2022 has been undeniably the year of constant change. One of the many shifts across the insurance industry has been companies looking at driving innovation, behaviours and new ways of working. Shaun McKenzie, RED10’s Managing Director, shares his thoughts on how upskilling your middle-tiered workforce with future-focussed skills can significantly and positively impact your business.
The pandemic forced the insurance industry to embrace and adopt new ways of working while utilising digital, online platforms to operate their business successfully. However, not to lose the momentum gained during this period, many of our clients have been sourcing external training programmes for their employees to build knowledge and learn from the structured development of innovative, creative and business-critical skills.
Most of our clients have concentrated on innovative training opportunities for their junior or upper management level employees, which has showed great results for those groups. However, a massive opportunity is missed by bypassing their mid-tiered employees.
Senior leaders and talented development teams have huge roles to play here. Innovative ideas and processes will stagnate without support from the middle-tier. It’s time to extend the development category to include those who ‘keep the lights’ on. Encourage development, experimentation and risk-taking amongst your middle-tiers is what will lead you to success.
So what are the benefits of upskilling your middle-tiered employees?
1. Help organisations stay ahead of the competition.
Middle-tiered employees have a wealth of knowledge and experience. They are decision-makers on matters that contribute to the creativity, efficiency and quality of an organisation’s outputs. Upskilling your middle-tiered employees can create a significantly stronger, skilled workforce able to work and deliver quicker and more effectively whilst influencing the development of more junior employees.
2. Drive better customer engagement.
Your middle-tiered employees are often the gateway to your clients. It’s easy to pay lip service to the changes and trends happening in the insurance industry, but when it comes to your customers, they want you to be clear about the approach you’re taking, and the improvements you’re putting in place that will benefit THEM.
In many cases, customers are outperforming their insurers in terms of technology, cultural change and behaviours. Don’t let your clients outgrow you. Up-skilling your middle-tiered employees makes them hyper-knowledgeable and hyper-valuable thought leaders, driving continued loyalty and new business.
3. Have a fulfilled workforce.
Innovation skills, digital awareness, and future-focused behaviours are an ongoing need across your entire organisation. People enjoy working for organisations that prioritise their development.
Your middle-tiered employees are uniquely placed to influence in all directions. They support new talent and developing teams, and also feed into your senior managers and C-Suite. They are the signposts and trendsetters in your business.
That can go both ways. They are also, in many cases, less likely to proactively leave or look elsewhere. Ensuring your middle-tier remains up to date, engaged, fulfilled and proud of your organisation makes good business sense, inside and out, and across the board.
And who know? By upskilling and developing your experience middle-tier, your next, COO / CEO may be right under your nose.
We have partnered with an Innovation, Development
& Education company.
RED10’s insights from conversations with candidates and clients show much interest in upskilling at the middle-tiered employee level. For example, middle-tiered employees might want to develop and explore new employment opportunities. They’d like to do this with their existing employer, and it’s certainly a consideration they’ll make when exploring new roles and organisations.
We want to raise awareness of the existing training opportunities and help candidates reach their full potential, while helping them find the right role. It made sense for us to partner with EDII, the insurance industry’s innovation and creativity company for business practitioners. EDII runs their flagship Digital Minds programme, which is focused on challenging the status quo, shaping the future and embracing change with fresh knowledge and vision. The programme is a unique blend of hands-on tasks focusing on innovation development, human-centred design thinking and problem-solving techniques, uniquely looking at real-life problems the industry is facing.
Whether it’s Environment and Social Governance (ESG), emerging technology (IoT, AI, Machine Learning and more), how clients are facing cyber and crypto risk, being more diverse and inclusive, and embracing design and innovation cultures, an educated and empowered workforce is a fulfilled and engaged workforce. Make sure your talent development spans all levels. It’s what will set you apart and ensure your success.