Early talent training in the insurance industry

The different early talent roles

Early talent training in the insurance industry is truly unique. This is because your new hires will need training on both business skills, and the complex world of insurance. For example, these new hires bring only a few years of professional experience, so they’ll likely need training on soft skills to help them navigate the workplace, as well as industry and organization specific topics. Depending on their role, they might only need to have a high-level understanding of insurance terms and practices. If they’re in a customer facing role, they might need an in-depth working knowledge of the how and why of your offering.

High-level industry knowledge

There are specific roles within your business that may only need a high-level understanding of what you offer to the insurance industry. For example, new hires in finance, operations, or HR, might not need to know the granular detail about the insurance offering you provide. But they will need a top-level understanding of your offering, and they’ll likely need training on business skills relevant to your organization.

In-depth understanding about your offering

There are also some new hires that’ll need an in-depth understanding of your offering. For example, your sales, customer service and marketing teams will need to truly understand what you’re offering your customers, to fulfill their role adequately. And they’ll need to understand what makes your offering unique and different to those of your competitors. This is not information that they can learn before joining your organization, so it’s paramount this is included in your new hire syllabus.

Confident application of your offering

Lastly, you’ll have employees who need all of the above, and then some. They’ll need to understand the industry, your offering, where it sits in the market and how your offering meets your client’s needs. These employees, such as insurance agents and underwriters, will need a unique training offering that allows them to not only acquire the knowledge and skills required to succeed in your organization, but also to be confident in applying their newly acquired knowledge. What’s more, if you work in a niche area of insurance, you’ll also want to ensure your new hires have competencies in these areas too, such as Property & Casualty insurance training or Commercial Insurance Training.

Choosing the Right Delivery Method

The next step to creating effective early talent training is choosing the right delivery method. With so many modalities to choose from, this can sometimes lead to L&D feeling a little overwhelmed, and often results in opting for face-to-face training or eLearning, because that’s the easiest route to take. But early talent entering our organization this year and beyond are digital natives, and they have high expectations, so we must consider this when choosing our learning delivery methods.

Instructor-led training (both virtual and face-to-face!)

Instructor-led training (ILT) is the most traditional method of learning and is likely the one that your organization is most comfortable with using. An experienced professional that either works at your company or a trusted training provider, stands in front of a classroom and teaches – controlling the pace, knowledge and application throughout. And there are pros and cons to this approach.

On the plus side, ILT:

• Provides immediate feedback and clarification to learners. If they don’t quite understand something, the expert is there to give guidance.
• Allows new hires to network with one another and build relationships amongst the team.
• Learning can be personalized if needed. For example, if a specific question comes up, the trainer can handle that in the moment of need.

However, ILT can have its drawbacks including:

• Travel costs and expenses are much higher with face-to-face ILT.
• Instructor biases can seep through training, and there is no way of controlling this.
• It takes your new hires away from the day job and requires their full attention for a day or so.

eLearning and mobile learning

eLearning adoption has continued to increase in recent years, with the market poised to grow by $11.57bn between now and 2026. It is not surprising, ongoing advancements to eLearning is making the delivery method more accessible and mobile than ever before. However, despite market growth, eLearning does have some advantages and disadvantages for early talent training:

Advantages of eLearning include:

• Accessible to all your employees, regardless of location, at any time. It does not encroach on your new hire’s day job and allows them to learn at their own pace.
• eLearning is both time and cost effective. In contrast to ILT, the cost of creating an eLearning program ends when it’s developed and launched on your learning platform. Aside from your learning platform fees, it is the same cost despite how many people access the course.
• Your courses act as a job aids post-learning, allowing your new hires to dip back into courses when they need clarification on their understanding.

Cons of eLearning include:

• It lacks social interaction. In an increasingly remote world, we should be championing opportunities for our people to come together and collaborate with one another (whether that’s face-to-face or virtually).
• Learners must be self-motivated to learn. They must carve out time in their work schedule to complete eLearning – a discipline not all new hires will have!
• Passive course completion is common. Learners often click through the content quickly until they get to a quiz or an interaction, rather than actively engaging with the content. Active learning is proven to provide better knowledge and skill acquisition.

Blended learning

Blended learning is becoming increasingly popular in a post-pandemic world. Organizations are combining digital formats, such as eLearning, with self-directed study, and instructor-led training to create a learning solution that covers all formats and needs. But like all methods of learning, even blended learning has its pros and cons.

Notably, the advantages of blended learning are:

• You can leverage the benefits of all formats of learning. You can allow learners to learn at their own pace with online learning in some instances, and then you can also control the learning experience with ILT for more complex topics that might need a hands-on approach.
• Your new hires can prepare before class. Often in a blended learning format, trainers will implement a practice called ‘flipped classroom’. This means that resources will be given to learners before the learning intervention. This means learners can digest this content at their own pace, and the face-to-face interaction is saved for more practical tasks.
• It can boost retention! Many studies on blended learning show an uplift in knowledge retention. Which of course, is a win for trainers and organizations alike.

However, the drawbacks of blended learning should also be considered:

• It requires a good tech infrastructure to really work. Early talent now expects seamless experiences throughout their lives, and their blended learning opportunities are no different. So, if you’re going to embark on a blended learning program, you need the right tech to sit behind it.
• You need to encourage learner adoption of self-directed learning, or it’ll not work. Blended learning programs rely on learners learning away from an instructor-led environment, which may not come easily to some of your new hires.
• Sometimes blended learning can lead to learners feeling overwhelmed, due to the increased cognitive load. It’s important that learning is spaced out adequately and you are not putting too much pressure on learners throughout the program.