19 October, 2011

I have long held the view that there is a shortage of skilled professionals looking to work in the insurance industry - yes, it might not be the most glamorous career choice, but I do think that more can be done to make our sector more attractive.

I think we need to educate people, particularly graduates who may be weighing up their options, that it can be very satisfying with salary and skills development delivering long-term rewards. I think, as an industry, we need to communicate that insurance is not stuffy and boring, but that we do offer attractive career opportunities at all levels.

It is fair to say that in the past we have had some difficulties finding people with the broad analytical skills that we need for our development work. Although it's a problem that affects the whole sector, we want to grow the business by bringing new skilled professionals in, as well as developing the talent that we already have within the company.

It is hard to attract good-quality people to work in the insurance industry in the Westcountry unless they're already looking for a change of lifestyle, rather than for career reasons.

At Cornish Mutual, we're looking to start graduate placements in the near future and we're also working with learning providers to develop our own, in-house staff development scheme. I believe that one of the factors that will help with the future growth of our business is the insurance industry becoming more successful overall in securing talented individuals.

There is a desire for Cornish Mutual to grow over the next few years and we want to recruit locally wherever possible. We don't want to start losing people who might have been born, raised and educated in the South West who then choose, for whatever reason, to leave the region and work elsewhere.

As an insurer, we're in a unique position because we're the only general insurance firm to be based in the South West and we still have Inspectors meeting and dealing with our Members face-to-face.

We need good people who like dealing with real people - our business is very much customer facing and although we're using new technology and automated processes, there is no substitute for that one-to-one level of service that we can provide.