Diversity & inclusion initiatives are gaining huge traction among enterprises as they strive for the coveted “equal opportunity employer” tag
In the US, insurance firms are now aligning diversity and inclusion initiatives with their hiring strategies. This positive change is also aimed at boosting productivity and inculcating multicultural values within the organization.
Numerous studies have shown that a diverse workforce allows companies to tap into the benefits of:
- Increased creativity
- Better consumer understanding
- Richer brainstorming, and
- Better decision making
Draup assessed the current diversity landscape in the US insurance sector to understand minority representation across job roles. Understanding this enabled us to develop a data-backed roadmap for their reskilling/upskilling journey.
Not all job roles are equally diverse
As a first step, relevant job roles important to the functioning of insurance firms were identified and categorized into specific job clusters as below:
- Core Jobs – includes Claims Management, Compliance, Auditing, Underwriting, Policy Administration and Financial Analysis
- Tech Jobs – IT, Cloud, Software development, AI/ ML, Cybersecurity
- Front Office Jobs – Customer service, Sales, Marketing
Extracting data from Draup’s talent intelligence platform for these job clusters in the US, we found that “…the presence of underrepresented minorities in fast–growing tech jobs is low compared to core and front office jobs.”
In tech and core job clusters, minorities – African American, Native-American, Hispanics & other minorities – are grossly underrepresented. While they account for 26% of the talent in the core cluster, the figure reduces to 24% in tech.
On the other hand, front office jobs like customer care representatives, insurance agents and marketing analysts are where minorities have better representation. These are also the job roles that are facing the highest risk from automation. Industry analysts estimate that over 50% of the talent here is at risk of becoming redundant.
There is no doubt that re/upskilling will go a long way in helping minorities build sustainable career paths.
This whitepaper details a roadmap for industry-wide reskilling/upskilling initiatives to enable minorities to move up the digital skills ladder.
Reskilling Minorities: One Solution, Two Problems
Hiring new employees is more expensive than reskilling existing employees. Reskilling is a long-term, sustainable solution that can be replicated at scale using a well-developed framework.
New-age tech roles are seeing a significant spike in demand. This spike is consistent with the industry need for talent across digitalization themes such as mobile solutions, RPA-based account management, AI/ML-powered underwriting, etc.
Still, roles such as Data Analyst/Scientist (22% increase), Cloud Administrator (18% increase) & Web Developer (18% increase) are severely underrepresented by minorities.
Evidently, there is a talent gap that workforce planners are attempting to bridge, and minority reskilling strategies will help fill this gap.
Hiring from an over-crowded talent market is an option. But reskilling/upskilling of existing minority talent with a set framework will go a long way in meeting D&I initiatives while also ensuring adequate talent supply. Two problems, one solution.
As a use case, we examined the front office job role of an insurance agent: a role that is under threat from digital disruptions and employs a disproportionate number of minorities.
We charted out a reskilling journey for an Insurance Agent to become a Claims Analyst with the required digital skillsets. We then identified the skills gap to be traversed for this journey to happen.
Insurance Agent:
- CRM Handling
- Policy Advisory
- Client Handling
- Basic Excel
Claims Analyst:
- Data Analysis
- Accounting
- Claims Management
- Advanced Excel
Draup’s Diversity Navigator enables HR leaders to visualize ethnic and gender diversity across business functions, geographies, and job role taxonomies. By leveraging the insights from Diversity Navigator, HR leaders are empowered to elevate the career path of minorities, thus helping achieve true diversity & inclusion. We also mapped the relevant courses to enhance the digital skillsets of an insurance agent to become a claims analyst.
