It’s imperative to recognize that achieving optimal technology modernization is a journey that requires you to navigate through a set of complex operational challenges. Key among these include dealing with a legacy mindset of ”silo” execution as opposed to an enterprise-wide focus on improvement initiatives, limited application of agile principles, lack of comfort with pivot/adjustments in strategies to deal with unexpected barriers and opportunities. You need to address these challenges and others if you’re going to succeed.
Given that much of this might be new or the challenges are contextual to every insurer, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to modernization. There will be a need to learn as the modernization program execution proceeds, adapting multiple initiatives as new capabilities are put in place.
What’s next on the horizon?
Lead with a digital-first strategy to ensure you’re drawing an effective technology roadmap for the future realities your business and customers will face.
2. Put humans@centre of transformation to align with shifting client priorities, expectations and values.
Why reframe with people at the centre now?
We can talk about the evolving macroeconomic conditions or identify opportunities to address protection gaps or even enhance the operational efficiencies to facilitate success. But there’s no getting away from the reality that consumers are changing. Insurers who reimagine who they are serving can create new routes to success.
Disruptive entrants are already embarking on this path, bringing digital, personalized, omnichannel, intuitive and engaging offerings into the mix to compete for market share. That’s essential in a world where digital trust can bring consumer advantage. A step away from outdated industry thinking could help insurers develop all-digital “new” companies to cater to these groups accordingly. Similarly, insurers must seek to engage through influencers, social media and non-traditional channels, sharing appropriate messages that reflect the different targets’ values and sensibilities.
As much as young, digital natives are shaking up the industry, senior demographics bring their own distinctive set of factors to consider. Retirees in particular are looking for a hybrid — or omnichannel — approach to accessing education and advice on product offerings. They’re seeking solutions that address intergenerational wellbeing and wealth/savings strategies. Insurers must now endeavour to strike a balance in operating capacities to have a service focus on the senior, while maintaining a sales focus on younger demographics.
Of course, customers aren’t the only ones changing. The talented people who bring your workforce to life are also evolving quickly in this macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. The skillset required to build an efficient workforce has changed significantly due to the digital era and the COVID-19 pandemic. Insurance providers need to consider the new skillsets when cultivating the next-generation workforce. But human capital is scarce, and workers are making decisions based on a different set of values than in years past.
A sustainable workforce is one where the work environment is caring and supports employee wellbeing. Employees are not seen as primary resources that can be deployed — and depleted — to serve employers’ economic ends. In a sustainable workforce, your people’s skills, talents and energies are not overused or overly depleted. Flexibility and hybrid is the new normal, giving your people new options for when and where they can work.
Employees are not afraid to leave their jobs and have broken the pay and role equation, putting pressure on the labour market. However, this is not matched by the employer’s desire to reset pay to retain talent. While some job areas shrink, enablement of other areas requires attracting diverse talent with a range of skills, such as technology and data. To compete, the insurance industry must re-evaluate the ways in which it attracts talent, retains employees and transforms its organization into a place to work — all while seeking continuous employee input.
Putting humans at the centre of the strategy can help insurers address both customers’ needs — with the right segmentation — and employee needs — with an eye to attracting, recruiting and retaining top talent — in ways that bolster long-term results.
How can insurers effectively prioritize people?
Insurers must strive to meet the customer and employee expectations that are being set by traditional competitors, as well as those being set by disruptive entrants like non-financial services players and Insurtechs. Embracing a humans@centre approach must mean customer and employee experiences are equally: