a company already has a learning management system (LMS), Verisk’s Integrative Learning program allows them to host ISO Education courses within their LMS, so users can access Verisk content from the same place they access all other training content.

Getting up to speed on commercial auto

For one regional commercial insurer, leveraging the Integrative Learning content available through its ISO product licenses was an ideal way to integrate product training into its employee development strategy efficiently.

The insurer decided to use four ISO Education commercial auto modules in a pilot test. Implementing these courses was simple: Verisk provided a compressed content file to the insurer, who uploaded it to their LMS, where they could then assign the content to employees and monitor their progress.

Because the ISO Education courses are developed by the same subject matter experts that develop Verisk products, the insurer didn’t have to bootstrap the development of their own material on the same subject. Instead, they could focus development resources on custom products and other strategic learning and development initiatives.

The resource investment recouped by participating in the Integrative Learning program was significant. “This program has saved me a year’s worth of work,” the executive who implemented the training program said.

After several weeks of pilot testing and employee training on the four modules, the insurer was so impressed that they decided to expand the program to encompass the entire commercial auto curriculum. That program’s 15 modules—more than 30 hours—cover the ISO commercial auto program, including developing liability and physical damage premiums using the Optional Classification Plan, common coverage and rating procedures for commercial auto, and an overview of multistate commercial auto form changes.

Learn more about how ISO Education can help your company train, cross-train, and retain top talent.