What do millennials want? This question is critical for the specialty insurance and reinsurance industry. We face a looming talent shortage. Retirement will soon skim off the cream of our industry’s leadership. By the end of this decade, our market will be left with more than 400,000 vacant roles at a time when companies are already struggling to recruit professionals with the diverse expertise needed to meet the challenges posed by technological disruption. Executive SummaryMillennial job seekers want to work in a sector that makes a positive contribution to the world, so to attract the best, the industry needs to show that insurance is a noble industry with exciting career opportunities, says Amanda Seidler of AXIS.
We must fill this talent gap from below. To do so, and to ensure that we attract and retain the very best young people, it is essential that we figure out what millennials want from their careers—and from their lives more generally—and shape our thinking and our workplace attitudes and employment practices to provide it.
At the risk of overgeneralizing the desires of a large and diverse generation, millennials want to make a difference. They want to work somewhere ethical. They want opportunities to experience different challenges in a variety of areas. They want ongoing learning and development opportunities that improve their knowledge and career prospects. They want some control over their own workplace destiny.