The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a unique nonprofit organization dedicated to helping communities and enriching lives, today hosted a new webinar titled Connecting Talent with Opportunity: Apprenticeship Programs. Speakers featured in the webinar highlighted the importance and success of apprenticeship programs at Aon, AIG and Zurich and provided best practices for recruiting new and diverse talent to the insurance industry. The webinar was the first in a series of key resources for employers and job-seekers to be posted on the IICF Talent HubTM, a new online resource center designed to attract non-traditional job seekers to the insurance industry and provide valuable job search tools.
Industry experts pointed to the success of these apprenticeship programs in expanding and enhancing the industry’s talent pool. These programs are community partnerships that will provide even greater opportunities through nonprofits serving underserved and underrepresented populations, by sharing information and resources related to job and career paths in the insurance industry – and providing access to these new opportunities. The apprenticeship model solves talent needs at individual organizations but also supports the talent pipeline for the industry overall.
These speakers included:
- Lori Goltermann, Chief Client Officer, Enterprise Clients, Aon
- Soni Basi, Global Head of Talent, AIG
- Al Crook, Head of HR Business Partners and Apprenticeship, Zurich North America
- Meghan Parrilla, VP, Global Early Careers – Apprenticeships for Aon
“We’ve learned – after five years of hiring and three and a half years of graduation – that knowledge of apprenticeships across the globe is paying dividends,” said Crook. “We’ve found [these apprentices] are the most diverse hiring group and without exception their retention rate and promotion rate are higher than similarly placed employees at Zurich. Every function at an organization benefits from having apprentices in their talent arsenal.”
In reflecting upon the work that has already been done around apprenticeship in the industry, speakers discussed how companies can build a model that works for their organization.
“The resources we have within the industry itself are so incredibly strong, I don’t think anyone has to recreate the wheel,” said Basi. “It’s more about ensuring that you design something that’s going to be the best fit for your organization, is going to make sense for you in terms of where you are on the journey and test it out. If it doesn’t work out the way you want it to in year one, you can make tweaks to it in year two.”
The speakers also shared tips for launching apprenticeship programs, suggestions for finding and fostering partnerships with educational institutions worldwide, as well as additional steps insurance organizations can take to recruit and retain more diverse talent.
“With the events of these past few years, there’s no question inclusion and diversity are boardroom imperatives for every company,” Goltermann said. “I certainly think all of our companies are working toward gender and ethnic diversity, but we’re still very underserved. The apprentice program has been a wonderful way to open doors to talent that we wouldn’t have had before.”
To view the webinar, please visit IICF’s Talent Hub at https://talent.iicf.org/.
About the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF)
Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) is a unique nonprofit that unites the collective strengths of the insurance industry to help communities and enrich lives through grants, volunteer service and leadership. Established in 1994, IICF has served as the philanthropic foundation of the insurance industry for more than twenty-five years, contributing $42 million in community grants along with 300,000 volunteer hours by more than 110,000 industry professionals. IICF reinvests locally where funds are raised, serving hundreds of charities and nonprofit organizations, for maximum community impact. IICF is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. Learn more at www.iicf.org or follow us on social media: @doubleicf.