Careers in insurance: are professions' mutation a deliberate move or an imperative for survival?

Being an enterprise among others, insurance companies are strongly impacted by technological revolution that has affected not only product and distribution design but also management and administration patterns. In fact, it is the entire landscape of the insurance business that is changing day after day.

The technological revolution is not the only source of change. The emergence of new social and environmental risks, global warming and the legal developments have also contributed to this profound mutation.

The evolution trends

Careers in insurance: Impact of the technological revolution

The ever-multiplying technological innovations that have occurred at such rapid pace during the last two decades have entered in successive waves the job world and by doing so, have penetrated the insurance industry.

Passage to the digital age has become self-evident. The new ICTs have paved the way for corporates to explore new horizons where the internet holds a strategic position with the massive use of smartphones and connected devices.

The insurance companies have no other option but to join in this process. Henceforth, they have to reshape the entire chain of the business, create new products, set up new distribution channels, new management systems and introduce new modes of organizations.
Today, technological mutation is a matter of survival.

Booming online underwriting

Disseminated by banks, electronic payment has promoted the expansion of e-commerce. Today, online sales are no longer confined to mass distribution and entertainment only. Consumers are also turning to the web in order to acquire more complex services such as insurance.

In countries endowed with mature economies, online underwriting of insurance products is gaining popularity at the detriment of the traditional distribution networks.

Share of online insurance underwritings (life & non life)

According to a study conducted by BAIN & Co firm, in the 3 to 5 years to come, the share of online-underwriting will exceed by far 70% of the sales made in the countries polled. This rate shall attain 91% in the United Kingdom, 82% in China, and 80% in the United States.

Increased profile of customers and multiplication of the distribution channels

For the time being, the Internet is no longer a generational issue with all social classes adhering to it and making recourse to its services. In some developed countries, most senior people are the biggest users of insurance products via the net.

Product distribution is therefore no longer subject to age group-based discrimination but rather driven by the kind of customers. Insurers are consequently required to favor contact surface with customers: agencies, mobile internet, tele-marketing, etc. Creating complementarity within distribution channels has become a major stake for insurers.

The multiplication of these channels, nonetheless, has exacerbated competition and altered policyholders’ loyalty.

Sales matrix is therefore composed of a set of three-dimension drivers. On the one hand, there is the supply that is expressed in terms of variety of products and counseling. On the other hand, there are the distribution channels. Finally, we have the demand for guarantee expressed by customers with diversified needs.

Insurance companies have shifted away from supply rationale to a commercial strategy based on the analysis of the needs and expectations of policyholders.

This new dimension is distancing insurance companies away from their traditional organization pattern, compelling them to integrate other skills within their teams. Computer and management-related professions are gaining importance whereas those in connection with marketing are further diversifying.