According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report released in 2021, insurance industry professionals are aging at a dramatic pace, with the number of insurance professionals aged 55 and older increasing 74% in the previous decade. Consequently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 50% of the current insurance workforce would retire, within 15 years, leaving hundreds of thousands of positions unfilled.
As a title insurance industry professional, you have no doubt experienced this firsthand, as you struggled to fill empty seats in recent years when your most experienced talent opted out for retirement.
While this may not be on your radar at this time, the real estate industry in traditional fashion will ramp up again in the future and agencies must have a plan to fill the seats with trained staff ready to meet escalating demand.
Many managers have a simple plan for hiring – work with a recruiter or post the job themselves when they need to fill an empty slot. That’s a short game.
In title insurance, you need a long game because it is a niche industry. No one graduates from school with a degree in the discipline. Even highly trained lawyers get only a smidgen of real estate law in law school.
A successful recruitment plan must include the following:
Once you know what you are looking for, the next challenge is where to look, and this requires a lot of strategy and planning as well.
Many managers in the title industry begin by looking at the narrow pool of title insurance professionals for their next candidate. But in a high employment environment in a booming real estate market that is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
In addition to looking at the existing pool, identify other professions that exemplify similar attributes and skills and who – with sophisticated industry training – can apply these skills successfully in a title insurance environment.
Candidates who have experience in real estate, lending, banking, accounting, bookkeeping, paralegal, sales, and marketing all have the potential to be trained to the particulars of title while bringing fresh eyes to the work of the agency.
Another tactic involves being dedicated to playing the longest game of all.
The graying of the title insurance industry is a reminder that future staffing is going to be heavily dependent on outreach to millennials, Gen Z and beyond. Title remains a hidden industry to this cohort and establishing a relationship with local educational institutions to teach the next generation about the opportunities in title, as well as introducing coursework that will get them started down the path, is the most robust way to generate a pool of talent for the future.
There is a remarkable advantage to putting in the time and effort to reach out to and educate millennials in particular because they have several of the attributes that are perfect for our industry, including that they are collaborative, eager to learn and develop new skills, excel at problem solving, open to ongoing feedback, and desire a job with a purpose.
If hiring your next talent from another agency is a short game, doing nothing in a slow market is a short-sighted game at best. If you are an innovator that is looking at future opportunities to grow your agency, planning now for how you are going to staff to meet your growth potential may be the key to your success.
At Florida Agency Network, we pride ourselves on hiring, training, supporting and retaining the best people – professionals who pride themselves on delivering world class service to our clients and partners! If you don’t usually process Florida transactions, get in touch. Our team would be delighted to help you help your clients here!
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