Go Out on a Limb

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about fruit when it comes to talent.

Stay with me. Yes, it’s easy to grab an apple close to the tree trunk, but sometimes you get an even better piece, one that got a little more sun and everyone else overlooked, if you venture farther out on the limb.

That idea translates to hiring. Unfortunately, for an industry built on understanding, analyzing, pricing, and mitigating risk, we can be remarkably risk-averse when it comes to hiring people. We believe we know what a “qualified” candidate looks like: a four-year degree, relevant experience, the right internships. Perhaps a competitor’s name already on the résumé.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with those candidates—many of them will be terrific. The problem comes when we think they are the only terrific hires. When every firm in our industry is reaching for the same people on the same branches, we are competing for the same small group of talent.

If you stretch farther out on that figurative limb, perhaps you find the community college student who has no family member working in a professional office and no built-in network to demonstrate that a career in commercial insurance is an option. They may not know our industry, but they may be bright, ambitious, curious, and eager for someone to open the door.

Or maybe you find the person behind the counter at a car rental agency who every day juggles impatient customers, solves problems on the fly, explains complicated options, and somehow keeps smiling when a flight cancellation sends 20 frustrated travelers their way. We might see a rental agent. What if we saw a future account executive?

Or maybe it’s the veteran whose military experience doesn’t map neatly onto any industry job description. But look beyond the terminology and you may find someone who has led teams, assessed risk, made difficult decisions with incomplete information, adapted quickly to fast-changing circumstances, and learned the meaning of accountability. The résumé may not say “insurance,” but many of the skills our industry values are already there.

Credentials and experience are easy to identify, but potential is harder. Potential requires us to look beyond what a candidate has done and ask what they might be capable of doing. It means looking for curiosity, judgment, resilience, empathy, initiative, communication skills, and the ability to build relationships—enormously valuable attributes that don’t always announce themselves on an application. That doesn’t mean lowering our standards. I would argue it means becoming more thoughtful about what our standards should actually measure.

We can reconsider what we put in job descriptions—for example, is a degree truly necessary for every position that today requires one? We can consider how skills acquired in other industries might translate to ours. I cited some examples above, and here’s one more: a career in hospitality develops skills in building and maintaining relationships, problem-solving, communication, and remaining calm when things don’t go according to plan. Now we just need to teach that person insurance.

Of course, recognizing potential is only half the equation. If we are going to encourage employers to consider candidates who don’t arrive with traditional insurance credentials, we also must give those individuals the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to succeed.

That is exactly why The Council Foundation created its new apprenticeship program: to give member firms another way to find and develop people who have the qualities to thrive in our industry but might never make it through a traditional recruiting process. Our full-time, paid apprentices will receive structured on-the-job training and mentoring at Council firms while completing coursework through Western Governors University and earning an industry credential. The candidate doesn’t have to arrive fully formed. That’s the point.

Hiring an apprentice will be unfamiliar and perhaps uncomfortable for many firms. But an apprentice isn’t an unqualified employee we’re asking a company to take a chance on and hope for the best. Our program establishes a structure for them to succeed within each firm’s culture. That structure makes the limb a little sturdier.

None of this is risk-free. Going out on a limb never is. Some unconventional hires won’t work out. Then again, some perfectly credentialed hires don’t work out, either. The greater risk, particularly when our industry needs talent so badly, may be continuing to define potential so narrowly that we never see some extraordinary people who are right in front of us on that tree.