Current technology and Return to Office (RTO) protocols could be the tipping point for commercial property and casualty (P&C) carriers trying to lure top insurance industry talent in 2025, according to data and digitization provider Convr.

This year’s Insurance Talent and Tech Trends surveyed 200 commercial property and casualty (P&C) insurance decision-makers across the U.S. to find out how talent and technology drive results.

Leaders in the insurance industry across departments ranging from underwriting, IT/analytics, and finance are having a hard time recruiting underwriting talent at all levels with those ages 41-40 and 21-30 being the hardest to hire. In addition, those same age ranges are the hardest to retain.

To build teams with younger generations, 73 percent of leaders say most to all underwriting positions have the option of being remote, while only 8 percent say none of their open underwriting roles have that potential.

Those polled said greater flexibility on how to do the job mixed with better access to technology and tools to improve quality of work are requested most often by new hires.

Not listening to their underwriting workforce could come with a cost, as 82 percent polled said staffing limitations are negatively affecting their growth and/or expense ratio and that underwriting remains the area where quality candidates are harder to find.

Almost three quarters ( 72 percent) of respondents claimed understaffing has led to inaccurate information informing their quotes and 83 percent attribute understaffing to more negative customer experiences.

Nearly 95 percent of respondents agreed that their company’s overall performance could improve with process efficiencies in underwriting.

The survey findings indicate leaders should be primed to adopt the tools necessary to do the work in a remote setting to more broadly appeal to younger workers.

Almost 93 percent of those polled agreed that using technology helps attract younger workers.

The findings suggest a fundamental shift in how insurance organizations should be thinking about their tech stack and hiring strategies.