Insurers fret over recruitment

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's insurers are facing a recruitment crisis as companies struggle to woo top talent and fail to do enough to develop existing staff, the chief executive of Lloyd's of London LOL.UL told an industry forum.

Richard Ward tapped into a vein of concern on Monday, speaking as the London insurance market overhauls practices and seeks to counter the increasing struggle to replace ageing workforces.

Attracting top-flight talent is not a new problem for an industry that has struggled to shake off a grey and conservative image, but the scale of changes across the sector has revived concern that mediocre managers could hurt the industry.

Insurers are struggling to cope with a rapidly changing environment in which the risks of higher life expectancy, climate change and terrorism are threatening their financial muscle, while the regulatory and accounting regimes in which they operate are becoming far more stringent and complex.

In a survey of insurance executives and industry observers published earlier this year, "management quality" was listed as the third in a list of 33 key risks -- above climate change, longevity, investment performance, equity markets and terrorism.

"We are currently facing a severe skills shortage that has the potential to undermine our recent reform efforts. Our progress can only be maintained if we recruit world class talent," Ward told the Insurance Institute of London.

Ward said nearly 90 percent of graduates said they would not consider a role in insurance and 75 percent of recruiters in the industry said they struggle to attract top talent.

He accused insurers of not doing enough to woo recruits.

"Up until a year ago over 70 percent of industry practitioners did not give information to careers staff, 80 percent did not give university campus presentations and only a quarter of managing agents had graduate programmes," Ward said.