“Then you look around the conference and sure enough, there are a bunch of boring old white guys like me sitting in the audience, and you laugh about it, until you realize it’s not funny at all.”
Calls for a more inclusive workforce intersect with the industry’s current talent shortage. For Bill, CEO of MJ Insurance, the industry has a lot to offer talent from diverse backgrounds. But it is up to the insurance companies to create opportunities.
“If you’re curious and want to learn, you can get exposure to just about any industry through insurance; every industry needs some form of risk management,” Bill told Insurance Business.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to get exposure to different industries and you can also learn from experienced peers who have worked in various disciplines.”
educating the next generation
To help make risk management and insurance education more accessible, MJ Insurance’s nonprofit arm, the MJ Foundation, has established a new scholarship at the Andre B. Lacy School of Business at Butler University in Indianapolis. .
Two students from diverse backgrounds and financial need will be selected as scholarship recipients each year beginning in the next academic year. Preference will be given to those specializing in risk management and insurance, but candidates studying business are also eligible for the award.
The foundation has committed $750,000 to the annual scholarship, which aims to foster diversity and promote education in the insurance industry.
“My father, Michael M. Bill, who founded MJ Insurance in 1964, has always been a great advocate for education,” Bill said.
“One of the key pillars of the MJ Foundation is education. We want to support multicultural students with financial need who have an interest in our industry, but may have limited opportunities, by providing them with financial assistance.”
According to the two leaders, the MJ Foundation scholarship addresses two problems in their community: poverty and the lack of educational entry points to insurance.
“The Fellowship with Butler [University] it will ease pathways into the insurance and risk management industry and, to some degree, may also help break the cycle of poverty that people of diverse backgrounds are statistically more likely to be in,” Loftin said.
The scholarship also expands the partnership between MJ Insurance and the Andre B. Lacy of School of Business, one of 58 risk and insurance programs in the US. The school reports a 100% placement rate for graduates.
“Lacy School of Business has done a great job creating a structure that strongly encourages experiential learning,” Loftin said.
“All students must gain hands-on experience to supplement their academic learning by starting a small business during their undergraduate studies.”
Attract diverse talent
With much of the insurance industry workforce nearing retirement, Loftin said it’s critical to boost educational opportunities and attract talented young people into the profession.
“We hope, in some small way, that this [scholarship] It’s starting to raise awareness that insurance is a really good industry to pursue, and that it’s hungry for talent,” Loftin said.
“In the past, insurance has been stereotypically a high-pressure sales job. Young people, especially, do not have much experience in consuming it. They don’t understand that what we do is essential for the economy and families, by protecting what they love and have built.
“The industry has done a much better job in the last 10 years of promoting insurance as a rewarding and thoughtful consulting career than just high-pressure selling, and in fact, there is very little high-pressure selling, when you really you analyze it. ”
The two leaders recognized that a diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategy for talent is no longer just a nice add-on, but the way of the future for insurance.
“The industry needs it not just because it’s the right thing to do. It drives a lot of diverse thinking in companies, which is sorely needed to align more with a diverse population,” Loftin said.
“As the demographic shift continues, our customers will primarily come from diverse backgrounds. So, if for no other reason, DE&I is a mandate to do business.”
How can the industry create more opportunities for diverse talent? Share your ideas in the comments below.
